disabled85

OMG...Finally, someone who actually knows what I try to get my doctors to understand as to what the almost unbearable pain in MY legs feels like!!!
I also suffer with CFS, FMS, add in muscle atrophy in feet, legs, arms and hands. Then add into that moderate to severe chronic pain, Neuropathy (due to nerve damage from back and neck (C5~8, T11~12, L4~5+).....and more. All due to a back injury, on the job in 1983, failed Laminectomy in `85.
I used to walk with a cane (always a limp) and a walker for the last year. Im not that old, either. The P~A~I~N gets so bad at times, I want my legs gone. I can never seem to get doctors to quite understand when I tell them how bad the pain is , but feels like its `in the bone`.
(above from `Leg Pain`thread)

I cant take but a few pain meds, due to my sensitivity to most. Flexaril (Cyclobenzaprine~generic) seems to help to a point. Its an old med I took in the mid 1980s and asked the doc about taking again, a little over a year ago. Elavil (Amitriptyline~generic) not only helps with depression, but nerve pain, as well.
I got real bored and tired of being the ~Poster child~ for the `DRUG of the Month` Club. Soooooooooo, Ive spent much of my house `confinement time`researching my own medical needs.
We all hate to think we know more than our docs, but sometimes we actually do. We look out for ourselves, where the doc looks out (or is supposed to) for many patients.
Talk to your doctors about those meds. I only spend a few days a week in constant, agonizing pain, instead of `all the time`.

I will also lose the feeling in one or both legs. Makes life real interesting when trying to walk with my trusty walker. One or the other leg will just go completely numb, like it isn't there and it will `drag` behind me.
It makes things even worse when I`m going up or down my stairs.

I have been working with a Service Dog (in training, advanced), the past 20~21 months (from 9 weeks old). Had to do that on my own, too... and at my own expense. I cant find help with the expense. I was told there IS help, but no one can give me that info. The dog is for Assistance, Mobility and Alert. She seems to know the right times to `push` against me, either from behind or the side. Sometimes its a real hoot to watch her scramble to help when one or both legs start to go `numb`.

Dis`85