What do I do now? - Pain Management Message Board

jajackson · 08-15-2004, 04:32 PM

I have been dealing with chronic back pain for about 10 years (I'm 30 now), and I had my first back surgery 2 years ago (L5-S1 discectomy). Well I'm still having back pain throughout the rest of my back so come to find out I have another hern. disc at C7 and my left leg is burning again like before surgery. I have been seeing a pretty good fam. practice Dr. and he's tried to be very thorough. He's ordered about 30-40 different blood tests to rule out anything artritic, or muscle related, he even tested for cancer, lupus and lime disease. Of course everything came back normal. And during all this time he's tried me on about 6 different anti-inflammatories, he says they "should" be helping. Well they don't... at all. I have been on so many different pain meds since my surgery, mostly hydro/apap, that nothing seems to be working anymore. And he doesn't want to rx vicodin because he just doesn't I guess. Anyway, my main question is.. is it possible to get to a point where no matter what you take for pain, nothing works anymore. I even tried Kadian, because he thought it would be better that taking a bunch of vicodin everyday. But nothing. So I left his office last monday with a prescription for tramadol and 1 refill, thinking I probably will just have to learn to manage this pain on my own. I'm going to try and get steroid injections in my 2 hern. discs, but I don't think that will take care of all my back pain (oh and tmj too). Anyone have any suggestions? I also have a referral to a Rheumatologist, do you think they might be able to help me? I don't want to give up. But I've tried everything in my power (chiro, acupuncture,PT,heat,stretching,exercise, etc.). I don't know what else to do. Please help. Any reply is appreciated.
Thanks.
Amy.

carol632 · 08-16-2004, 08:51 PM

You need to be under the care of a good spine specialist...not a family doctor, no matter how good he is, he doesnt have the skills that you need.

Carol

answerman · 09-19-2004, 09:51 PM

Dont confuse the neck and lower back pain. Try to let the neck pain improve by itself or try epidural steroid injections in the neck. My doctor told me that most of the time a herniated disc will improve if you can take it easy and give it time.
As far as your low back and leg pain, you need to try to find out what is causing it. Obviously surgery was not the answer. Possibly the disc that had surgery on it was not the problem. Find one physician that can do the following. Diagnostic blocks: facet joint block, discogram and sacroilliac joint injection. Start with these three and try to find the cause of your pain, if you are not sure what is causing the pain how can you know that any treatment is the right one. Find one doctor that can do all those tests and you should be on the way to getting some idea what is going on.
Good luck