 Medically frustrated
I am 48 years old and have suffered from severe lower back pain for over 5 years now. First off let me say that when I was in my mid 20s I had the exact same issue for over a year and no answer could be found but it suddenly resolved itself. Before it did I had x-rays, MRIs, colonoscopies, upper GIs, exploratory surgery where they removed my gall bladder just in case.
Roughly 5 years ago out of nowhere my lower back started hurting. It was a slight nagging dull pain when sitting or laying but became severe after a couple minutes of standing or walking. Soon after that started my wife walked out on me and my father passed away. Then shortly after my mother passed away and my best friend passed away and I lost my home. I began eating from depression I guess and put on about 70 pounds. So now it is getting very hard to do much of anything. I am sitting at about 360 pounds and 6ft tall.
I had 2 MRIs over the past year and they have shown spondylitis, scoliosis, degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, and a few bulging discs. I have had 2 sets of injections into my spine that had no affect other than causing an unreal amount of pain while getting the injections. I had 1 set of facet injections that had no affect. The odd thing is though that oral steroids actually give about 50 to 70% relief for a very short time. Lyrica actually helped a good bit but I am borderline diabetic and Lyrica was spiking my sugar pretty bad and had a few other side effects I could not deal with. Gabapentin is worthless. I can drink some caffeine in the mornings and be ok but too much caffeine greatly exasperates the pain.
I do not wish to take pain medications. I want to correct the issue enough or help it enough to be able to exercise and lose weight. The bone and joint clinic as well as surgeons seem confident that losing weight is my best option but how do I do that when I can barely walk or exercise?
I will add that I have had issues my entire life with chronic dehydration. I am up at night between 3 and 8 times a night peeing out a river. Have had prostate exams, blood work, urinalysis, been on flomax, to no avail. Am currently drinking about 80 ounces of water a day plus whatever is in my coffee and other drinks.
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