 Toradol Shots among other things
Back in Nov 2003 while in the army I fell a few feet onto frozen ground and hurt my lower back. At that time I started to have symptoms of a sciatic nerve problem and a MRI showed a bulging L5-S1 disc. I was released from the military with an uncharacterized discharge. Between 2003 and 2006 I saw various orthopedic back specialists, chiropractors, physical therapists, etc and the problem would come and go. Also my MRIs would sometimes show and problem and soemtimes not.
Then in early 2006 I recieved 20% disability from the VA and my injury was recognized as service connected. In August of 2006 I went back to school to study psychology. As soon as I went back to school the combination of hauling a book back, sitting in desks for long periods of time, walking back and forth across campus etc set off my back pain again.
So I went in to see the Neurologist at the VA medical center. The latest MRI came back normal. I'm waiting to have an EMG in March. They put me on Topamax. I'm up to 300 mgs a day (split into two doses). It seems to help some with the day to day pain but not so much with the numbness or pins and needle in my foot. In fact that seems worse on the topamax than off of it.
BUT here is my big question--- when I have acute flare ups they have me go to the ER at the VA medical center and they give me a shot of Toradol in my right hip (the pain is in my left side). It helps some but I'm still usually in significant pain for days until the flare up subsides. They also give me 800mg tablets of ibuprofin. Has anyone been through this kind of course of treatment? They tell me that with nerve pain there is not much that they can do besides deinflammatories like toradol and ibuprofin... is this true or is there really more that tehy could be doing during an dcute flare up?
Thanks for any info that you might be able to provide me with!
Shana
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