No. I figured it all had to go along with the stress and worry of whatever my back issue is. All started at the same time.
I had a cortizone shot for my neck and upper back pain and it helped tremendously. I wasn’t put to sleep, either. They gave me something that made me loopy in the short term but I wasn’t all the way down. It has lasted for three months. I hope if you decide to go through with yours that it helps you.
Well I’m a guy but now you’re describing my kidney stone pain which radiated from the back. I originally thought I threw my back out.
Kidney stone pain did not change much if I shifted around. Back/spinal pain would radically change if I shifted around. You could have a kidney infection or something else entirely.
Go back to the doctor and start checking off what it isn’t until you find out what it is. I can’t imagine dealing with that kind of pain without a decent pain killer.
Maybe. Then again, maybe not. It’s possible I guess, but most women don’t stop menstruating with a back injury, so it’d be unusual. OTOH, it’s possible that the nerve pain isn’t being caused by your back injury but something else that started around the same time. I think you should talk to your normal doctor - especially if you’re not happy about the care you’re receiving from these various specialists.
OP, I’m British so have the ‘benefit’ of free care. In many times it helps but sometimes it doesn’t. One time it didn’t was when I had an ear infection that spread through my cranium and was misdiagnosed by three general practitioners, the ENT specialists at the hospital and also twice by the ER when I went there with chronic headaches and visual disturbances.
The only time they took me seriously was when I was throwing up blood, because all of the painkillers I was taking. Finally they did an xray and MRI scan and said to me that I had a shadow on my my brain. Immediately I asked where it was and how large did it look, as I’d done my research when I was sick, It was on the outer surface and the size of a cherry - not big but they had to operate twice to get it out of my brain, plus I had many months on the brain ward. I’m still here because of two cranial operations. Take from from that what you will.
After reading all of these replies
I pretty much had a panic attack. Felt sick, bad feeling in my chest. Of course it may havebbeen that nasty pizza I tried to stuff myself with trying to get my appetite back lol. Called my best friend and he calmed me down. Took a couple of pain pills and went to sleep. Life seems like a big ole drama these days and I’m hating it. Just wanna be normal again. Thanks all for your input. It’s appreciated.
In the meantime, try chilling your back with ice packs.
This helped my wife not only with immediate pain relief, but also long-term recovery.
Use ice, not cool plasters, perhaps with a thin towel to protect your skin against frostbite.
Best wishes.
Are you able to get a copy of the radiologist’s interpretation of the MRIs and/or a CD with the images?
Reading MRIs can be almost like reading tea leaves, so if you can get someone outside the work comp system to look at them, it may be worthwhile. If you google ‘free MRI consultation’ you’ll find plenty of doctors and clinics that will be able to offer opinions. Keep in mind that they’re doing this with the hopes that you’ll go to them for treatment, so don’t be surprised if they all say you need some sort of surgery, but in a way that’s good, as you can then approach your work comp administrator and tell them that you have received multiple independent opinions that say you have such and such injury and this or that treatment is advised.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that your pain is from a muscular injury such as a sprain or tear, but that probably won’t show on MRI, and unless a muscle has completely ruptured, the treatment is just giving it time to heal.
I have a very clearly defined medical condition in my lumbar spine, and I’ve had a series of lumbar injections. I also worked as a Rad Tech in assisting the doctors when they did the injections. We never had a person under general anesthesia while performing an injection. Some of them were lightly sedated with anti-anxiety medication beforehand, but they were all awake.
The first one I got worked for about 4 months. Each susbsequent injection lasted for a shorter time period than the one before…until they stopped working at all after the 4th injection. This is common, but some people continue to get relief regardless of how many they’ve had. I envy them.
There was some significant pain when then steroid itself was being injected, but it went away quickly.
Epidurals are great when they work.
No advice, but I’m sorry you’re hurting, Bfudled.
[QUOTE=Rysdad]
I also worked as a Rad Tech in assisting the doctors when they did the injections. We never had a person under general anesthesia while performing an injection. Some of them were lightly sedated with anti-anxiety medication beforehand, but they were all awake.
…
Epidurals are great when they work.
[/QUOTE]
My first lumbar epidural was done about five years ago and it was the full magilla outpatient surgery scheme where I went to a hospital, got checked into a room, the rolled downstairs to the procedure room. I don’t know if it was general anaesthesia or just a big wallop of versed, but I was utterly out for it. But now, my last ESI was in April at the doctor’s office, and I’m not even sure if I had so much as a single Valium for sedation.
For me, ESIs have been nothing more than diagnostic. The longest lasting effects I had was two days of relief, but at least we knew that we were at the right level for further treatment.
Have you tried acupuncture? Or acupotomy? Take a bit of research into those medical professions and see if you would consider it.
Women stop having their periods when they become too thin. Anyone who is a size 4 is thin to begin with, and the OP has since lost 10 pounds…
I do know that studies show, the more girthy women are, the more fertile they are, but obviously to a certain extent, so volume may suggest adequate oestrogen levels? In contrast, the more skinny women tend to have difficulty getting pregnant, and staying pregnant.
I have no experience with Workman’s Comp, but do have experience with IN - which is a large part of why I’m in CA. Seriously. I even worked for the Marion County/Indianapolis govt.
If you can get to a real doc, get those x-rays and ESPECIALLY the MRIs (I have a set of the negatives of my shoulder) to a competent radiologist.
And find a doctor who is not afraid of opiates - long term, you are looking at either ever-increasing dosages of nastier and nastier analgesics and/or surgery.
Neither of which, it sounds like, you are likely to get if you are limited to workers comp in a Red state
The (incompetent) Orthopedist to whom I was first referred gave me Vicodin and Cortisone shots. Big help, you condescending asshole. He did tell me that, long term, Cortisone can damage tendons and/or ligaments.
IN, according to Broomstick (also a resident) is going to get some kind of subsidy from ACA - look into whatever happens and hope your current “insurance” is found non-compliant, thereby making you eligible for an ACA policy.
Good luck, and keep rattling cages until somebody decides it’s easier to treat you than listen to you bitch.
Definitely get the MRI to a radiologist if you want an informed opinion on it (although there probably is a report from one already). As others have mentioned - having a Chirpractor read them is close to useless - he she may be right, but you never know for sure. Reading the MRI report - is not necessarily something you should do alone. They will include things they see - that are NOT medically relevant. To a lay person (such as myself) - it maybe sound bad, but actually isn’t. Plenty of people with totally healthy pain free backs have abnormalities in their MRIs or XRays.
You have to know what you are doing to know the difference.
Do not get surgery on your back unless you get a second opinion from another surgeon - and check with a non surgeon MD with their recommendation. Ask the non surgeon doc “would you have this surgery if you were me?”
Most back pain resolves itself. Even really, really bad back pain.
Make sure you do what the docs tell you. Be willing to try non-opiate pain relievers first. Other than for cancer pain - most docs will be hesitant to hand these out without you trying something else first. I had excruciating back pain a year or so ago - I assumed I had fractured a disc or something. He took one look at my back and without even touching me said “I can see the pulled muscle - I know it feels awful, but you will feel better in three days.” He gave me a script for Valium and Celebrex. I was kind of perturbed - as I thought this was probably the worst pain of my life, and it was obvious I could hardly walk. I was sure I would have gotten opiates. I gave it a shot - and sure enough - the Celebrex worked - took it for the next few days - and doc was right - was totally fine after 3 days.
If you go in asking for opiates - you probably won’t get any. I too would want to see a doc that doesn’t have a problem with opiates, but it is hard to know - find out - without being flagged as a drug seeker. Unless you have a friend/relative that knows.
I know people who have had some sort of pain block back shot. Not sure if it is the same thing, but they seemed very happy with it. I’d certainly give it a shot.
My rule of thumb with dealing with docs is try to find two that tell you the same thing. If you find two docs that say the same thing - it probably is correct. A lot of times they really can’t tell you what is wrong with your back - but they can still treat you. If they recommend the epidural - I would do it.
Good luck
I have no firsthand knowledge of this but both John Stossel and Howard Stern had back pain cured by this guys’ method.
I have had an anxiety disorder and it sounds like you are coming down with one too. I had mine treated and am now mostly cured. It would probably be a good idea to mention your anxiety symptoms to a doctor and get treated for that as well.
My mom just started going to a chiropractor two weeks ago for treatment of sciatica (?, I think that’s what it’s called for that nerve being pinched). She had the same condition about five years ago and, after a course of three epidural injections which were completely ineffective for her, her doctor implanted something called an X-Stop. A few months ago, the condition resumed, her doctor said it’s the same condition, the epidural just as before has no effect at all, and she is now too old (80 years) for the doctor to take a chance on operating on her. So, I have some questions about chiropractors:
[ol][li]What is an electroceutical delivery system?[/li][li]Does the electroceutical delivery system actually have any physical beneficial effects?[/li][li]Does the electroceutical delivery system have any physical harmful effects?[/li][li](I’m claustrophobic so I couldn’t stay in the small room to see what the chiropractor did.) Is there anything that a chiropractor can do that is not harmful and yet is helpful for sciatica?[/li][li]Is there a chance that the chiropractic treatment will have harmful effect on the vertebrae, the nerve sciatic nerve itself, or both?[/li][li]Now that Mom’s seeing the chiropractor two or three times a week, she does feel better, she is walking a little, and says she’s not so much in pain. (She’s stopped taking the strong painkillers the MD prescribed.) How much of this is psychosomatic, in your estimation?[/li][li]Is chiropractic treatment considered legitimate by government entities (Tricare, Medicare, etc.)?[/ol][/li]
That’s all I can think of now.