Guest guest Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 I dont think you meant any offences-- and not to sound harsh, but depression is not inhibited from being busy.Maybe the blues can be distracted but--- depression s a disease and being busy does not mean it will not affect you, chronic pain and a limited life style can bring on a horrendous depression. Don't offend those of us who have the insidious and endogenous depressions from mental illness and or terrible physical or chronic illness Ann From: Bry Carling <bcarling@...> Subject: Newcomer Questions neck pain Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:12 PM Hi everyone - I am new here and would LOVE to get some advice and share experiences... I hope it's OK to ask this much in my first message. I am age 59 and have had back pain on and off since about age 21. At times I was helped by some things - and not by others (MedX machine for one.) Chiropractic treatments never helped much. Around age 23 I was given an MRI and told that I had a herniated disk L4-L5 and some scoliosis. I had numerous painful episodes from age 23 to 40, sometimes ending up unable to get out of a bed or off a sofa for days at a time. Fortunately these incidents were far enough apart that I was able to function normally almost all of the time. I am finding out that my experience is not that uncommon. Plenty of my friends have back problems, as do my mom and my daughter. However, at age 40 I had some lidocaine injections that helped a LOT, and was given some orthotics that pretty much took away the pain episodes completely. Like others, I learned how to lift better, stand better, stretch, exercise etc. I was also found to have a fallen arch on my left foot. I developed some pain in the left foot from time to time. This comes and goes but the foot is now pretty abnormal looking, with the fallen arch and the toes are pushed to the left. The orthotics helped me for about 8 - 10 years and I only rarely got back injuries that hurt, and the pain soon went away. After a while the pain came back more regularly in my back and I noticed how restricted my movement was especially my left leg losing more flexibility and the same for my lower back. Now I have been getting bad cramps in both legs, and tingles in my left arm and hand. Also some back pain from time to time, and sometimes a little difficulty standing for any length of time due to the pain. I have tried physical therapy / rehab, new orthotics, a new expensive office chair, an MRI, a nerve conduction EMG test (OUCH!) and so far no real help. The MRI shows arthritis in several areas, and some pinching of the nerves in both my lumbar region and neck. C6-C7, L4-L5 and I forget where else... Now they say that I have spinal stenosis, arthritis, etc. Not fun. My latest attempts at self help include a weight loss program. I have lost ten of the 40 pounds I need to lose in the past two weeks. Yes, even with the holidays(!) and I have also started going to the gym, which DOES seem to help a little already with the leg cramps and certainly with the weight loss. I was taking Skelaxin, prednisone, Butalb-APAP-Caff for pain etc. The pain specialist gave me some Voltaren Gel (Diclofenac) to try, which is pretty useless as far as I can tell. I take the prredinisone occasionally for mouth sores. I know it can help back pain somewhat too. The other physician who performed my neuro tests said that they will probably want to give me epidural cortisone injections. So I have been reading up on this. I know that they need to use flouroscopy and one friend recommended having general anesthesia for it too. I spoke with another friend today and he said that he had problems with he use of this cortisone because the pain relief caused him to not realize when he was getting hurt. He said that he did more damage and ended up having to have two vertebrae fused. Just like some other people who I have spoken with about having bones fused, he was not pleased with the result. He still has back pain and now has other complications too. (not sure what he meant.) I spoke with another friend recently who has a titanium rod in her back and she is not at all pleased. She says that it is better than nothing, but still seems unhappy with it. Perhaps the restricted movement puts strain on other areas. Now I feel some reservation about proceeding with the epidural treatments if my regular pain specialist doctor does in fact recommend them. Trouble is - I have a job where I have to do some lifting - sometimes as much as 50 pounds, several times in one day. I also play music and need to lift my musical instruments in and out of a van etc. Thankfully I am still very active and there is a lot that I can still do, but it has been a painful period for me over the past 4 - 5 months since things started geetting really painful. I am cautiously optimistic about the improvements I am getting with going to the gym and strengthening my core lately, but wish I had learned more about all of this years ago and taken my health more seriously. I wish my family doctor hadn't taken it so simply too, until I demanded relief from the pain after several months of trying things again and again that didn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.