living with chronic back and more

I read your stuff and I want to say, as a chronic pain sufferer, that I hope that you can finally get your pain management under control. Please check out my site on chronic pain and give me your ideas for betterment;)

http://chronicpain.today.com

I have pain brought on by all types of spine related problems including fibromyalgia and spinal stonosis with a bit of siatica thrown in and some arthritus!  Needles to say I have lots of pain.  I also am Diabetic.  I see an endocronologist who wont let me take a lot of junk for pain because it ups the sugar count in a person.  Years ago he gave me Ultracet which has done wonders for me.  I was often able to live almost a normal life.  Then when my husband died and I had lots more stress to deal with my pain has gotten gradually worse.  My doctor wanted me to go on ULTRAM ER and gave me samples.  This is a wonder pill!  It is very very tiny and is a 24 hr pain reliever.  You need only take it with or without food once every 24 hours and it slowly gives you pain meds thruout.  My problem is money.  My insurance only covers the ULTRAM that is where you take a pill every 4 hrs as needed.  So I will take that when the samples run out.  I would explore this with my doctor-unless you are allergic to TRIMODOUL which is what it actually is.  They come in different strengths.

Ultracet-trimodol and "tylenol" (this means you can not take tylenol during the time

                                          you take the pill.

Ultram-tridmodol

Ultram ER the time release pill

Good luck.  Never heard of the stuff you are going thru.  Either the tests or the treatment.

Hugs

Laura-questions? email me at lauramushkat@yahoo.com

You certainly have my best wishes for your struggle with back pain.  My journey is now 14 years long and I was one of the lucky ones to have a morphine pump put it 6 years ago.  I have been on the same dose of meds since then, which is fortunate.  I have had the tests you  are talking about and the more painful one is the discogram.  If you can, have your dr. prescribe something to relax you prior to the test as it makes it less painful, just make sure someone else drives you there and can take you home.   The EMG where they test your muscle function is bothersome, but not nearly as much.  Both tests should help the dr. determine the cause of your pain, however, I feel I should warn you that sometimes, no matter how many tests they do, the cause cannot be found as in my case......mine is what they call "failed back syndrome" (due to multiple surgeries and collapse of hardware).  If you are able to try the morphine pump, it may take some time to adjust, but you might do well on it.  It gave me back a life.  The key is to find a dr. who works well with you and whom you can trust.

Best wishes,

Mattsmom

hi yeah,i'm on my 2nd neurolgist after the first 1 didn't do much for me after a while.i've had the needles & shocks on my legs.to me it wasn't so bad. as a matter of fact i have some neuropathy(i think that's the word) which means i don't feel everything in my legs but when the shock got to my foot near the heel.EEEEEEEKKKK!!!! i have backpain too due to a deteriorating disc & arthritis.i'm unable to do my job & may have to try a desk job.i have always done manual labor & my body's protesting.i didn't remember the names of those tests.the needles are little pins.i'm guessing that it won't be as bad as your back pain & certainly wasn't as bad as i'd feared.

Angle 07, My Name is Jewel and I have had chronic back pain since 1956.  It became

disabling in 2005.  I have the many, many tests and treatments.  I have never even

heard of emg/nca test.  I would suggest that you do some research on your own about

the test.  You might also ask one of your doctors to provide some written info about the

test and what it would accomplish.  Sorry you are going through this.

I have been going to the same pain specialist for the past  five years now.  Nothings takes the pain away.  I survive off of muscle relaxants and pain medication. Nothing else I had had worked.  The last resort is to have a spinal fusion.  That is no guarantee by the orthopaedic surgeon that the pain will get better or go away permanently.  I wish for it t go away permanently.  I am disabled because of the injuries and surgeries x2.

I have found out that the best thing is prayer.  The pain subsides for awhile. I just live with the outcome and hope that one day there will be an intervention that helps us all.

Hi

I have just a second but felt that I needed to respond . It really looks like this dr is taking your complaints and is doing all the right tests to get you some real answers . Yes they are painful but they will give you some reall answers and might give the drs the right to give you even more pain meds to trreat what you have . Most dr will not give a person the heavy hitters without some proof to back them up with the dea . The dea has their hands in things like you have . If the find the damage that they must think you have it will allow you some to help with the pain . It is so hard not to be blinded if we do not know how the system works . It is too bad that most of the real telling tests come with pain . I know that I would like to do with out painful test my self . Some times they willo allow you something to calm your nerves for the emg if you are concerned . They will have meds in the hospital for pain after the discogram and usually a valium before the test . The trick with this test is if it does really hurt than there is a whole of damage . I have to go but sure do hope you give some thought to the painful tests and share your concerns with your dr . he may rx you some  extra pain meds .......

Best wishe

Hi Andrea,

I had a dr. tell me a long time ago that if you and your dr. know that you have a chronic pain condition you don't have to put yourself through any tests that are only to dx.

Have you thought about a spinal cord stimulator for your pain? My dr. told me i was to young 46 to be on a morphine pump for my chronic pain. I am lucky my stimulator is a god send if i did not have it i would not be able to move. Also the dr. put the leads high up in my neck so to cover all the nerve endings below that point. Twice a year i get lidocaine infusion therapy for my migraines, all they do it start a iv stick and inject the medication there it takes all of 30  start to finish. my last injection was november 2007 and i have been migraine free since.

Also have you tried the fentenayl patch?

miss lisa

have a pain free day.

Andrea,

Also before your dr. puts you through painful tests. i would say to him look your test is going to cause me extra pain please provide me with the proper meds not just pain meds. valium, whatever to make sure i am as comfortable as can be. you don't need anymore extra pain sweetie and you have the right to ask for this.

If it is extra pain meds, a muscle relaxer, of something just to calm you nerves to relax you is well worth the aftermath.

Just a thought.

lisa

EMGs are actually not painful at all. I was surprised at how painless the whole procedure was. They also can tell the doctor exactly which muscles, discs, etc are involved which can result in medications or some type of micro surgery that can really help you to feel better. It's pretty hard for any doctor to accurately diagnose the problem without some type of help, either with an EMG or a facet joint surgery done under a floroscope so he can see exactly what's taking place.

I have degenerative disc disease which has now developed into scoliosis, bone spurs, pinched nerves, you name it. Then on top of that I have rheumatoid arthritis which has now gone into my pelvis-an odd place for rheumatoid arthritis -in an unmoveable joint. Many years ago I had those pressure point injections from my neck to the base of my spine--now that HURT! And the injections did nothing at all.

It is so very depressing to go to doctor after doctor with no relief, isn't it? I just got my Medicare statement from the facet joint injection surgeries. The pain doc charged over $6,000 for a 30 minute procedure which lasted about one year. And that was for just one side.

I really wish you the best of luck. I wanted a morphine pump so badly but my liver and kidneys are slowly failing and no one can figure out a proper dosage when sometimes the morphine stays in my system for too long and I go "toxic". Last time I ended up with an injection of Narcan and a morphine overdose so I'll just stick with my methodone and 15 mg morphine tablets for breakthrough pain along with my fentanyl patch.

It's a heck of a way to live, isn't it? But it's still a lot better than dying!!

Good luck!  Char

IN, my opinion, a morphine pump should be used as a last resort. I have one. I have had a discogram, it's painful, but helped find the cause of my problem when all other tests failed. The shock test, if it is like the one I had, it's not painful, just uncomfortable at times. I have had so many tests over the last 20 years. And back surgeries. I wish you the best. Good luck. write me if you need to talk' Terry

If you don't understand a test, ask your doctor or look it up on the Internet.  Be more aware of taking care of yourself.  The EMG is electromyelography and the whole testing determines how your muscles and nerves are functioning.  The test feels kind of strange, but really isn't that painful.  I know pain because I have had fibromyalgia for over forty years.

I realize that we are here to support each other, and I do feel very badly for you having unsympathetic doctors, but it is rare to find a truly sympathetic doctor.  So it is up to each person to care for himself with medical help.  I know about nursing care, but doctors unfortunately are very bad at it.

But then there are headline stories such as today where an NFL football player paid $3900 for one hundred 10mg oxycontin.  It sucks!!!!!  People in true chronic pain DO NOT abuse their pain medications!!  But some doctors aren't tough enough to prescribe true pain relief for their patients.

          Hi all,  I've had @ 3 or more nerve conduction studies down the entire lengh of my left arm & I found it to be more of an unusal sensation rather than painful; needles are inserted just enough to pick-up a signal (shows up on a graph like an ekg only it's neurological function to skeletal muscle.) when I compare these things to dental work (emgs, epidurals etc...) they feel like nothing much in comparison. I only know 1 person who has had a discogram; he described it as painful but he also had an extremely high tolerance for pain medication & had trouble with pain management for any procedure. Everyone has a different tolerance but I think it adds unnessary anxiety to tell anyone who is up for a procedure how painful it is when it isn't necessarily so for everyone (this reminds me of women who share horror stories of their 25 hours of labor with pregnant women, they have enough to worry about w/out .) So, my experience with nerve conduction studies is unremarkable. I hope yours is as well. Nurse Diana