I was in a car accident in 1994 in Ottawa, Canada, and have been in dreadful pain since then - I was left with a ruptured thoracic disc, severe contortion whiplash, serious low back pain with sciatica in both legs.
I couldn't drive my car for a year due to the neck injuries - I couldn't turn my head either way!
I tried every conservative treatment possible for 6 years, until my physio reluctantly sent me to a neurosurgeon - they wanted to approach the disc via cutting open my chest! I refused and researched the surgeries online and found they could do it with mimimally invasive surgery. I gave the surgeon all the paperwork, and he got a headhunter to find such a surgeon, and did. It took one year after his arrival for me to finally have the surgery. Then the big disappointment - the surgery made the thoracic pain worse!! Next I saw an anaesthesiologist who specialized in pain management - she was an angel. She never questioned my pain level (my family MD told me take Tylenol) and began the process of chosing medications - oxycontin, oxycodone, lyrica, zoplicone(for sleep), novo-buproprion and lorazepam (the last two for depression). I go to the pain clinic for trigger point injections in my neck, shoulders and back, epidurals and SI joint blocks. It took a while to get the right mix, but this has reduced the pain enough to make life livable. The pain is never gone. A new treatment was started recently, and has almost effaced the pain in my
shoulder blade completely! It's called radiofrequency ablation where a low level electrical impulse is applied to the sensory nerve to deaden it, preventing the brain from receive the pain signal from that area. Research it and talk to your pain management team.
Sorry for such a long post, but finding this site is so wonderful for sharing experiences.
wanderer
PS - next time I can share my experience with Workers' Comp if you are interested.
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Ouch... It's Cold Outside
Posted 11/24 Comments (0)
Brrrrr. Bundle up baby because it's cold outside....
