I am experiencing very bad back pain so I had an MRI and see a spine specialist soon. I have had back pain since I was about 14 years old so for about 15 years now. It seems to be worse now. Things that have been tried are physical therapy, a steroid injection (this made the pain worse), tens unit, anti inflammatories, and a back brace. My pcp gave me vicodin 5-500 and said take 1 twice a day until I see the specialist. These don't seem to take the edge off at all. I have also been on ultram which doesn't do anything at all for it. I have a dip in about the middle of my back and this is where the pain seems to start but moves down to the top of my butt. The pain in the dip feels like someone stabbing a knife through my back and into my stomach then twisting it. I also have some numbness that comes and goes in the bottom of each foot. I am going to post my MRI results in hopes that someone can give me some idea of what it means and what might happen next in the treatment of this. Any information would be much appreciated as I'm in the dark on all of this and kind of freaked out since I'm only 29 and having all these issues. Thank you in advance.
MRI FINDINGS:Alignment is anatomic. The paraspinous soft tissues are normal. Incidentally noted is chronic, mild ectasia of the distal thecal sac. The distal spinal cord and nerve roots of the cauda equina are normal in appearance. No bone marrow pathology is seen.
No significant abnormality is demonstrated at the T10-T11 through L3-L4 levels. There is no lumbar disc protrusion, spinal stenosis, or foraminal narrowing.
L4-L5: There is a posterior annular tear and a small, broad-based, left foraminal disc protrusion. There is mild left lateral recess narrowing. There is no nerve root displacement. There is no significant facet arthropathy. There is no spinal stenosis or foraminal narrowing.
L5-S1: There is disc degeneration and mild disc bulging. There is mild bilateral facet arthropathy. There is no spinal stenosis or significant foraminal narrowing.
The visualized upper sacrum is unremarkable.
Again thank you in advance to anyone who has any input for me.
Hi I was in the exact samy place in 2008-now that you are in now. I am 37 and was a exercise freak and lifted very heavy weights squatting etc. I also ran many miles a day and played college sports so it was my life. In 1999 I started having major pain in my right shin and foot when I ran and walked. After a few days I went to the best doc in Boston for what was going on with my right leg. I had exercise enduced comparment syndrome basically I built up way to much muscle in my calf and they had to go open up the 4 compartments in my right calf area. Pain got little better but huge swelling like a football on my shin so I had a nother surgery to fix that. This will go with my nest thing.
So in 2008 I was a General Manager of a gym working out hard again and had major pain in my leg again and some in my back. I went right to ER and they sent me to an orthopedic guy who did an MRI of my back. He looked at me and said"Jenn brace yourself but it is not good news at all. He continued to tell me how I basically screwed up my whole spine and I had no cusion between my disks and it would require major surgery. One surgeon told me my whole spine would collapse if he worked on it, another told me I was to far gone and to live on pain meds for life and many others. I went through pt, all the shots you can imagine, medicines you can imagine and nothing the doctors told me to do helped at all. I was told to find a real good pain doctor so I did. I was on so many drugs so my back seemed better but I was becoming depressed, lazy, didn't leave my house at all, didn't shower etc..I just said to myself take my meds from the doc and I'll be ok.
I wasn't the pain meds become tolerable so I was on the highest doses of oxycontin, fentayl patch, morphine, perc 30's whenever I wanted on top of that other stuff, klonopin, muscle relaxers etc....I wasn't living so I decided to move back to my parents and go to a spine surgeon they knew and he said he could get me 75%better in time. I went through 3 surgeries with him. First was my anterior fusion of L5 S1 it was the worst most painful thing ive ever been through. He went through my stomach to do it so having cut on my back and stomach was the worst healing time but you depend on the nurses they got me through it all. Then he did a second one where he put rods and screws like a cage or rods in the L3L4 and up to hold spine in place with a fusion. Then had to have a third one which was the easiest but still no fun.
The recovery was the worst for me and ther's no way around it. The most important thing I can tell you is to take you pain meds for few days while you start walking...yes walking. Walking is the most important thing you can do after couple days of surgery. It hurts and you don't have to walk anymore than you can but just get up and do as much as you can throughout the day. I still see a pain doc and take pain meds but do feel better than before surgeries
Hi! Thanks for replying. I went to the spine doc and let me tell ya I am not impressed. He put me on voltaren which made me sick so I called him and he said he wanted to put me on tramadol. Well if he would have looked at my chart he would have seen that I'm already on tramadol. It makes me mad that they didn't even look at my chart. So after that he put me on flexeril which knocks me out but i get horrible sleep on it bc I feel restless. I can't be knocked out because I have young children. He had me get a steroid injection last Tuesday and so far I hurt worse. I had hydrocodone before which helped but he says it won't help. I know for a fact that it does help me. He told me if the injection didn't help in 3 weeks to call and get another appointment. I am so fed up with the pain and have no clue what to do. 99% of the time I just want to cry because it hurts so bad. I have thought about going to the ER multiple times now but havnt went. I have also noticed that at the bottom of my shoulder blades between the blades and the spine has been getting numb and tingling off and on through out the day. I'm not sure what this is but didnt mention it to the doctor because he wont care. I have had this for about a month or so. Any ideas on what I should do? I don't want to be drugged up but would like something to take the edge off so I can function.
Hope, I'm sorry you're in pain. My wife has had L4/L5 problems, then L3/L4, then... oh well. My guess is that many Docs today are becoming more afraid of their DEA licenses and try to stay away from opioid analgesics. Unfortunately, opioids are the gold standard for pain relief... and IMO, as long as you don't combine with alcohol or other drugs which magnify the effect, they can work well when taken appropriately and with careful monitoring.
However, having said that, it's known that they also start losing effect fairly soon after continuous use. For example, If you're taking Xmg of an opioid analgesic and getting Y amount of relief, in as little as 3-8 weeks (it can vary a lot) you might have to double the dose to get the same pain relief effect, i.e. analgesia. Obviously, you can't double the dose very much or often or you could die, fry an organ, etc. Docs are afraid of "addiction" so they don't want to have a patient become addicted and have it blow back on them. BTW, the word addition is usually used incorrectly,IMO, as addiction is actually a psych disease where people take more and more for the high... where Physical Dependence is a natural physiological response to opioids. Neither is desirable, but people without an addictive personality can, in my opinion, take them responsibly without getting in trouble. Also, most Docs don't want over prescribe and have a patient death... nor do they want to attract DEA attention. In effect, they're more concerned with their own problems than, many times, those of the patient.
Unfortunately, it sounds like your problem may be chronic, and while relatively low dose opioids may be a good choice for you, and maybe even for the long run, you may have a lot of trouble finding a physician who will prescribe them, and not the "pill mill" type, but who will help you take them appropriately and safely.
I know this may not be what you're looking for in an answer, but perhaps this info may help you somewhat in considering pain relief until some other modality can help with the underlying problem.
Best, Doc Nat