My back hurts worse now than it did when i was 9 months pregnant and had been in labor for 2 days with DD. Its getting worse by the minute. I get that it is broken and has been since feb but this is a different kind of pain... the unbearable, hard to stand feel like my legs are going to buckle and my stomach wants to give me back my dinner kind of pain.

ice is not helping, neither is perocet, neurontin, soma, voltaren, or any of the other 80,000 pills I take a day!

It just feels like they are missing something and it's a really big something. And it annoys me that the ortho is on vacation

What are they planning to do to fix this? Surgery, or what? Do they just let it heal or what? They need to do something don't they? I guess I don't understand how they can let you walk around with a broken back?

I hope they'll get you fixed up soon.

No idea. Last meeting with Ortho was telling me I was not a "viable candidate" for surgery because I have MS and we would have to bring my white blood cell count back up and blah blah blah... Thinks the vertebroplasty will not hold because the compression will just wear it out, can't pin it bc its too risky to spinal cord, no fusion surgery because I am too risky thanks to the 25+ MS lesions on my spinal cord.

Last month my neuro was against the vertebroplasty idea (non surgical, long needle goes into the fracture and fills it with medical cement to build the bone back up. Then she saw the last MRI and says we need to fix this now! Still haven't heard from ortho since they found the new fractures because he apparently decided to join my PCP in the land of people who have the luxury of vacationing.

And I really feel like they are missing something. Neuro wants another MRI of lumbar and another bone density test... But I don't see how a bone density issue would only effect my spine. That doesn't make sense.

I feel like the degenerative disc and joint issues they keep blowing off as minor may be a small piece to a big picture and all of my doctors keep overlooking something, I just don't know what it is. What it feels like besides my joints turning to stone is there is so much sheer force and pressure throughout my back that it is making the other bones break. I have always had back problems but this is insane.

Have you had a bone density scan Leggz?

If you're fracturing that easily it sounds like you might have osteoporosis, and if you do have osteoporotic bones, then surgery probably wouldn't help. They can't hammer pins and plates into a bone that will crumble when they try.

I'm sorry you're in pain,and I hope you get relief soon.

yeah we did the scan back in.... wanna say april? Which was low but still in the normal range, so they added calcium and vit D. The weird thing is, they did the density scan on my hip... and not on my back, not that i would think that makes a lot of difference.

I keep asking for traction and they keep telling me no. But I swear if we just pulled the bones apart it would feel so much better!

Nah.. shouldn't make any difference. If one large bone looks osteoporotic, then the rest would be too.

I wouldn't advocate traction..... especially with a fracture, but thet's just my opinion.

I am sorry you are in pain. I have no fractures, but face fusion C3-7. I know about pain. Find a doctor who will listen. When you are in that much pain it is hard to focus. Pain can and will make you throw up. If you are not getting the help you need, go to someone else. It took alot of doctors for me to find one that would listen to me. I have DJD and DDD. I do get good pain control until very recently, that tipping point happened, down into degeneration. I wish for you all the best, and I hope answers are found for you soon. Ginnie It was me who figured out something more was wrong, and asked for the CT. None of the other doctors suspected this kind of degeneration. You know your own body better than anyone. If you know there is something wrong, you are probably right.

Well I have invented an ice chair... pillow case that has been converted to hold 4 gallon size ice packs. And I think i finally got the timing right on the meds, so it is at least manageable. I am attempting to follow the bedrest orders... chair rest really because laying down hurts.

Was supposed to go somewhere today but the idea of being in the car just doesn't do it for me so I will spend another Saturday sitting on ice and knitting.

Hey Virginia, what are they doing for the DDD and DJD? That keeps showing up on the c-spine and lumbar scans, and each time it is noted as getting worse, but they claim it is mild... try telling that to my back! There is nothing mild about it.

If they didn't miss dx we would all be healthy!

Edit (the following day) - I hope that didn't sound harsh. I'm as anxious, hurting, MS progressing after being a c7 parapleic for 20+ years to boot and pray to god (not that i'm a believer) that everything including cancer will be solved during our time.

Ed