Mystery back pain or no?
 

Hello All,

I am new to this board and I'm looking for input, advice, etc. regarding my current situation.

I went to see a neurologist after years of suffering with neck and back pain. A little background information about me:

Active in gymnastics as a teenager
High school cheerleader, ran track and played soccer
I injured myself at a high school football game when I was about 17 years old. I fell while tumbling and felt a warm sensation run down my neck and after a few seconds I got up and walked off the field.

Here I am today at 34 years old and I finally decide to see a doctor. I have a high threshold for pain and just really let myself suffer for years living with the off and on neck and back pain.

My neuro doctor order an MRI and told me I had a pinched nerve in my lower C7. He asked me why I had waited so long to see a doctor. I immediately started to cry and explain the grief I had experienced dealing with the pain. I told him I thought the injury was from the fall in high school because I couldn't think of any major accident that would have caused the pinched nerve. Anyway, he tells me that pain can cause depression and that he has a medication that will treat my nerve condition and my depression (I had no idea that I was depressed, but what he stated made sense). He prescribed me Cymbalta 60mg and I started the medication in June 2009.

At almost a year later I decided 12 days ago to discontinue this medication because it was starting to have very negative side effects for me. I was becoming very angry and I slept all the time. So I began researching weaning off the drug and to my surprise it terrified me of even attempting to get off the drug. I called my doctor and left messages, no call back. I then decided to take 60mg every three days for 2 weeks and then completely stop.

Day 6 of horrifying withdrawal symptons (headache, dizziness, night sweats, nightmares, emotional melt downs, angry fits..etc) and completely being off the Cymbalta I started feeling a severe pain in my lower back.

While at work I notice my lower back became more and more painful throughtout the day. By the end of the day I could barely walk, bend or turn sideways. I was able to drive home and get into bed. The next morning it was worse and I immediately went to the emergency room with server lower back pain. The doctors gave me x-rays and sent me home with a diagnosis of strain lumbar.

I have read about strain lumbar and I don't believe this is the reason for my pain (I didn't do anything to onset strain lumbar). I have pain meds, muscle relaxers and inflammatory pills. However, it is 6 days after my emergency room visit and I still feel terrible and I am in severe pain. I called my neuro doctor before heading to the ER room and he STILL has not returned my calls.

I'm so stressed and worried. Did I hurt myself by completely stopping the Cymbalta, is it really a strain lumbar, are the nerves in my back going haywire?

I do not want to see multiple doctors, more MRI, more meds and not get the help I need. I see a pain management doctor tomorrow and I have no idea what to expect.

Can anyone offer any insight?

Thanks!

Hi ~ Did the Cymbalta REALLY relieve your neck pain??? If it did, I'm surprised. I know it has pain meds in it, but it's really an anti-depressant.

I think you probably should have made an appointment at your neurosurgeon again, and had him order some tests for your lumbar, but that's ok. As long as you're getting someone to look after you, that's good. I just HOPE that the pain management doc orders an MRI with AND without contrast material to see what happenen to your lower back. If it's that severe, it seems like it could be a little more than "strain" to me, but I'm not a doctor.

Please, in the future, do NOT go off your meds without asking your doctor beforehand. Getting off the Cymbalta could have been quite dangerous. With some meds, it can even throw you into seizures so you have to be very careful! You weaned off too fast from the Cymbalta, so you were lucky you didn't have worst withdrawal symptoms. :eek:

Let us know what the pain doctor says, ok? God bless, and I pray you'll get some relief. Hugs, Lee

I was curious too about the Cymbalta. Did you not have any neck/back pain while you were on it?
I hope you get some help from the pain management dr. I understand how frustrating it can be to see mutiple doctors. However if I were you I would probably look for and see a good neurosurgeon for your neck/back pain.
I have to agree with Leesa about coming off the Cymbalta without medical supervision, you need to be very careful about that! Those withdrawal symptoms can be very bad.
Best of wishes to you in your search for help! Keep us posted.
Susan :smileypray:

Did you ever have any physical therapy or the dr only Rx'd the meds???:confused:

You might look into getting an evaluation by a expert chiropractor..
I will say I have had good results with mine.
some info-
http://www.upcspine.com/self.htm

my thoughts.
the meds covered the pain but did nothing to "fix" the problem - so after time maybe something more was going on in your spine and you didn't feel it due to the meds..
now off meds you are feeling it.

I'd find a new Doctor - like a physiatrist or spine rehab focused one.

how recent is your newest MRI? c spine & lumbar??
If none recently that would be a good next step to see what is new & if something has changed.

Cymbalta--
 

--is an anti-depressant, and many such meds are used for nerve pain; their action on the neurotransmitters can alleviate some of the unusual sensations such as allodynia (spontaneous nerve pain without an obvious causative stimulus) and parastheses (unusual nerve sensations of prickling, tingling, burning, pressure).

A lot of the people on the neuropathy often have such a med as part of their nerve relief cocktail, which also usually includes some form of anti-seizure med (gabapentin, pregabalin--AKA Neurontin and Lyrica, respectively) to "damp down" over-sensitive, over-fire-happy nerves.

It is true, though, that all of these meds can have considerable side effects, and if one goes off them, one should titrate down very carefully, and over time, so one doesn't get severe "rebound" effects caused by the neural system being freed from the med-state "down-regulation".

Hello Lee!

The Cymbalta actually only masked the pain and altered my emotions. I know now I was not depressed when I started taking the medication. I was tired, sad and frustrated from being in pain all the time. Eventually, my body began to respond negatively to the Cymbalta after taking it for almost a year. I could go up to three days without the medication at the max. After those three days I would experience horrible headache, backache, dizziness, trouble balancing/walking..etc. However, I also notice my I was more in tune with my emotions without the drug. I began researching the withdrawal symptoms and I was horrified by what I read and very angry. My Neuro felt it was okay to prescribe a medication that causes so many issues and creates a severe physical dependence, but always hesitated to actually prescribe me a pain medication for fear of more of a mental dependency (and the physical withdrawal symptoms from vicodin didn't seem to be near as bad as they are for Cymbalta).

After becoming educated on the risks and seriousness of coming of the medication, I will never do anything like this ever again. If I had known what I now know, I would have NEVER taken Cymbalta in the first place and this has taught me a great lesson.

I went to a pain management doctor yesterday and in less than an hour, he prescribed me multiple meds, order an MRI and scheduled physical therapy. However, my experience with my Neuro has made me extremely cautious of doctors now. I'm thinking I should cancel the appointments (haven't taken any of the meds yet) and see a chiropractor first. I was leaving his office and already preparing myself for back shots, more meds, maybe surgery, all kinds of therapy...etc. The pain management doctor stated it appeared that I have another pinched nerve in my L-something. Anyway, what do you think about seeing a chiroprator first?

Thanks for your prayers...you will be in mine too!

Thanks for the information Glenntaj! Do you know if the neural system eventually recovers after being freed from the med-state? Will more damage be done because of the meds?

Hello Susan!

Yes, I did have neck and back pain before the meds (pinched nerve in my lower C7). After suffering with the off and on pain for years, I had finally decided to seek medical help (I wish I had just stuck with my Brickhram Hot Yoga) and it seems as if I'm worse off now than I was before. I'm thinking of seeing a chiropractor before seeing anymore Neuros/pain management doctors.

Thank you for the best wishes, I wish you the best also!

Hello Jomar!

I'm taking your advice and seeking out an expert chiropractor, thanks so much for the information!

My most recent MRI is about 8 months old and I just recently experienced the strain lumbar (7 days or so ago). I had x-rays last week, however, I do not think I have a strained lumbar. I believe as you and Glenn have stated my neural system had been medicated for a long time and the meds have only masked the underlying issues. I'm just praying my system hasn't been compromised/damaged even more because of the meds and my immediate "cold turkey" move.

PLEASE DON'T SEE A CHIROPRACTOR!!!! The fact that you KNOW you have at the very LEAST a pinched nerve in the cervical spine is a very dangerous thing for a chiropractor to get his hands on. ANY kind of manipulation to the neck could leave you paralyzed and I'm NOT exaggerating. I've had 2 different and independent neurosurgeons tell me that any treatment by chiropractors could leave a spinal patient paralyzed and/or in a wheelchair. They don't have the advanced training that is needed in the central nervous system. Right now, that pinched nerve of yours could be a herniated disc and it could be sitting very close to the spinal cord.

Please don't see a chiro. Please keep your appointments with the pain management doctor. You will NOT be sorry, I promise. Even if you do have some injections, many people have gotten relief from them. You have much more chances of getting relief from a pain management doc than from a chiro and it's SAFER too. I don't want to see you get injured. God bless. Hugs, Lee