Hi Bram. I'm so sorry you are not feeling any better yet. You are really having an awful time! Hopefully the doctor will be able to help you on Wednesday. Do you have enough oramorph to get you through?

I'm sure not being able to work is distressing but what can you do? Unfortunately, sometimes this beast knocks off track and all we can do is just hang on until things clear up a bit.

Good luck on Wednesday!

Kim

Hi kindly folk, I'm reaching out again...

I saw the doc, it wasn't good news. She thinks it's a prolapsed disc. She has applied for a fast track MRI for me but reckons I'm looking at a minimum of a month mostly on my back, on the morphine. I've now got the slow-release capsules instead of the oramorph, hopefully that will work out. I can't believe it. She said I might need surgery, depending how bad it is. Yikes :(

A really gutting part of it is that I had got onto a CRPS trial, and that was due to start next week. Of course I now can't go, so it all has to be cancelled. I waited so long to get onto something, and now I finally have, this has to happen.

I'm trying to stay positive, but I just can't get my head around it. I've done a week of this so far, and I'm bored witless and feeling so bad for my family. My poor husband is struggling bless him, he's doing a sterling job, but it's a lot to deal with on your own. I feel so bad for him. I can't imagine another month, and possibly more. If the dates are too far down the line, we'll have to go private and get it done at least a bit quicker. I can't wait months.

Oh crumbs. Why me hey? In a previous life I must have been a very VERY bad girl!

Hope you are having a better day out there lovely folk. Hang on in there, and thank you in advance for every single kind word. I need them so much right now.

Bram :grouphug:

Oh Bram! This just plain sucks!! I am so glad that you went back to the doctor, but I sure hope you don't have to wait a month. I hope the slow-release morphine helps you get through. If surgery is needed, then it is something you will have to do. Goodness knows you can't keep up like this. I hope, boy do I hope, that you can get some relief soon.

So sorry about the trial, that has to be very upsetting. I just don't get it either, why does this happen to good people.

I have often said that I must've really ****** someone off in a previous life.

Hang in there girl!
Nanc
:hug:

I wonder if some treatments with a low level laser might help a bit..
also called cold laser or soft laser - not a cutting type of laser...

My chiropractor had one of these and it sure was great for my spot/joint pains.

If you call around to ask if chiropractor or PT places have it, make sure they really have the Laser and not an LED light therapy product.
They can get confused with each other as they both have a light/lights - but the laser needs only short time frame (20-40 seconds) for tx while the LED needs 20-30 minutes per area.

It is more of a healing light therapy and not just a pain cover up as meds do.
http://www.laser.nu/

It just might be something that helps, even if only a bit.

I had to post. If you have a prolapsed disc, your doctor has given you totally the wrong advice and you will only be making the position much worse by doing what he or she has told you. Don't take my word for it - look up the NHS choices site and you will get basic information. Your doctor is countless years out of date if she thinks that a prolapse is treated by lying on your back for weeks - that's what they used to do 40 years ago before they knew it was the wrong thing to do.

You should only rest for the first couple of days with a prolapsed disc. After that you must move around regularly every day or it only makes the problem much worse. I'm surprised she has given you huge amounts of morphine instead of prescribing the normal treatment of low but regular doses of diazepam to help with the painful muscle spasms (which causes the bulk of the back pain). The muscles naturally go into spasm to protect your spine. You need to reduce the spasms with a relaxant and at the same time get up and walk several times every day if you have a prolapse.

MRI scans are notoriously useless at helping diagnose back pain problems. Increasingly they are regarded as hopeless for back pain diagnostics. Yes, it might reveal a prolapsed disc but that doesn't mean your pain is being caused by that. It's the regular mis-match between people's pain/symptoms and the MRI findings that manes them so unreliable.

If you are relying on a GP opinion, I recommend you get a recommendation from someone you trust for a good physio or osteopath to come out and have a look since they are a hundred times better at diagnosing these things than GPs. A good sports injuries clinic is a great place to start - I'd go to one of those every time over a GP for musculoskeletal problems.

Neurochic, I just wanted to clarify....

Ever since this started I have been getting up up every hour or so during the day and walking round a bit, keeping my back mobile and gently moving my lower back and waist. I am well aware that lying around is stone age treatment for bad backs and extremely bad. I am spending a lot of time lying down as I can't get comfortable any other way for any length of time. Standing and walking I can only do for ten minutes or so at a time, and I do it regularly. I can't sit upright without a lot of pain, so I avoid it.

My doctor did not tell me to lie down all the time, I would certainly have queried it if she had! She said until they are a little more sure how bad things are and exactly what is wrong, it is best not to risk aggravating things further, and to take it gently. She said that once things are a little easier, and I feel I can cope with it, she wants to send me for some physio. I can't wait, believe me. Her examination and testing of my sciatic nerve today felt a lot more professional than the other GPs manhandling of me last week that I think just made things worse.

I am on just morphine because the worst of the spasms stopped after the injection I had, and it is mainly the pain from the sciatic nerve causing the problems now. My stomach is very sensitive to meds so I am taking as little as possible. I'm not on huge amounts of morphine at all, although after resisting it for so long, any regular dose of it seems too much to me.

Thanks for your concern, but I think I am doing the right thing at the moment, and the GP I saw today was very thorough and I think is doing her best by me.

Bram.

so sorry
 

My heart really aches for you..I feel like you need a great big hug from us all..:grouphug:i will continue to pray for you and all our friends here...GOD BLESS YOU ALL....

Dear Bram,
If you see this, hope you're hanging in there.
We're worried about you! :hug:

Hi Bram - thinking of you. I have had lots of disc troubles and I would only wish that on a serial killer . Its been a very rough road. I hope you get some relief soon. The good news is that a prolapsed disc can improve with gentle physical therapy.write when you feel up to it. Wishing you wellness ~Lottie

Thank you guys. I've had a hellish time this last few weeks, off my face for a lot of it, but so many horrible symptoms and side effects that I won't go into....:(

I feel that yet another doc at my GPs let me down badly and caused a lot of problems for me by not prescribing anything to combat the digestive side effects of a hefty dosage of morphine. It caused so much pain and distress. I can't describe it.

I'm feeling a little bit better last night and today and have been starting to eat small amounts again. I'm very weak and exhausted, and I'm going to have to work out a program to strengthen and tone my muscles again after so long upstairs and mainly in bed...

I want to send out a big public hug of thanks to Kim, who's been messaging me so kindly through this, keeping my spirits up and being an endless source of encouragement and support. Don't know what I'd have done without her...:hug:

Hope you guys are doing ok, I've been off the boards so long I've completely lost track. A couple more days and I'll hopefully be back.

Bram :grouphug: