Hello all...

My name is Helen and I live in Ontario, Canada. A very dear friend of mine told me about this site and here I am. I hope that with your help and my searching I can get the answers that I need to live a rewarding life.

Currently I am off work, and have been since December 2008. I was receiving sick benefits (from work and when they ended, from Service Canada) but these have now ceased. I applied for Long Term Disability and am in this process. My claim has been denied twice and it is in the appeal process and to date no decision has been made. So... here I am... in constant pain and now no funds to help with the appointment costs.

I live with chronic pain 24/7 and when I read the "Letter to People Without Chronic Pain" I cried. This describes me (as well as many of you) and it's so difficult to explain it to someone who doesn't live with the day-to-day pain.

I feel that I am going through this all alone (but I do have a wonderful friend who has been an angel to me) and have had the run-around going from one doctor to another and no one knows exactly what to do to help relieve the pain. It's so hard to try and explain how I am feeling on day-to-day basis. (Today is a very bad day).

I have had physiotherapy, chiropractic care (IFC machine, ultrasound, physiotherapy treatments which included heat, muscle manipulation, and light exercise, acupuncture, massage therapy on a weekly basis (when funds were available). I have stopped going for these therapies as they helped temporarily, but not on a permanent basis.

My last appointment with a specialist (a neurologist) ended with her perscribing Gabapentin for 'nerve pain' and I was taking this medication in addition to other meds. The Gabapentin made me groggy and dizzy for the first day or two and then it seemed to help with the pain. After taking it for a a little over a week it brought me into a severe depression and made me suicidal. The days leading up to and including my 'meltdown' were scary indeed. I called the doctor when I started experiencing these symptoms but didn't hear back from her. A few more days passed and then I sunk into my 'meltdown' (as I call it). I just didn't want to deal with anything anymore. My angel, (Karen) urged me to stop taking the medication and did stop taking it and am awaiting to see the specialist again.

Results from my MRI and X-ray are as follows:

Diagnosed Dec 1, 2008

L1-L2

• Mild central disc protrusion, minimally impressing upon the thecal sac associated with mild spinal stenosis

L4-L5

• Mild diffuse discogenic change, most pronounced in the far left lateral aspect with a small disc protrusion and impression upon the exiting nerve roots beyond the left neural foramina
• Ligamentum flavum hypertrophy
• Mild central and bilateral neural foramina stenosis, mild on the right and moderate on the left

L5-S1

• Diffuse discogenic osteogenic change
• superimposed small central disc protrusion with a focal annular tear
• impression upon the thecal sac
• herniating disc is in contact with the S1 nerve root origins and it is bulging against the L5 exiting nerve roots on both sides
• moderate facet hypertrophy
• mild central and neural foramina stenosis

Diagnosed April 10, 2006

C4-5

• Loss of the normal cervical lordosis associated with severe chronic disc degeneration at C4-5 and C5-6

C5-6

• Evidence of slight narrowing of the nerve foramina by postero-lateral bony spurs at these levels in addition to facet joint arthritic disease affecting the mid and lower cervical levels.
• Moderately severe degree of cervical spondylosis

I am reaching out to this forum with hopes that there is someone out there who shares some of my experiences and/or could offer me some guidance. I do not know where to turn at this point.
Thank you and may we all find relief soon.

Helen

Hi Helen, you have certainly been busy trying to find some remedy. What a lot of perseverance and determination you have shown.

I don't have any miracle to offer, but would just like to say that problems such as you have can be very difficult to treat, as there is no guide book or medical knowledge to lead straight to a solution.
I have become aware through my chronic pain treatments that it is likely that you will need several approaches together.

You would have developed multiple problems- spinal, muscular, posture, mental, fitness etc- some of which may not be obvious, but are having an adverse effect all the same.
So the fact that you have tried something and didn't get the result you wanted doesn't mean that it wasn't beneficial all the same.
Some of these take quite a while to work, and when you consider the scope of your problems it is unreasonable to expect a rapid recovery.
You may need to keep up a regimen for 2-3 months, say, to give it time to work. Perhaps longer.
What has taken years to get bad will not be fixed in weeks.
So hang in there, revisit the treatments that you found the most beneficial, and start again, giving your body a much longer time to heal.

Also seek out the best and most advanced therapists , chiro & others for your treatment that you can find.
Some just have a better "feel" for what might help.

I don't know all the terminology in your report.

do your Drs have no solutions or suggestions regarding any sort of surgery?

Have you tried a TENS? they help to block the pain signals.
Then the next step up from that might be looking into pain pumps or implanted stimulators