Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 2 Location: pennsylvania
pregnancy and back pain Posted: 05-19-05 00:22am
Hi everyone.
Firstly, a little background info:
i am a 24 yr old female. I never had pain
nor needed pain meds in my life till I was
19 and got pregnant. My pregnancy from
1-4 months was a breeze, but 5-9 was
nothing short of horrible! After the 5
month marker my back began hurting so bad
I could barely walk or move. I spent many
many hours of the day on the heating pad.
I even had to go as far as to attach it to
one of those big orange extension cords so
I could walk around my house with it. It
always has to be on its highest setting
because nothing else helps, I ended up
having burns on my back from the amount of
time I spent on it.
So, I asked my ob/gyn about it, he said
that it would go away after I had the
baby. So, I took that in stride and dealt
with the pain figuring that after I had my
daughter things would be fine. Wow, if
only. :(
after I had her the pain didnt subside, it
got worse, much worse. So much so that
the heating pad no longer eases the pain,
altho I still spend a great deal of time
on it hoping it will. I went to my
doctor about a month after having her(july
of 2001) and he said that it was my body
reverting back to the way it was before I
had the baby and the pain would go away in
a few months. He cracked my back which he
said was very very tight, gave me a
prescription for vicodin and sent me on my
way.
Well after 8 months of controlling the
pain with narcotics it still hadnt gone
away. I went back to see my doctor and he
said sometimes it takes some women longer
than others. He gave me a stronger dose
of vicodin and again sent me home to
recover. This happended 4 times. I went
from vicodin5 to es to hp and finally to
percocet. After 2 years I was so angry
and in so much pain the drugs were losing
their effectiveness because I was taking
them so often. He said ok. We'll give
you and x-ray and see if anything is out
of place.
I went and had the x-ray done and he said
he didnt find anything wrong and it was
exactly what he told me it was. So six
months later after more suffering I was
fed up. I switched doctors hoping to find
one that could fix my injury. Boy what a
mistake that was! Now, not only do I have
a doctor who doesnt know what is wrong
with me, but he refuses to give me any
kind of pain meds to manage the pain. He
says that I am too young! Well thats a
fine thing to say. Im too young to take
the drugs to manage the pain, but i'm
apparently old enough to go through the
pain! Gee thanks doctor!
The thing that angers me the most is that
I think that my doctor suspects since i'm
so young that I am making up this pain in
order to get the drugs. That is
completely wrong. Hell, I switched
doctors hoping to find one who could fix
my problem rather than hiding it with
medication. But I dont see why I should
have to suffer this extreme pain while
there still is no answer?!!!?
I have no idea what to do now. Switch
doctors again? Forget about ever finding
help for my condition and try to live with
it? As it stands now, I cant do a great
many things I wish I could. Playing with
my daughter is next to impossible, because
if I move, or twist in the wrong way its
bedridden time for me. If I lift anything
over 10 or so pounds (such as my daughter)
a few hours later I am in extreme pain.
I am not imagining this pain. Its awful!
It feels as tho someone is grabbing me in
the middle of my lower back and just
ripping me apart from the inside out. It
gets so bad that I sweat profusely, yet I
shiver uncontrollably which only heightens
the pain because the writhes jolt my back.
There has to be some explaination for
this. Atleast I pray there is. I have so
much of my life left to live, and this is
no way to live.
I am tired of how I am being treated by
doctors. I am tired of being told I am
fine. I am not fine. This is not fine.
I would really appreciate any comments or
advice from anyone who has experienced
this or even something simliar. I just
have no idea where to go from here. Thank
you all in advance.
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Tamadrummer
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 710 Location: Zephyrhills,Fl
Posted: 05-21-05 18:56pm
You need to go to the emergency room and
get them to order an mri or at least
prescribe for you some pain meds along
with a referal to an orthopedic spine
surgeon so that you can get an mri and
other tests like discography or mylogram
and ct scan.
You shouldnt be living in pain for no
reason. The emergency room may be your
only hope.
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Sinnocence
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 2 Location: pennsylvania
Posted: 05-21-05 18:58pm
I've been to the er approx 3 times this
month alone doubled over. If on occasion
I get lucky and get a sympathetic doctor I
get pain meds prescribed, but most often I
get this witch of a female doctor who
prescribes me motrin 800 and darvocet,
which is useless for me. Noone has ever
even agreed to give me referral to a
specialist..
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Tamadrummer
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 710 Location: Zephyrhills,Fl
Posted: 05-21-05 20:42pm
That is horrible! Is there a chance that
you could just call an orthopedic spine
doc and make an appt? They might just see
you and help you. Its worth a shot.
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sandyallen
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Feb 2004 Posts: 4580
Posted: 05-21-05 21:26pm
Hi there! I am very sorry to hear about
your pain and suffering! I know how you
feel, I live with pain 24/7. Going to
the er a lot is not going to help that
much as there is sooo many people that
have ruined it for others and that is if
you do got to the er a lot they think you
are coming for your drug fix and will red
line you or whatever they call it and you
will not get any heavy narcotics, what I
suggest to you is that if you have a
primary care physician that you get in and
have a serious talk with him and ask him
bluntly but nicely to do an mri on your
back and get to the bottom of this and
then send you to an ortho or a pain
management Dr. Because you cannot go on
like this.
The best to you!
Sincerely,
sandy
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Tamadrummer
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 710 Location: Zephyrhills,Fl
Posted: 06-06-05 14:02pm
How are you doing? Hopefuly you found
relief!
Finally today I went to a pain management
specialist and was given fair treatment to
help with my chronic back pain. I was
prescribed the duragesic 25 mcg/h patch
with percocet 10/325 for break through
pain.
I had to go to my regular primary care
doctor to get the referal to pain
management and today was my first visit
with them. The surgeon that did my back
surgery had totally abandoned me as far as
pain medicine went and I am not within the
normal protocol expected but regardless of
the amount of pain I would be in the doc
had in escence "cut" me off of medicine.
After talking to the pain doc, it seems as
though this is normal and because the
federal gov't and state gov't here in
florida are so hard on doctors that
prescribe medicines that many people go on
in pain for no good reason other then fear
of the system.
Do yourself a favor and demand that your
primary doc refer you to pain management
and if they will not, just find one and
show up and beg to be seen. You will
find relief and you will be much better in
the long haul.
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shine777
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 3 Location: united states
Chronic Back Pain Posted: 07-18-05 20:32pm
Sorry to hear about all of your pain and
bad experiences with doctors. I have
been through this since I was 7 and now
i'm 22. I've done the meds,
chiropractic, therapy of all sorts,
etc.....I have to say that the best advice
that I can give it to switch doctors. I
know you've already done that but it's
worth searching until you find the right
one. I had to do that and it was worth
every minute.
Also, be careful with the meds. You
don't want to get addicted. There can be
life without meds and its better for the
bod.
I would find an osteopathic doctor who
specializing/practices manipulation.
It's much gentler. Also, physical
therapy may help.
I hope this helps.
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sandyallen
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Feb 2004 Posts: 4580
Posted: 07-19-05 15:15pm
I am soooo glad you guys are getting help
finally as I do know it is hell I live
with rsd and ther is not a lot that they
can do for me, hopefully the dr that I see
on the 3rd of august is supposed to have
some experience with rsd and can help turn
it around a little as it is starting to
spread to other body parts. I guess we
all got to just hang tough. Remember
that there is a big difference in wanting
medication and needing medication and
feelin a buzz or feeling it helping the
pain. I was on duragesic fentanyl pain
patches 100's and they only helped for
about one day for a short time
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Jazcote
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Posts: 1 Location: North East US
I Am Sooooo Sooooo Sorry For You Posted: 08-18-05 23:00pm
I do know how you feel. I started crying
when I read the part that said it feels
like someone has ripped your spine out.
That is how I feel most of the time and I
am only 28. I had an accident at work
that herniated a disk in my back, but I
also had chronic upper back pain as well,
so now its my whole damn back that hurts
like hell! To top it off I fractured my
right ankle bone and tore my left
achille's tendon in a workout accident
shortly before the lower back injury. So
now all of those injuries have become
chronic (have been in pain for over 2
years now with very little relief, very
few meds). I had to resort to going to a
clinic for drug addicts that prescribes
suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone), it
worked like a charm for exactly 2 months,
now it does nothing and I am addicted to
it physically, I don't want it, I don't
get any relief from it, but when I try to
stop taking it, I get sick as a dog! I
am having the doctor wean me off of it,
cuz i'd rather not be addicted to
something that's not helping me. I don't
get high from pain meds, my pain eats the
meds and I get relief. I am trying so
hard right now to find a pain clinic that
will try me on duragesic, I have heard
that its one of the best pain meds around!
I have a couple of friends that have
been on it for over a year and they say
that it doesn't "wear off" but they do
have "breakthrough pain meds". So I would
just be happy to have just the patch and
worry about other meds only if I find I
need them! Well I have to keep this
short, I can't type for too long, it kills
my neck and I suffer greatly. So I just
wanted to say, I know how you feel, don't
give up!!! Keep trying different doctors
until you find one that will listen to you
and help you! Good luck and keep posting
so we know how you are doing!
