I have been experiencing severe chronic
back pain for the past 4 years from a car
accident and severe neck pain for the past
2.5 years from a violent assault resulting
in two compound fractures of my
mandable.
I have had x-rays that showed that my
spine was straight as an arrow but they
didn't show any "damage". I went and had
bone and soft tissue mri's and they showed
nothing but my pain is there. I was
tested for ankleosing spondilitis and it
was negative. There is no apparent nerve
damage.I went to physical therapy and it
made me worse since the pain is deep and
doesn't feel like muscle pain. It feels
like it is in the bone and the pain
radiates into my skull/brain. So I am
now stuck taking pain medicine. I went
from tylenol/advil to motrin 800 to
darvocet to muscle relaxers to vicodin
then ultram er/tramadol and now oxycontin
with vicodin for breakthrough pain. It
manages it fairly well seeing as I can
work again now. My pain is down from
constant 7-10 to 3-6 with severe 10 pain
occassionally still.
My question is to anyone who is in my same
position. No diagnosis, just pain. How
do you manage your pain? How long have
you been undiagnosed? I have had doctors
look at me and say "you look fine, there's
nothing I can do". So I found a good
doctor who did all the tests and finally
referred me to a pain specialist because
my pain got so bad that I wasn't able to
work.
|
NickVellios
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 55
Posted: 12-09-06 06:07am
Nobody, huh?
|
croxie
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 13
Posted: 12-11-06 08:27am
Yeah...I'm in that position.
Since my hysterectomy 11 years ago when
removing a cancer tumor, i've had a severe
burning pain that got even worse since I
had my gall bladder removed a couple of
months ago.
The pain clinic focused on my epilepsy
since they thought it had to do with that
and it all ended up that we couldn't
agree, so I walked out.
I've had the epilepsy since I was 12 years
old and no pain until 11 years ago. I'm
42 now.
Today i'm trying to get rid of the
addiction that tramadol created after the
gall bladder surgery (and a second surgery
to corrrect a mistake made by the first
surgeon). The tramadol won't make any
difference for this kind of pain and the
only thing that i've had success with is
morphine.
But because of hallucinations i'm staying
as far away from that as I can come.
Chronical pain without an obvious cause
that can be pointed out on scans or x-rays
makes doctors and specialists
uncomfortable and we're among those who
are either labelled as hysterical or they
assume we make it all up. Their ability
not to understand or see beyond what they
once learned is saddening and
unfortunately it makes life very difficult
for us who are not "accepted" as being
ill.
My pain is a deep roaring pain that shows
up from nowhere. I have a clear nerv
damage after the hysterectomy since I have
no sense of feeling at all on the inside
of my thighs, but since the mri won't show
anything wrong with my back, they
automatically ignore any other symptoms.
Take care and know that you're not
alone.
There are millions of people out there in
the same situation.
The site is not a replacement for professional medical opinion, examination, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your medical doctor or other qualified health professional before starting any new treatment or making any changes to existing treatment. Do not delay seeking or disregard medical advice based on information written by any author on this site. No health questions and information on eHealth Forum is regulated or evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore the information should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease without the supervision of a medical doctor. Posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author, and not the administrators, moderators, or editorial staff and hence eHealth Forum and its principals will accept no liabilities or responsibilities for the statements made.
Schizophreniahealth
This page was last updated on June 11, 2008
