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| | | From: lmn4881 (Original Message) | Sent: 6/15/2008 10:48 PM |
I am new here. I tore 2 disc in my back in August of 2007 and was mis diagnosed with a loccked joint. I've done chiropractor visits, accupuncture, physio etc and nothing helped. They sent me to the orthopedic surgeon and he said there was no surgery they could do due to all the scar tissue that had built up. He diagnosed me with RSD about 2 months ago ( I'm sure I've had it longer than that though) and has referred me to a neurologist/pain managament specialist for epidural injections. I'm nervous about going. Do they really work? I'm happily married with and 11 yr old daughter, a 4 yr old son and a 3 yr old daughter. I've found the pain so bad somedays i cannot even get my son to preschool. I've found that I'm losing strenght and function of my right arm and the pain has spread from the right of my back to the left, down the right leg and into both arms. The doctors have me taking tramacet, and Methoxisal with Codeine and Zopiclone for sleep as needed. I'm not getting much if any relief but they won't give me a prescription for anything else until i see the Neurosurgeon, but that's not until the 24th. My husband is frustrated, my house is a disaster and I'm not sure what to do anymore. I hope I can find some help here. Thanks for listening to me. Lisa |
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Hi Lisa,
I wanted to let you know, I can relate to exactly how you feel and what yer going through. Just to let you know a little bit about me and my situation which led to RSD I'll tell you what I've gone through, and I think you have no reason to be scared, or as scared as you are.
Basically in Aug of 2003 I was in a car accident where I had a hypoglycemic experience while driving (passed out from low blood sugar) and ended up hitting a tree head on at about 65mph. The position I ended up in was what was so brutal. I basically ended up with my butt on the floorboard of the drivers side floor in a "crouching" position wiht my knees back up towards my shoulders. It didn't really hurt but it became uncomfortable when I realized I was pinned between the dashboard and the drivers seat with the handle that moves the seat back and fourth kindly placed just to the middle right of my spine pushing into my back. There was nothing I could do to take the pressure off of it. It was horrid and I'm glad I dont' remember too much of being stuck there that long with the handle just pushing into my back and me being unable to move even and inch. Worst off is that It took an hour and a half for them to cut me out of the car.
I was lucky with only getting 2 fractured vertabrea in the spine and broke my top right rear rib. Unfortunately i had to lay in the hospital for 3 days with a potential broken neck unallowed to situp etc not even to go pee! The pain from finally sitting up after that long was indescribable.
Moving on, I ended up recovering from the accident over about the next 6-8 months or so not really being able to do anything. I always felt the feeling of the "seat handle in my back" during this time. I even went back 4 weeks later to the surgeons and they said "no you wont't need sugery" just based off a physical examination, and that was that.
I moved from WI. to Los Angeles about 7 months or so after the accident and was totally fine for 3 years. I made a total recovery and worked jobs for 2.5 years that were 60-80 hour per week jobs and oncall 24/7 too. I also didn't have a car in downtown L.A. so I walked everywhere. I burned out after 2.5 years of working so much I lost whom I was.
During the recovery though I'd go from say a week of back pain like "the handle was still pushing into my back". It'd go away and the next time it'd come back and it'd be less than a week, and the time after that would be less and less until the episodes of pain were gone and I had no more back pain or feeling like the "seat handle was pushing in".
Well going on 3 years after the accident and just after leaving LA, I moved to the Bay Area to goto college again.I was working out and running 5-7 miles/day and in good shape compared to now, but I started getting pain like the seat handle was pushing in my back again. So on the 2nd refill of my pain meds in less than a month my doctor ordered an xray. I'm glad he did because it revealed 3 compression fractures in the middle (thoracic) part of my back. It was too far removed to do a procedure to restore height from the compression in my spine, and soon after this my pain became chronic.
Fast forward about a year ahead, 9 to 11 doctors later, as well as a heap of procedures, drugs, etc later and I was finally referred to my rheumatoid / inflammation specialist who has been like an angel in disquise. Based on one exam and a bunch of tests to rule out it possibly being anything else I was diagnosed with RSD.
My RSD runs from the my neck, to the middle portion of my back, just to the right of my spine. It then continues up through my right shoulder blade area, into my right shoulder and down my arm into my tendons and hand/fingers.
The procedures I had right away were 2 epidurals in my back. These were done by going to an outpatient surgery center, you have to have someone drive you and basically you lay on your stomach and they use an xray machine over your back to help them place the needle for injection.
The first epidural I had was done into the directly into the affected inflamed area in my back I think at the T-8 or T-9 level. It wasn't a good thing by injecting directly into a very inflamed area, as it just made it worse. So #1 didn't work so my pain doctor (who did the first one wanted to do one more "his way"), I agreed and boy was this a mistake...
My pain doctor at the time's idea or "way" of doing the 2nd injection a few weeks later, different from the first time was by running a catheter up from my lower back into the inflamed/affected area and then doing the injection. I can tell you this was 10 times worse than the first injection.
The procedure turned out to be 45 minutes of me screaming on the table in agony and pain because he couldn't get the needle up my back. He ended up going like 2 vertabre instead of 6 or more away. I was told that I had "different anatomy then anyone he's ever worked on before" when he told me that he couldn't get the cathetor up there. The next day I woke up feeling like someone took a knife and worked over the lower part of my back stabbing me and I had another softball in my back and it gave once again.
Now, these injections are different then the one's I get from my current pain /inflamation specialist doctor now. She actually gives me injections of lidocaine followed by a little bit of cortizone (not even enough to mess up my blood sugar) in my back where I have the most pain, or what we call "hot spots". Becaused to even touch my back lightly I go through the roof!. I also can't stand heat of any kind and have to walk around wearing biofreeze, icing tons and wearing wife beater shirts.
I hope this helps you, I can give you more info if you have more questions just let me/us know and I'm sure someone will help you.
Sorry if this is confusing or out of order etc, I just poured it all out as fast as I could as I'm half asleep and trying to get ready for my college class to start today for summer term.
Good luck with everything, and thanks for making me feel like I wasn't the only one too! |
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| | | From: lmn4881 | Sent: 6/19/2008 9:19 PM |
Thanks for sharing your story with me. I really hope that the injections that I get aren't like yours were. I don't think I could stand the pain. I'm so exhausted today that I can hardly stay awake but I have to go and pick up my son from preschool soon. My husband is working night shift right now so I can't nap during the day as there is no one to watch the kids. Last night I went to bed at 8pm and I was up 7 times during the night. I'm thankful that I am not alone but I wish that none of us had to go through this. I tried to go to the chat room but the discussion had nothing to do with RSD or coping. Perhaps I wasn't in the right place as I am new to all this. Please write back if you want to. It's nice having someone to chat with. I hope you are having a good day. Lisa |
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