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Severe Nerve Pain And Back Pain Story

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    #32
    timsnewbridge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 110 ✭✭timsnewbridge


    Joyce Shrilling Stereo wrote: »
    Hi OP

    I can empathise a lot with this post. Last year I had a similar back issue. Excruciating, no sleep, life wasn't worth living for a while.

    I had niggling back pain and sciatica for 6 months or a year beforehand. A little uncomfortable in the morning but after a shower and a walk to work it was minor. Then it all started to kick off. One night away in terrible bed and i woke up in excruciating pain. The underlying issue was raised up a few notches from then on. I couldn't sit without pain and I could get 3-4 hours sleep max per night. I used to go for mid-night walks to relieve the pain.

    MRI showed an L4L5 bulge and i woke up a few times to numb/partially paralysed leg. Very scary.

    I had been doing exercise, weights, mckenzie extensions when it first kicked off to help the mild sciatica and I think that made it worse. After a while i stopped all exercises, except for some walking and light cycling and it started to get better.

    One thing that was mentioned to me was a potential build up of scar tissue around the nerve that can restrict it's movement. I was doing "flossing" exercises that i think might have helped me. Also, Apparently the back is hard to heal as not as well served by blood supply,etc as other parts of the body, but a little movement can stimulate this. I interpret that as regular daily movement as opposed to deadlifts and that might have helped me also.

    Anyway, at the height of it all I felt the similar dispair and it gradually worked itself out. It sounds like you are at the peak of the problem so keep plugging away, this is the worst moment, you'll hit on something that helps your situation.

    Thanks very much for the words of encouragement. I hope I'll get out of this situation somehow. I'm also pretty sure the weight lifting, stretches and other stuff made it worse and have also concluded that walking is all I should do (cycling is out of the equation).

    For anyone else following this thread. A surgeon in Spain is assisting me with referrals to get all the necessary imagery done. I tried again to tell my GP the meds aren't working and I should be allowed to see a surgeon and a neurologist. Again he insisted psychiatry, but he caved and wrote a referral to Ashley Poyton and a neurologist (can't remember the name). He wouldn't change medication.

    I sent an email to the pain management doctor with reviews of gabapentin showing it's inefficacy for lumbar radicular pain and he never replied. It's difficult to be in pain and to have to show these dinosaurs they are not up to date with the evidence. It's easier for them to just label you a problem patient. But I'm going to fight this is any way I can.

    I think that when a patient is in severe pain and the medical system is refusing them access to specialists and appropriate medication it could be a definition of torture.


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    #33
    wakka12
    Registered Users Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    I'm absolutely shocked by how indifferent or else just outright rude the medical staff you've hired have been , is it common practice to treat patients like they're insane and dramatic if their pain is caused by an illness they might not be familiar with ?


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    #34
    timsnewbridge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 110 ✭✭timsnewbridge


    wakka12 wrote: »
    I'm absolutely shocked by how indifferent or else just outright rude the medical staff you've hired have been , is it common practice to treat patients like they're insane and dramatic if their pain is caused by an illness they might not be familiar with ?


    I can't say for how it is outside my experience, I seem to have been just very unlucky I guess. If it's like this all over the country/world then I don't even know what to think. I've been nothing but kind and articulate with all these people, visibly upset (by an air of total resignation and defeat) by the situation but never angry or hostile. I am going to tell the pain management doctor on the 27th I don't want the state giving him money any more for he is an awful person and I'm requesting a referral to a different doctor. I think I'm a bit of a push over but I'm totally fed up now.


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    #35
    J6P
    Registered Users Posts: 277 ✭✭J6P


    By the sounds of things, your willing to try anything so have you considered meeting with or seeing a chiropracter?

    I got recomended one over the summer for lower back pain that has been on and off for years. I have been satisfied with the results,been about 6 or 8 times and will have my last session next month.

    Dont go if you dont have an open mind.

    I read all the horror stories beforehand about chiropracters but was willing to give it a shot on a work collleagues advice.

    Pm me if you want more detail and his contact number.


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    #36
    Vetch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 422 ✭✭Vetch


    I'm due to have surgery on a disc. The consultant works out of both Cappagh and the Beacon. I'd have to pay an excess on my health insurance to go to the Beacon. It's the same surgeon either way but from looking at Cappagh's website I might be on a ward rather than semi-private/private room. Just wondering if anyone has experience of Cappagh or if it's worth paying the excess to go to the Beacon?


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    #37
    TomOnBoard
    Registered Users Posts: 5,109 ✭✭✭TomOnBoard


    Vetch wrote: »
    I'm due to have surgery on a disc. The consultant works out of both Cappagh and the Beacon. I'd have to pay an excess on my health insurance to go to the Beacon. It's the same surgeon either way but from looking at Cappagh's website I might be on a ward rather than semi-private/private room. Just wondering if anyone has experience of Cappagh or if it's worth paying the excess to go to the Beacon?

    The surgeon is only one (albeit crucially important) member of the team that will perform the surgery and provide the after care.

    As Cappagh is the national public orthopaedic hospital, I'd expect the team to have more experience than the Beacon, but the surroundings will probably be better in the Beacon. Chances are, you may even wind up in a public bed in Cappagh, as they will have limited availability of private/semi private beds.

    Ask questions about things like post-op infection rates in each place and factored that in. If you're only in for a day or two, the surroundings are less important.. For me, the standard of surgery team and post op care is waaay more important than the hotel elements..


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    #38
    Weyhey
    Registered Users Posts: 753 ✭✭✭Weyhey


    God love you Tim and anyone else who suffers with back pain.

    Just wondering if Tim or anyone here after all medical avenues told you not much more could be done did you ever look into TMS and Dr John E. Sarno. The 20/20 news clip was quite interesting and so is his book. I am very tempted to follow the 42 day programme as I have nothing to lose medically.


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    #39
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    If there is any way you can get to Spain etc, DO IT

    I lost 30 years of my working life to a similar scenario in the UK. ie medical junk.

    Just go and find proper help? Please , rather than follwoing idea after idea with no proper diagnosis or tests .

    Praying for you here and that means a lot


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    #40
    .......
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,057 ✭✭✭.......


    OMG you poor thing!! This is awful.

    You need to get a proper diagnosis. You are being bounced around the system by people who dont care.

    Please do try the Santry Sports Clinic. Or abroad.


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    #41
    horsey63
    Registered Users Posts: 78 ✭✭horsey63


    ....... wrote: »
    OMG you poor thing!! This is awful.

    You need to get a proper diagnosis. You are being bounced around the system by people who dont care.

    Please do try the Santry Sports Clinic. Or abroad.

    I second Santry Sports Clinic, ended with with a spinal fusion following 2 microdiskectomies, with Michael Kelleher, and all I can say is its the best thing I ever did and life is great


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    #42
    skallywag
    Registered Users Posts: 2,986 ✭✭✭skallywag


    Tim, have you even thought that the pain might actually be coming from your hip, and not the back?

    I have suffered here before and the pain would sometimes seems to come from the back / leg region. A simple X-Ray / MRI might be an idea, just to rule it out.


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    #43
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭Mad_maxx


    wakka12 wrote: »
    I'm absolutely shocked by how indifferent or else just outright rude the medical staff you've hired have been , is it common practice to treat patients like they're insane and dramatic if their pain is caused by an illness they might not be familiar with ?

    Pain is for the most part not taken seriously by the majority of medics in this country, then there is the fact that doctors only listen to reports and scan results, they don't listen to the patient

    I'm considering going abroad myself, been in terrible pain every say now since June 1st 2018, s twenty five kg block block fell four feet onto my foot, remarkably nothing has shown up in scans or xray

    Then there is the near puritanical culture surrounding pain medication, we are the opposite of the usa in this regard, panadol is useless for anything bar a mild headache, I too have been suicidal on occasion, will probably seek help abroad, we really do have an unbelievably ****e health service and I've found the bulk of doctors are no good, even you do eventually get to see one


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    #44
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    Pain is for the most part not taken seriously by the majority of medics in this country, then there is the fact that doctors only listen to reports and scan results, they don't listen to the patient

    I'm considering going abroad myself, been in terrible pain every say now since June 1st 2018, s twenty five kg block block fell four feet onto my foot, remarkably nothing has shown up in scans or xray

    Then there is the near puritanical culture surrounding pain medication, we are the opposite of the usa in this regard, panadol is useless for anything bar a mild headache, I too have been suicidal on occasion, will probably seek help abroad, we really do have an unbelievably ****e health service and I've found the bulk of doctors are no good, even you do eventually get to see one


    Am only held together by codeine, stable on a safe dosage for many years with full medical/consultant approval. When I moved here my notes went astray and I encountered the "codeine hysteria" we have inherited from the US. It took many months to sort out and what we can still buy OTC eg solpadeine and nurofen plus were not enough.
    I finally got back to my routine meds through managing to contact my retired previous GP , and the sheer relief.

    It can be done. Please persevere?


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    #45
    the14thwarrior
    Registered Users Posts: 391 ✭✭the14thwarrior


    so sorry for your pain.
    i think you have not been seeing the right people and therefore are on a merry go around of people who are not qualified or experienced enough to figure out the problem. Its a difficult problem. if it can't be seen straight away, it needs deeper investigation by a neuro surgeon. SIMPLE , PLEASE DO THIS
    you need to figure out the problem with your nerve.
    by ending up in a pain clinic and having a list of doctors who can't help you, you may have acquired the label of someone who is in chronic pain and cant be helped medically. taking all sorts of meds which are not really helping.
    a rheumatologist cant help with disc issues.
    a GP who has no experience of such
    asking surgeons over the phone
    radilogists looking for bone abnormalities
    chiropractors ? really?don't go there (not for your condition)
    osteopractioners? don't bother. (not for your condition)
    Physio (exercise you do not need, you need to get the pressure off your nerve. if it hasn't worked so far, don't bother). after you figure out the problem, you will do exercises and get your muscles back)

    sorry, you need to get off this terrible path.
    there are good neuro surgeons in this country.
    synot very good but there are a few, only a few do public. look them up.
    i've had back issues, my two sisters.
    i didn't hesitate by going private for my sister and she was operated on in three months. after enduring hell.
    i was told my only option was spinal fusion, but that i would fuse normally perhaps? yes, i did, after a year or so. but at least i knew. i waited a year for this excellent advice, but i could have paid privately. i went private seperately and was told they would try to operate. I endured three years of hell, chronic pain clinics, injections, pyschological counselling, depression, anger, it must be me not my back mindset
    the more stressed you become, the more stress on your back, tight muscles, muscles then don't work, more pressure on nerve, more pain, more dsyfunction,
    my sister was operated on as she didn't want to / couldn't do rehab and the neuro surgeon said let's save ourselves a year.

    think of your back like a complicated car electronic fault. you only bring it to people who can really diagnoise with the right machines.

    PLEASE TRUST ME. GET YOURSELF TO A NEURO SURGEON.
    Write out a list of medications, write out a time frame, date of injury a brief summary of actions taken, in a table format. etc. surgeons want the complete picture but will zone out if all they hear is I'm in pain and all doctors can't help me. and it will help them formulate a plan.


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    #46
    banie01
    Registered Users Posts: 16,466 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    I'd echo the advice offered.
    Get yourself reviewed by a Neurosurgeon.
    The other piece of advice I'd offer is getting your GP to refer to your local Pain Management Team/Specialist as an urgent referral.

    The medication options available for neuropathic pain are quite effective and can make a massive difference to ongoing quality of life until you hopefully get the intervention needed.


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    #47
    Mazzab
    Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭Mazzab


    [did you ever go to Spain?


    quote="timsnewbridge;108337318"]


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