Hit the proverbial wall....
Not saying this to be mean or condescending.......but perhaps you should start doing something to lose weight. Perhaps exercise, a tummy tuck, lap band etc..
Does not sound mean or condescending, just truthful. Thing is I am disabled due to some pretty severe mental health troubles. So food is comfort. Couple that with the aforementioned loving wife being Mexican...and well starches and carbs a way of life. Years ago I started eating like a caveman...meat...meat....meat...and I dropped pounds weekly. I need to just stop eating all the starches and carbs she makes...perhaps she will get the point. But the thing is I am severely depressed right now. I am seeing a shrink, was actually seeing 2 of them but one just asked me if we could take a break. I am not medicated for the mental health crap...can't be. Someone like me needs a cocktail...mood stabilizers and anti-depressants. Have been on damn near every mood stabilizer there is, get some very serious side effects from them. And if I am put on just an anti-depressant things get interesting very quick as the only thing that happens is near constant mania...which for me is black out rage.
Sorry to read Doug, from what I know "back problems" can be any number(thousands) of things so a proper diagnosis isnt as easily made. You would think with technology today it would make it easier for the docs. But writing a script for pain killers is easier for some of them. Stay positive and as 5.7 Hemi mentioned try shedding some weight? Weight loss will help both physically and mentally.
Be well
Some of this is my fault, hell, most of it is. Every job I had I was on my feet, bending and lifting all day. Pain doc warned me that this was going to happen. If you read my MRI reports there is crap wrong at damn near every disc. They knock out the most severe pain....and the one that was being masked by it now becomes severe. No more sciatic pain. No more L4-5 pain. This pain...I have had this for a while. It comes and goes. My therapist has told me that with enough rest it will subside. Thing is every time it does as soon as I try and get active it returns.
Years ago I was 175 pounds of muscle. I ran 7-9 miles daily. Weights daily as well. Even back then I was not flexible. I saw a chiropractor. He gave me a stretching routine to add in. I spent 40-45 minutes a day just stretching, 7 days a week. After 6 months I went to see him..he got out his measuring contraptions....I gained 0 mobility.
You are right, writing a script is the easiest thing to do. 15 years later...hmmmm....well maybe we should actually see what is wrong. By this time you become dependent/addicted. And thanks to the "Opioid Crisis" on a "Controlled Substance Contract". I get piss tested at least 8 times a year. Now, the state of Washington also has me filling out a form every time I get a script. Speaking of forms...it is about time my health insurance to do the annual jerk fest on me...I need to have a prior authorization for the drugs. Despite being on them for 15 years, all of which they have been the ones paying for them, they claim that I need to stop taking them and start on something that is on "the list". Hmmmm...so you want me to cold turkey quit synthetic ******, that you have been paying for and put me on a drug that I was on already...that did not do nothing for me. Yeah...no...with my mental health issues that is not going to be pretty.
Man, sorry to hear.
Wish I had answers for you, best I can suggest is to keep looking for the positive. Glad you have your wife there.
Let me know if I can lend a hand.
Thanks
Sorry to hear your having so many troubles, my stimulator leads are at T7 so quite high although my fusion was L4 L5 S1 and i have just last July had the stimulator/ battery replaced as charging the unit for 4 hours would give me 10 minutes of use the unit was 13 years old so just worn out, no new leads though, the current therapy here is for what they call no feel (just below the threshold of feeling the stimulation) but i also asked for a couple of my old programs to be reinstalled in the new stimulator.
1 lets me change the level of stimulation to where i can feel it like a small electric current running through
my back.
2 lets me sort of steer it around my back by increasing stimulation over 1 section of my back compared to
2 or 3 other points, buy having adjustment of 4 sections say mid back, left back, right back, and high
mid back
This is done by the leads having 4 poles prior to the final tip of the lead so effectively i have a ground lead and a positive lead but it can use any of the terminal points on the leads as the + or - pole.
I don't know which brand you have but mine is a Boston Scientific.
I know that on the no feel program i can get approx. a week out of a charge, but on the feel setting (usually because i have been doing things that are too much for me) it can go down to as little as 3 days before needing a recharge, my trial one actually moved on me after the 4th day and had my right leg constantly shaking, but that was agin me doing silly things with the trial stimulator insitu
I have the newest Medtronic device. I am not sure of the terminology but the stim I am currently on is like yours, no feel. They have not change the programs since I had the Vertiflex put in. If the Medtronics Rep is there today I am going to try and get this changed. The leads that are in me have 14 or so spots where stimulation can be applied. If I remember right they are currently using the bottom 4 in a crossfire setup. Prior to this thing I had severe sciatic pain in my left leg. To the point that the only way to get my left leg in the truck was to help it by grabbing my pants and forcing it in. Was not uncommon for me to be just about in tears. Now...0 sciatic pain. The Vertiflex took care of the pain I was having across the area...hmmm...how to I put this....just about the height of your butt crack. We have a muscle that runs from one side of your pelvis to the other, that is where my back pain was severe. Now the pain is above this area.
@inkjunkie Sorry to hear all this Doug. But, it sounds like you are off the opioids? If so, that is a huge step in the right direction! Take each step as a win and keep focused on your loving wife.
Nope, still on them. I am in the process of reducing the dosage, but going very slowly. I was on 70-80mg a day. For the past 3 weeks it is 55mg a day.
sorry to hear its not going as good as you would like. glad to see you at least feel some improvement. 1' forward and 11.75" back is still .25" improvement.
sometimes it takes a lot of little steps before you can take a big step. keep pursuing progress.
Thing is Medicare has a cap on PT payments. I am afraid that I will hit the cap and be stuck in this state. Truth is I have had this "new" problem for a very long time, it was just masked by every thing else. Perhaps saying that I have had this pain for a long time is not exactly fair. This is going to sound a bit personal...sorry...but picture the motion (and the bend that it takes to do so) of wiping your butt. That requires both a slight side bend and a forward/rearward one. That is brutal for me. Perhaps a more understandable explanation...putting a belt on. Most of my pants have a loop right in the middle of them. It is damn near impossible for me to reach that loop as it requires you to bend and twist at the T12/L1 junction.
I have made mention of this pain to all of my doctors, but I am guessing I have not been vocal enough about it. I actually noticed it back when I was going for the stimulator trial. The very first day the stimulator was turned on is when I noticed it. I know I have told Sasha, the one Medtronic rep about it multiple times.
I really do appreciate being able to come on here and rant. For one thing it allows me to organize my thoughts a bit. I will be unloading all of my pent up anger about this on the Pain Clinic staff in a few hours...Really wish my wife was able to go with me as when I feel like this I normally slip into a bit of a manic state...
