Chronic Back Pain From Injury

Hi i am a 25 year old male, i suffered a back injury over a year ago from working in construction. The mri i had only revealed slight scroliosis.  Now over a year later i still have a lot of pain in my back neck and legs. Its so bad some days that I have to crawl around my apartment.  My doctor doesn't seem to want to help me with the pain. He says "Your only 25 years old, you can't be in that much pain." The only thing that seems to help me is vicodin or percocet. I have tried ultram , darvocet, flexeril and some other medications but those seem to do nothing for my pain or they just make me tired and i fall asleep.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do for my pain relief? ie. Pain Clinic? I have also had shots in my back and done physical therapy which only makes it worse. I want to live a life without pain but can't seem to get a doctor to help me because there is no visable injury. They always seem to think I am faking it, or that its all in my head. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

i have thought that too, i have all the symtoms of fibro. i just haven't been to the right doctor i guess. My doctor doesn't seem to want to help me with the pain, he gives me ultram and darvocet for it but i told him those do nothing for me. So i am stuck going to the ER when i have breakthrough pain, and now they are asking me why i keep coming back there. I don't want doctors to think I am just seeking drugs, but those are the only things that help me with the pain. Should i consider going to a pain management clinic eventhough i have to diagnosis for why I am in this much pain? And what should i say to them when and if I do go?

  My only recomendation would be to find a orthopedic spine specalist.  I had a ruptured L 4/5 when I was aobut 28 years old.  I eventurally had surgery and have had very few problems since then.  I am now 45.  Good Luck,  I know how tough it can be.

    KW (normally in the Prostate Cancer forum)

Hi Chris and welcome to Healing Well. You have come to right place for some understanding and someone to talk to about pain. Everyone on here knows about pain so we do understand. 

So you are now stuck with a dr that can only tell you that you are too young to be in pain. Well, I am here to tell you that is pure BS. Its obvious why you hurt you injured your back. You did not say how you hurt it whether it was lifting incident or fall or watever. You work in construction which carries a very high rate for injuries.  Did you actually see your MRI report or are you going by what the dr told you. Many times dr will say an MRI is normal but you may very well have a little something going on. In that drs eyes he may consider that insignificant and says its normal. Get a copy of your report and let us know what it says.

My next thought is this; since you have done PT and injections to no relief I would get me a second opinion with a new ortho. If it has been over a year, I would then ask the new dr to consider repeating the MRI and compare it to the first one. If it all checks out ok then ask for a referral to a pain mgt dr. It is not uncommon to have to see more than one dr to get any kind of help or relief. Many times if an MRI is done right after an injury nothing will show up, but if you repeat it a year later many times something will show up. Thats based on not having reinjured yourself somewhere else.

Since this is work related I am assuming worker's comp insurance is paying for your medical care. With that in mind you will have to contact them to get approval for a second opinion. They will ask why you want to see another dr and just tell them he does not act interested in your care and instead of getting better you are getting worse. Tell them you need a dr that is interested enough to get you back up on your feet. That usually does the trick. Always keep it brief when talking to them.

Keep us posted on how you are coming along....Susie

Hi Chris,

I also want to welcome you to HW. I can relate to your problem of being treated poorly because you are so young. I'm actually a few years younger than you & I too have come across docs who did not believe me. It's especially hard when you are in pain, but no one can tell you why. Like you, I had a pretty severe initial injury a few years ago which was eventually resolved, but the pain never went away. Until recently none of my tests showed any abnormalities & what we are now seeing should not be causing most of my problems, so I continue to be a mystery. Just because an MRI, etc doesn't show anything does not mean that the pain is all in your head, or that you are somehow crazy! The one thing I've learned through this ordeal is that we don't know everything about medicine. In fact there is a lot that we don't know yet & unfortunately, this process has made me lose a lot of faith in medicine. Like everyone else has said, I'd definitely encourage you to seek out a pain specialist. They generally understand pain much better than other docs & may even be able to help you pinpoint the cause of your continued pain. Keep posting, there is no better place to come for support, as everyone here actually understands what you are going through!

Skeye