Hi There...I usually hang out over on the fibromyalgia forum, but I have a question I thought someone here might be able to help with.
In June of 1985, I fell from a height of about 4 feet backwards with no opportunity to stop my fall. My tailbone area landed on a rock. For the next six months, I was in such extreme pain I was placed on pain meds and had to sit on a donut wherever I went.
After the accident, I had to stop all physical activity. I was in the middle of the season playing league softball and tried to play one game and had to quit in tears. I had children at home and had a small daycare. I remember I couldn't pick up the baby I cared for and could barely get down on the floor to play with her.
In the next few months, I remember having to go to the doctor and he had to dilate my urethra several times because I couldn't urinate. My left superficial femoral artery also grew very large and very painful. I had to elevate my leg at night and sleep with my leg propped up on pillows because of the pain.
I took a desk job that fall. In November of that year (1985) I went to the doctor to see about getting the vein stripped. Instead of focusing on the vein, he said my uterus was prolapsing so bad it was outside my body, and I also had one ovary prolapsing along with my bladder. I had noticed that I couldn't keep a tampon in when I had my periods. I had never had any health problems before the accident except for headaches. I think if someone can break a bone after a bad fall, it is also a possibility to tear supporting ligaments inside the body in a bad fall. He said I needed to have a hysterectomy, my ovary taken out, and my bladder suspended and that we would do the vein later. We went ahead with the surgery in January of 1986, but by the time it came to do the vein, I didn't have any insurance because my husband lost his job and we had to move. Even after the bladder suspension, I have continued to have problems with frequency and urgency to urinate. I still wear pads because of dribbling.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1996 after having had problems for at least 10 years (after the fall). Also, I finally had the vein stripped in 1998, but the toll it had taken on my ability to stand and walk was horrible. I went to see one doctor in the early 1990s and he dismissed my pain and told me to quit wearing tight pants. If he had noticed, he would have seen that my left thigh was very much bigger in size than my right thigh. I wasn't as outspoken then as I am now.
In 2004, I was in a freak car wreck and was pulled by my car for about 15 feet before letting go and falling back. Since then, I have had more problems and pain in my hips. I was treated for bursitis in both hips in 2004. I was told by the physical therapist that my hips were out of alignment, that one was pointed up and out and the other down and in. He thought they had been that way since I had the accident in 1985. I don't know if the physical therapy was able to fix that. I was living temporarily in a bigger city at the time I had the therapy. When I moved back to my small town, my physical therapist tried to find someone in my small city who knew something about fibromyalgia, but he couldn't and I didn't have any more physical therapy.
In February of 2009, I was started on a special physical therapy program in the big city for people who can't exercise. It is the same physical therapy program that Olympic athletes get (I can't remember the name). It basically vibrates your limbs. I was told that when it was on my arms, in the time I could do three arm lifts, the machine could do thirty. I continued with that program for several months until it came to the point that I couldn't afford to drive up there several times a week and also because my hips were not benefiting from the therapy. Instead, my hips hurt worse. I don't know if it was due to the therapy or driving four hours round trip for the one hour therapy or whether it was the fibromyalgia flaring.
In June of 2009, I had several weeks of increased physical activity and after that my buttocks hurt so bad all I could do was lie on the couch. I couldn't sit or lie on my back. I believe I got a Toradol shot at that time. I have had the same pain off and on since then and have been on Vicodin for pain relief. I am also on muscle relaxers for the fibro.
Last fall (2010) I had my first episode of sciatica. Since then I have had, I believe, four episodes. Each one lasts longer than the other. I have had two episodes of wetting the bed and one episode of fecal incontinence. I also have episodes where I go to the bathroom and when I wipe my backside, there is fecal material. The only relief I get from the sciatica is from Valium and Toradol shots. Monday I will have a pelvic exam and then an MRI without and with contrast to see if I have any nerve damage in my lower lumbar spine. I do have a 1 inch fatty tumor on my sacrum that causes me pain and they say it can't be removed. I imagine when they do the MRI it will show whether the tumor has grown.
Does this sound like CES to anyone? My doctor has mentioned it but hasn't been in a big hurry to do anything. I saw her last week. I had been told by my doctor that I can have a Toradol shot every other day for as long as I need them, and I try to make one last 3-4 days, and then the pharmacist told me that I can only have FIVE Toradol shots my entire life because it has an FDA black box warning on it and she won't complete filling the prescription for more than five shots. I'm very confused about that but will ask about it Monday when I go to the doctor.
Any opinions? I have heard that CES can be slow onset, but I don't know much of anything else about it.
Thanks for staying with me this far.
Donna