Just a little help Please

I don't have degenerative disc disease but I do experience chronic neck and back pain which does feel really terrible. I would be taking pain meds every day if they helped, but the over the counter ones barely do anything to ease my pain (my parents don't let me take prescription pain meds). So I try to distract myself with anything possible instead since if I focus on something that helps me somewhat deal with the pain. Which feels like I get run over by a train every time I wake up and I have to force myself to move. My sleeping schedule is a mess.

Don't know how helpful this will be, but when I was 12 I had a fusion of my spine due to bad scoliosis so I've experienced back pain for over a decade so I know surgeries can hurt. I understand what it's like to really not want to have another surgery as they can be really painful. If you do have to have the additional surgery, I hope it goes well for you and that if you have anything else wrong that the blood tests help find that out.

OF, like you I have the constant aching in the upper back & across the shoulders. Some days are worse than others it just depends, typically I can deal with it until the burning pain rears up. I stay away from heat most of the time. When I do use heat I wet a hand towel & nuke it in the microwave & wrap it around my neck. Cold packs help with the burning pain.

Some things to look at; age of your bed pillow, if it's soft try a firmer one & make sure part of shoulders are on the pillow. It took me a long time to figure this out.

Age of the mattress on your bed, myself I need a firm mattress for overall body support. I cannot sleep on a pillowtop mattress, they are too soft for me. Over the years we have tried so many different mattresses, including having them made by a local mattress company. We are due a new one & we plan to see what they can make for us. We found a particular brand of a mattress that we like & I want to see if they can make one like it.

Wear good shoes with plenty of support & switch them out, don't wear the same pair every day. I buy either a good running shoe or walking sneaker.

Light daily exercises helps me with my neck for mobility. I've done so much physical therapy the past 25 years I know which ones to do, lol. This helps particularly with my driving & being able to turn my head.

about your possible need for surgery later. Have you had a recent MRI done on your neck? Do you have a copy of the written report from the first one so you can compare the two reports? If not, I would obtain those reports.

Have you seen a rheumatologist to be checked for RA? You mentioned having labs done hopefully you will get the results soon. I hope your dr had your vitamin D level checked. Low vitamin D can cause a lot of issues for people.

Before entertaining any thoughts of further surgery if this were me I would look for the best neurosurgeon & get a 2nd opinion. I am not saying your dr is not competent, however, there is nothing wrong with getting a 2nd & even 3rd opinions from different drs. You owe it to yourself to have a fresh set of eyes to look at your situation. Even if you have to travel a little to see one I would do it. It's easy to go online & google top 10 neurosurgeons close to where you live. Typically Healthgrades will pop up & start from there checking drs out.

Take care.

Doctors are reluctant to prescribe medication to me because I am sensitive to most medication I take (some I have allergies to like zofran which is commonly used for nausea) so my parents are reluctant to ask for any. They're also more into natural healing methods so I'm only taking the medication I am currently taking because it is necessary for me to be able to function. I do have my hands full of medical problems since I've been getting them since I was young so it's really not something I'm unaccustomed to feeling because all it means is just I'll end up getting more reading time which isn't that bad since I read when I'm not feeling well. I have been occupying myself with things I like doing to make the time go faster until the pain gets less.

God bless you too. I'm not exactly religious but I am part agnostic due to some things I experienced. Hope you've been having as good a day as you can given what's been happening to you.

I am sorry as well that you've had to experience medical issues too, it is quite unfortunate. Then again I don't like seeing anyone feeling pain, and try to help where I can.

I am sure things will be better once I get through this rough patch that's been going ever since around this time last year when my depression started. I do have some religious beliefs, though not that many since I like to question/do research on a lot of them. Glad to hear that you live like that, as it seems to be helpful for you. Thanks for your prayers, I have prayed before and known mine have been heard as well. I get the questioning existence thing, since it's something I've done for a very long time.

I'm luckily not suffering too much since there are always more conditions I could have and I'm still able to think. Though I have had a migraine for nearly a month so I'm just waiting for it to go away instead of getting it immediately treated at an ER which is normally what I have to do because other medicines won't work for it. I just know I am lucky enough to have gotten this far, due to having near death experiences (which essentially switched me out of being an atheist), and am thankful for you to have lived this long as well.

I wanted to talk about the body ache pain you said you were having. I have X-linked Hypophosphatemia which is just a fancy way of saying my body doesn’t have a clue how to regulate calcium and phosphorus. Seems harmless enough but it has wrecked havoc on my brother and I. He is now a paraplegic because a previous disc surgery area was encased in calcifications to the point that it cut his spinal cord. I’m broken due to a botched myleogram and botched laminectomy surgery from T-2 to T-11 where a screw hole fractured and the rod fell forward healing in a 35 degree angle.

Anyway about the pain you describe. My whole body, especially my arms and hands have this dull radiating bone pain but only on certain days. It seemed random but I think I figured out what it is. The way my bones are there are lots of small air pockets. They equalize to the pressure of the atmosphere very slowly. Bone is porous but not quick to let air out.

So I realized when the atmospheric pressure was low outside my bones felt like they were exploding from the inside out because in a sense they were. The air inside the bones is still at a higher pressure which pushes outward causing bone pain. Much the same way the weight of the ocean would crush you if you were deep underneath, the weight of the air around us weighs on us. It’s fine when there pressure changes slowly but when the pressure change is sudden then that’s when there an issue. When it is high outside my bones are probably okay because it seeps in fairly quickly but when it’s low outside it cannot equalize as fast.

That’s my theory. Hope it helps.

I have degenerative disc disease also after getting 4 disc removed. They called it failed back sugery. I had pain in all my joints and back neurologist diagnosed me with muscular dystrophy, its a slow progression disease but that isn't comforting to me. Just thought maybe this might help if you want to get tested for it bc now the pain meds I'm on work.
Good luck