new here

Hi there. I'm new to the forum, but I've been reading some of the posts for a time now.

I have chronic mid-back pain and can't seem to find any relief. I seem to have a high tolerance for medications (this has been an issue all my life - when I was a kid, it took extra meds to relieve pneumonia, at the dentist it took more numbing medicine for a filling than for most people, a doctor's notes following a procedure say "it took an unusual number of doses before she was sedated," after a surgery a nurse told me "we gave you enough fentanyl to drop an elephant - I can't believe you are still awake and coherent!" and the list goes on...). Anyhow, that causes obvious problems with treating my pain. The docs have prescribed myriad medicines in an attempt to help, but none have really even touched it. The only thing that takes the edge off is percocet and then only after several doses. Which is weird, because stronger meds at higher doses haven't even touched it. I wish the docs would just put me in a room and watch me after taking these meds so they could see that they aren't working. I can completely understand that they need to watch out for drug seekers, but I think I've demonstrated to them that I am not in that category. After trying Kadian (if I remember right, I was up to two 80mg doses each day) and finding that it didn't work at all, I quit it. When I called the dr. office to report and talked with a nurse, she said "don't just stop it outright - you need to titrate down or you'll go into withdrawal." I said "well, I stopped it 5 days ago when I ran out of pills and I don't feel any different - what is the withdrawal supposed to be like?" She couldn't believe I wasn't feeling the effects. I told her I thought it made sense that since there were no EFFECTS at all from the drug that I would also not have and SIDE-effects and it follows that I wouldn't have withdrawal from something that never worked!

I just need to vent, I guess, and it seems like everyone here can understand. The docs want me to be depressed or to push some wrong diagnosis on me so they can say there is nothing they can do. I have tried every drug they wanted me to - including anti-depressents (and now I'm on Lyrica - an anti-convulsant). I have no pre-disposed opposition to these drugs or those diagnoses. I know they are very real problems, but they don't fit my symptoms. I thought maybe this was Fibromyalgia for a bit, but I don't have the right symptoms. I have also tried physical therapy, cognitive therapy, behavioral modification, you name it! I push through the days by using the techniques they've taught me, but none of it makes the pain go away! What's really frustrating is that they say they would be willing to be more aggressive with treatment if I were totally disabled - that is, I should give in to it and go on disability, stay home from work and let it take me over. What kind of advice is that!?!?

OK, I'm done for now. Thanks for just listening. (or reading, I guess! )

Since high school, I would "throw out my back" about once every year to 1 1/2 years - severe pain for 5-6 days, but then it would resolve as suddenly as it started so I never went to a doctor. Then I had a sudden "event" when I picked up a bag of groceries 5 1/2 years ago. I could not walk or even sit up and was hospitalized for a week. Strangely, doctors could find no cause for this and sort of threw up their hands. The spinal surgeon actually told me "There is nothing wrong with you. I don't know why you think you are still in the hospital." I was like "um, hello - can't sit up, can't walk. Kind of puts a kink in the whole leaving the hospital plan!"

Since then I've had about every test, scan, procedure, and drug known to exist. I have a sharp constant pain in my mid back. Doctors have diagnosed me with Juvenile Discogenic disease, but that doesn't seem to be causing this pain as the degeneration is most severe in other parts of my back (where it doesn't hurt!). The closest they've come to finding it was during a discogram where they reproduced pain in the same spot, but that disc was one of my healthiest!

I am better now than I was when I left the hospital, but nowhere near recovered. I manage to make it through most work days, but come home and just crash. There is no comfortable position. The pain even wakes me up multiple times during the night. Many nights I spend curled up in a fetal position (the least painful) crying because it hurts so much. I used to think I was pretty tough, but the longer this drags on the more "whipped" I feel by it. I am grateful that I can still work - I know lots of people can't even do that, but I am a little fearful that I am going to run out of steam one of these days. I really think if they could find some way to relieve the pain for just a little while - a few weeks even - that my body would be able to work things out and I might be OK again. I almost don't remember what it feels like to not be in pain...

Thank you, Chutz. I have actually just started seeing a doc at the university. I've only seen her twice, so I don't know if she'll help yet. She tried Cymbalta with me the first time, but that didn't work. Now she has me trying Lyrica, but no luck so far. I asked about trying a Duragesic patch because I had some relief from Fentanyl once, but she wouldn't consider it and said it was "only for end stage cancer patients." I am encouraged a bit with her, though, as she does seem to really be searching for a way to help me. She was thinking aloud during the appointment and it sounds like she has some more things to try.
There is a down side though - she had me visit a PT she works with. At the first visit I was totally amazed with how he could hold my body in certain positions and make me able to move and turn in ways I've been unable to due to the pain and muscle spasms. I was totally convinced that he was the one who would finally help me! The second visit, however, did not go so well. about half way through the hour, he said to me "you seem like you have a great overwhelming unresolved stress in your life..." Well, I said yes, THIS is it! It is stressful to me that no one has helped me. He said "No, there is something else..." Well, if there is, I don't know about it. I love my job, my family is close and happy, I have tight and enduring friendships and a strong active faith. (But just to be safe, I have already pursued that possibility with a neuropsychologist who taught me some stress-reduction exercises and Cognitive Behavioral techniques and told me she felt I was handling things well.) Anyhow, he sat back and said (I kid you not) "I can't help you. I have no suggestions or ideas for you. There is nothing I can do for you." Then he left the room and that was the last I saw of him!
Still, I am hoping the doc at the university will pull through and find some way to help. Thanks for your encouragement. It is nice to talk to someone who knows what this is like.

wow you sound like me . I threw my back out just loading a dishwasher or feeding the cat or tieing my shoes . all the time . But then found out I had chiari and syringomyelia . So with all the meds I take they take care of my lower back too. What dr. did say is that my lower back is just real weak . And I had gone for some strenghten exercises  which helped alot . Yes I agree with others keep on it . Best wishes

I dont know if or what kind of dr. you are seeing but I would be seeing both a Ortho man and a Neuro dr.

It could cause it . But I was having terrible headaches for over a period of 7 yrs getting worse by the day . The thing that tipped the dr. off was Nystagmus . The shaking of my eye pupil . Get it checked out .

Hi Rachel. Thanks for the ideas. I've actually tried Morphine with no results at all and also amatriptyline and gabapentin without any results. Right now I'm on Lyrica, but again - nothing. I'm unfortunately getting used to having absolutely no relief from anything they try me on. I am fair-skinned and have red hair, and I've read and heard a lot about how people with those traits have an unusually high tolerance for drugs. That would be supported by my personal experience, but I don't think the doctors believe me...

hi,

thank you for the suggestion i never  knew that drug existed, iv always just listened to my pain doc il have a word with him about it when i see him.

 thanks for the advice.

  take care rach xxxx

RyanD, My back pain started the same as you. Every 1-2 years I would do something that I couldnt even walk. I would spend the day in the ER, then get sent home with meds. X-Rays never showed anything. Only the MRI did, and since then I had a laminectomy and a diskogram that came back with positive results. I feel your pain.
Let us know when you talk to your dr.!