Hi everyone

Hi, I'm new to this message boards. A little scenario of me and what I have been going through. Had a one disc laminectomy in 2000 after I was a CNA in a nursing home and got a bulging disc at S1-L5. At that point the disc at L5-4 was also bulging but the doctor decided not to mess with it until I was having symptoms. When this did not work I went to a neurosurgeon in a bigger city and he thought we should go ahead and do a two level fusion at S1-L5 and L5-L4. After this was done I did pretty good for two years (this would have been 2000-2002). 2002 L-3-L4 bulged and we again did a laminectomy which ended up as a fusion that fall. Pain plagued me for a year by then and the fusion did not work. 2003 had to go back in a do a revision on the fusion at L3-L4 (screws were loose and they put more hardware in the front of my spine to stabilize the spine). Still I was plagued with pain and the neurosurgeon could not determine where it was coming from. 2004 started seeing a pain specialist in where he ordered a CT and the works to figure out what was going on. Upon further tests nothing could be determined to cause my pain and I was now facing many years of pain medications.

Since then I have been seeing the pain specialist and have been on regimens of pain medications to alleviate the pain. Doctors have determined that I have Failed Back Syndrome and Chronic back pain. The treatments since then have included; blocks (too many to count), manipulation, physical therapy, pool therapy, Facet injections, massage therapy, acupuncture, acupressure, freezing of the facets at s1-L3 and many other things. I myself have done meditation, relaxation therapy and tons of other things that still don't seem to help.

Anyway, that is all about me. Thanks for listening

Thanks Lindaloo. Glad to meet you as well. On about 6 different medications for many things anywhere from the pain clear to anxiety (which I am told that many who have FBS or Chronic pain deal with as well). Kadian for the pain (four a day)....Percocet for the BT pain (four a day)....Zanaflex for muscle spasms (one every 6 hrs)......Lexapro for the depression (one a day)....Tamazapam for the anxiety and for sleep (one every night) and lunesta for sleep (one a night) and of course my vits and supplements that I have always taken. I see doc in a week (every 3 months) and I think this time I am going to have him change the muscle relaxer, I have been on it quite some time and I am not getting any benefit from it so I think its time to change.

Unfortunately I deal with what everyone dealing with pain does; not being able to get more then 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night, the crankiness of feeling alone and utterly useless in life and other things as well. But, one thing in my life is a constant and that is my husband, he is always there to help and pick up the slack where I am lacking. Takes me 1/2 day to do a sink full of dishes.....all day to vacuum and so on. He's a god send when it comes to all of this and I have learned over the last 8 years to depend on him whenever I feel down or just out of sorts to pick me up and make me feel better. He takes me to my doc appts and sits by my side when I am having a bad day and tries to cheer me up when I am blue.

Hello Scared,
I just wanted to welcome you to the forum! There is lots of support here, and I hope that you will find that you are not left feeling so alone. I also had a revision and replacement of two of the screws from my first fusion that were backing out of the vertebrae and bent and broken apparently. My revision was done 17 months after my first one.
I developed Cauda Equina Syndrome after my first fusion, but was told for most of the 17 months, that it was "failed back surgery syndrome". I feel for you, I know what it's like to live in constant pain, as all of us do here.
Anyway, welcome to the forum!
Sandi

Hi Scared and I too wanted to welcome you to HW. I hate to see you have to become a member of our exclusive little club, but at least we all have one thing in common PAIN. Thats the beauty of this site because the people here know what pain is about, what it can do to a person mentally and physically. I have 2 herniated dics in my neck-no surgery because I said no, I also have a disc at L5-S1 with no impingement, but I have a bad problem with the facet joint at L5-S1 and thats the booger that is wreaking havoc. I have the usual arthritis problems and just learned of moderate osteoporosis of the spine. I have many, many other bad health problems and I am an oxygen patient. But, hey, I just turned 55 and I ain't done yet. Many times I thought I was but somehow I manage to pull my boots up by the strap. I was recently given a brochure on a new surgery that is suppose to help with facet joints, that is still in the console of my car, unopened.

I had a pain pump implanted June of 05 and I will tell you it has made a big difference in my life as far as pain goes. It took me awhile to get there but it was due to other existing health problems, mainly swelling and difficulty breathing, which comes along with alot of medications as a side effect. I took a terrible fall at hime about 10 weeks ago. The muiscle spasms were awful, my pain dr has me on Zannaflex 10mg every 4-6 hours, well he changed it to every 2 hrs and added Baclofen to take a night. I was not a Zombie either taking the Zannaflex that way. Finally had some trigger point injections a few weeks ago and now things are calming back down.

You are very fortunate that your hubby is so supportive of you. Not many have that, mainly because you can't see pain and some have that mindset if you don't see it, it can't be that bad. My husband is still trying to accept things as they are and some days I stay totally away from him because I have my own to deal with.

I do hope you can get some relief when you see your dr. Hang in there and please post whenever you like. Susie