saw a new doc today... its more depressing w/ each new opinion.

Hello Sosickandtired, I am nini53/kathy, which ever name you prefer is great with me.  So sorry to hear about your back, it sounds awful.

I am know of some of the meds you are taking, the others mobic, nortal and one more that starts with an L, I dont feel like going down again and getting back up here, but for the ones I do not recognize I will look them up. 

Are your pain meds not doing a good job of relieving your pain?   I guess thats a dumb question, of course they are not.  None of us get the reduction in pain that we are looking for.  I would think you would be on stronger pain meds from what you describe your problems as being.

I cant imagine what you must be going thru.  Hopefully in not a long time you will get the meds you need to help with what must be awful pain.

I will be praying for you and hope things get better for you soon.  Take care.

you sound like a pain pump canidate because your very undertreated for severe chronic pain but good for Bi-polar. there is a surgeon out there that can help. i think you have no choice. best wishes, i know 2 or 3 surgeons in norfolk, VA but it might be inconvinient.

Hi So Sick, so sorry to hear how the appt went, but it sounds like you may have been expecting some of this news all along. Scoliosis can be a bear to deal with no doubt, however, there are a lot of good surgical outcomes for people with scoliosis. I have known several people that have had surgery, one was as young as 16 yrs old and she was thrilled after surgery because her pain level was acceptable after surgery. She said considering the pain level she had before surgery for so long and the level afterwards there was no comparison. But, everyone is different as well. Not all surgeries are a failure, there are many factors to take into consideration such as the dr doing the surgery, experience he/she has in this type of surgery and another very important part is whether or not the patient follows through on the post op care they are responsible for.

What type of surgery has been recommended to you SoSick? What kind of odds have the drs given you on a success rate? Do you know the drs track record on surgeries? Have you spoken to any of their patients that have had the same surgery that has been recommended to you?

Don't get me wrong, I am not an advocate of any kind for surgery of any kind, however, considering where you are now, and where you may be five years from now without surgery, you may be selling yourself short on having a better quality of life especially since you have young children at home.

Are you under the care of a pain mgt dr? I can understand not wanting to be on narcotics, none of us want that but sometimes we have no choice if we are going to be able to maintain any kind of existence. Has any of your drs ever considered putting you on an extended release long acting pain medication with something for BT pain? You may be able to achieve better pain control by going this route than what you have now with short acting meds.

A pain pump is a device that is implanted in the stomach that delivers pain medication directly into the spine where the pain receptors are located for back pain. Pain pumps are a last resort type of thing for people that have tried all of the oral pain meds out there and they cannot get any reasonable relief and there is nothing left to try. I have a pain pump made by Medtronics. You can type in pain pumps using the search featire here at the forum and find lost and lots of info on them. If you want go to www.Medtronics.com and check out their website, its one of the best for info on pumps.

I am sorry you are feeling so bad and try not to let this get you down. Take care.

I would make an appt and go in and see the PM dr and discuss getting a long acting and something for BT pain. Talk to him about what he thinks would be best. It really is hard for anyone here to recommend something because we all metabolize meds differently and you need something that will work with your other meds as well. Its best to let the dr make the decision of what to try you on rather than the patient tell the dr what they would like to try.

You have sure been through a lot starting at a very young age and that is so sad. I feel for you, but hope that you will not let yourself get so far a long that nothing will help in trying to correct your problem. Does your Sis have have scoliosis too?

Take care.

HI kAYLA

I echo everyones senriments. Try not to give up. Ask your doctor if your meds can be adjusted because the current meds arent relieving your pain.

Keep us updated on your condition.

Soft Hugs
Betsey

There are lots of options available now in spinal surgery that weren't there even a few years ago. The loss of flexibillity is not quite as given an outcome as previously. Have you discussed the idea of a surgery with this new doctor? Or better yet, one at a major teaching hospital in a large metropolitian area near you? Will the curvature worsen as you get older? If so, you may want to find out what the prognosis is for the worsening of the curvature , and the expected time frame of that before ruling surgery out. It may be that even considering the length of surgery and may be loss of some flexibility, it may be better than what it would be long term for you to wait......sometimes, the longer you wait, the worse things become and you could find that if you wait too long, that the option of surgery to correct the problems may be taken off the table.....You are so young, and have so much life ahead of you, that it may be worth talking to really experienced scoliosis surgeons at large teaching hospitals before making the decision not to go ahead with surgery, and getting their opinions on how your condition may go and then decide what you want to do or not do....
I wish you luck, whatever you decide to do.
Sandi

Kayla, I think you should talk to a surgeon, but it makes sense that you want to try all conservative approaches first, and probably get a surgical second opinion if you decide to do the surgery. I'm also in Southeast Michigan, and it's great you're going to Rehab Institute of Michigan. There are also great doctors at University of Michigan, but it's probably a hike for you.