resurfacing pain???

Got some major problems with my back, that pain is near debilitating. For the last 15 years, I've been dealing with constant pain in my left shoulder, and some nerve pain in the arm. My shoulder is pretty messed up, is always building scar tissue, tendons and muscles are frayed, and it sits a full inch lower than the other, but it has never slowed me down that much. Just in the last month or so, the pain from that has been getting really bad, waayy worse than my regular accupressure and extra strength tylenol which has been my regiment for years.

Im still doing my daily exercises for it as best that i can, obviously dumbbells are out of the question right now. The mobility is still where it was at before I injured my back, its just started hurting like crazy. The nerve thing hasn't increased in frequency at all, still averaging 2 to 3 times per day where the nerve starts doing wierd things for 20 minutes to an hour, either pain, or weakness and tingling, and rarely, my hand will kind of lock up in the muscles.

I dont get it, the physical symptoms aren't any worse just the pain. I asked the PM today about it and she said she wasnt going to make any statements about it without the proper info sitting in front of her.

I dont understand why for years I've been able to make it by on a couple tylenol every other week, and now it seems as though the pain has tripled, when my pain meds wear off for my back, I can feel my shoulder too, not near as bad, but it feels way worse than 6 months ago. I know i need a joint replacement, I've been told that by two surgeons in southern California, and one in Salt Lake City, but being 28 right now, I'm still way too young for one.

Any ideas why the pain there has decided to resurface? Am I just turning into a big baby on this one, I just don't understand.

Thanks for listening, I really feel like I'm turning into a big wimp, I've worked heavy heavy jobs all this time and not had much to complain about this dumb thing until now.

Sorry, guess I should have posted my alluding question on here, so adding it now, is there anything about my meds that would make my shoulder more sensitive? Could the pain meds be lowering my pain threshold? Like I stated before, its always hurting, some days worse than others, but it has always been at levels where I could either grit my teeth and work through it, or take some tylenol which did take the edge off, and work through it. Now the pain in it has been escalating drastically. Just wondering if that could be because of my meds or what, I lost my job because of my work comp claim, and now have no health insurance except for the work comp injury. So I dont really have the ability to get it looked at by my family dr right now. Just wondering if anyone might have some insight on this.

Post Edited (2y4t) : 8/11/2012 1:07:23 AM (GMT-6)

Hi 2y4t
This may sound a little obvious but maybe your over doing it. You might have inflamed something and now are just making it worse by carrying on as if nothing were wrong. I'm a little confused as to which pain your talking about. Is it your shoulder or your back? When you say pain meds , are you talking about just Tylenol or are you talking something else too? Anyway the best suggestion I can offer is to take it easy and lay off the exercising for a while and see if it improves and maybe try something that is an anti inflammatory and ice it down and see if there is any improvement. Best of luck, hope things improve for you.

Stingray

Guess I should also mention, I tried talking to my doctor about this, but he's a back surgeon, and I'm on workers comp, he said he's only allowed to deal with my workers comp injury. Same with the PM. And my employer pulled my blue cross, so family dr wont see me either, or at least not without paying money up front that I dont have. Ugh.

I'm thinking its possibly because maybe the Nucynta and other pain meds are changing the way my body used to ignore lower levels of pain. Is that possible?

Post Edited (2y4t) : 8/11/2012 9:02:36 PM (GMT-6)

Hi, thanks, I think you might have hit the nail on the head. I had mentioned it to my brother last night, and he had the courtesy this morning to point out that as I was sitting drinking my coffee, I was holding the weight of my upper body off my back with my arms. Didn't even realize I was doing that. I'll stop crying about it now lol. The doctors last time said they couldn't do anything about it anyways.

Thanks kaely, I'll make some phone calls tomorrow and see what I can get done about it. My Nucynta is more than adequate relief from the pain, I just wish it didn't have to start doing this right now. When the Nucynta for my back wears off, my back just about has me in tears, and add my shoulder acting up to that equation, and its miserable. My back doctor did say we could try to add it onto my work comp as an "aggravated injury", but he said that could be opening up a huge mess of hearings and court stuff, just to have a dr look at it and say "yup, it's messed up".

I'm thinking I'll try talking to my family dr, to see if he'll do a quick exam on it, to make sure I'm not compounding the damage in it, hoping he'll let me work out a weekly payment or something, but if not, I'll have to just wait until my back is better for me to get some services outside of my area, since the closest free clinic is a pretty long drive away.

Thanks for the suggestions, and I'll quite crying about it for now lol. It's not gonna be at a point of real treatment for several more years, or at least thats what they told me last time.