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New here and wondering if there is anything else I can do...

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 10/20/2012 9:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

My husband has a complicated medical history. he is left, after several surgeries with chronic knee pain. he also has a collapsed disc in his back. MRIs show his knee joint is healthy and that the tendon is not thickening and calcifying as it was. It is thought that there was damage done to his knees during surgery and that the pain signal is now messed up. He gets clicking and his knees will give way, this may be due to misshapen cartilidge, but they are loathe to operate again due to the nerve pain, they are not sure that he would be any better off. Similarly with the fusion of his spine, they are not confident that he would improve.

He has been on Diclofenac for years and years. I am worried for his stomach and his kidneys and heart. he ices several tiems a day, walks with a stick and has braces. He takes trammadol at the weekends as that is when he works most, physically. But he doesn't like to be onl it all the time as his memory becomes impaired, he gets constipated and our sex life is affected! He has been offered gabapentin again - he was on it a while back and while it helped, it came with similar side effects. He does accupunture and sees a chiro for his back. He does physio every morning and his diet is pretty good, he takes devils claw. Really my question is, is there anything else I can do for him? I don't know what I'm expecting after 12 years of this, that someone knows a magic treatment that I haven't heard of. But I just wanted to check with people that have tried everything...is there anything I'm missing? I've been reading about neuropathy and wondering if this would be a correct discription of his problem, too.

Thank you for your help in advance.
Posted 10/21/2012 1:53 AM (GMT 0)
Hi red512, just want to welcome you to the board. It gets pretty slow around here on the weekend. I think there's a few things you can do, we have some other members that can chime in here on the knee stuff (though it could be a day or two, its been getting slower around here and I think a lot of people might be getting a jump start on holiday prep) but I can certainly offer you MY take on the back stuff.

First, as my back surgeon told me, people with real disc issues should not see a chiropractor, manual manipulation is about the worst thing for degenerative disc disease, and can cause a lot more harm and pain.

Secondly, there are other treatments besides surgery for back pain, as I've been told, there's no real cure for it, just a bunch of bandaides, and some are bigger than others. It may come to pass that one day, if only to stabilize the level to prevent further injury, your husband might have to go the surgery route, but that's something that should not be approached lightly, and all other options have been exhausted.

I think your husband might benefit from the help of a good pain management specialist, they have many modalities to help with back pain, some are less effective on some people or conditions, but I think things like nerve blocks, and other treatments like that are at least worth a shot. I personally think from what you wrote, that his pain is way under treated. There are other medications, much stronger than tramadol (and less side effects in my case) that are far more effective, its one of the weakest pain medications in my experience (I personally have no side effects on other medications, while tramadol is one of my blacklisted ones, I get pretty loopy on it, with no pain relief).

I'm hoping that you and your husband will be able to find him some real, long-term relief soon, it's awful trying to live every day in such horrible pain, sadly, this has become my, and every other person in this forum's reality, we know that lifestyle, and the effect that it has on our loved ones, all too well. Take care, not just of your husband, but of yourself as well, you need to be looked after from time to time as well. God bless, and I hope you both find better days soon.
Posted 10/21/2012 1:23 PM (GMT 0)
 

 Good morning Red!...and welcome!

    I'm sorry your husband is going through so much in the way of health issues and pain. This is a great forum for support, and I'm glad you found your way here.

      A couple of suggestions on over the counter supplements...might be "Cucurmin" and maybe..."Cobroxin"...and yes they are OTC supplements. I see that you are using the catsclaw (devils claw)...and I too have tried those. Not with much luck though.

   I do however, agree with Matt here, in that your husband may be better off being treated by a PM for his pain issues.

  Also...has he tried a "Tens" unit? It may help a little...and look for "Biofreeze" as well. While it is not for deep tissue, it may take his mind off some of the pain, by the way it reacts to the skin.

    Good luck, and please keep checking here for more suggestions. as the weekends can be a little slow here on the forum.

    SE

Posted 10/21/2012 4:53 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Red512 and welcome to the chronic pain forum. I am glad that you found us but sorry that you have to be here.

I think Matt gave you some excellent ideas for your husband. Something else I would like to point out too, is your husband is in a real catch 22, because of his knee problem he is probably not walking with a normal gait and that will also aggravate his back condition. Its kind of like both conditions are aggravating each other if that makes sense. A good example, I fractured my foot and was put in a moon boot brace. Three days of walking with that thing on and I thought my back was broken the pain shot up so high. Out of the moon boot I came too, lol. A few days later my back settled back down. I have a very good feeling this same type of thing is happening with your husband too.

Anyway, I wanted to pop on and tell you hello and welcome aboard....Susie
Posted 10/21/2012 6:45 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you all for your responses. i was very touched by Mats post.


He has got a tens unit, although I suppose we are a little lazy with it, as it is awkward to wear under his braces and especially during the summer becomes unconfortable with heat. But now the colder weather is setting in, it is a good idea to try again.


Susie, you are certainly right that one condition makes the other worse and in fact, we are not sure whether or not the compression of the nerves in the spine are partly or even fully to blame for the acute knee pain.

He is still working but has a physical job at the weekends which always puts him back in a lot of pain even if he is making some improvement during the week.

Thanks for your comments, even sometimes it is the case that you forget things that have worked in the past that you need reminding of.

:)
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