Hi, I'm C.J.
I was traumatically injured 35 yrs. Ago and one of my injuries was to the left peripheral femoral nerve. A neurologist I knew, diagnosed the injury as Meralgia Peristhetica of the left peripheral femur nerve. My thigh was as if it was on FIRE, up to my waist. My back was also severely injured, but the drs. At the pain clinic at UCI MEDICAL CENTER in Orange, Ca kept saying that the pain in my thigh was from my back. So for two yrs. the pain specialists gave me every type of treatment they knew how to perform only on my back. My left thigh was still on fire! I was referred to the Neurosurgery Dept. The Chief of Neurosurgery read my chart, asked me a brief couple of questions and then said "Gee, I don't know why you could be in so much pain". As if it were all in my imagination. I felt so crushed that I wanted to go home and commit suicide, rather than have my thigh feel intense FIRE anymore. Then as an afterthought, he said " well, I'll refer you to my partner and maybe he might help you".. When I saw his partner, the other senior Neurosurgeon, I described my symptoms and he said "I know exactly what is causing the thigh and pelvic pain. He said it is Meralgia Peristhetica of the Left Peripheral Femur Nerve. I immediately said"That's exactly what my Neurologist said 2 YEARS AGO,! But the pain clinic wouldn't listen to me, they said it was referred pain from my back. So, the Neurosurgeon said he would make a small 3" incision on the front left part of my pelvis area between my leg and waist, remove scar tissue and it would be better. After he did the surgery and I awakened and discovered that I had a 12" incision, I said to the surgeon, " I thought you said you were only going to make a 3" incision? Then he replied "The nerve was stretched and twisted and there was a lot of scar tissue. It was the most scar tissue and twisting and kinking I have ever seen on that nerve before". He validated to me that I really was in as much pain as I had been telling all the other drs. before, and they just wouldn't listen to me. I thanked God that this Dr. knew what he was doing when he diagnosed and did the surgery. Unfortunately, two years had passed from the time of the original damage and therefore the nerve was permanently damaged. "It is possible, said the surgeon, that had this been resolved closer to the time of the traumatic injury to the nerve it may not have caused so much permanent pain and damage". The lesson I learned from this is: when you are in pain it is your body trying to tell you something is wrong...pain IS A SIGNAL TO TELL YOU THAT SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF". Too many people describe CHRONIC PAIN as being just repaired parts of your body that are giving you a WRONG SIGNAL. I don't believe that is always the situation. Everyone makes mistakes, even doctors often misdiagnose a person's cause of pain or other physical symptoms in a person's body. When multiple doctors misdiagnose a person's medical condition, the patient can suffer for long periods of time in agony, with medical expenses and treatment's before the true diagnosis is discovered. If a person sees many doctors looking for a diagnosis, that person is often labeled as neurotic or just "doctor shopping". Unfortunately, So many doctors have become Specialists in a particular field of medicine that sometimes they don't see the whole person and all of their symptoms. I believe knowledge is very powerful when it comes to chronic conditions that cause your body to be in pain. More and more research into chronic pain, which for thousands of years has not been able to be cured, even when people have real medical, not psychological causes of their pain. More and more research studies are being done regarding chronic pain than ever before in history. More knowledge is being discovered at the cellular level how your cells respond to pain and even research at the gene level how pain affects different humans and species. This is important to know to help all of us as pain patients to have hope for the future to relieve our pain. My prayer is that doctors will listen to and believe when a person is describing their symptoms of chronic pain; and that within my lifetime medical science will discover cures to chronic pain at the cellular level so that there will be less suffering in this world. Bless you, C. J.