Severe chronic back pain

What specific blood work is there for muscle function? I've had the EMG done on my legs and there is nerve damage to the lower right leg from being pre-diabetic. I have foot drop on that side.

@bajjerfan
Do you have your pre-diabetes under control and have you been able to reduce blood sugars to stop the progression of nerve damage?

Creatine kinase (CK): This enzyme is primarily located in the brain, heart, and skeletal muscle. When muscle damage happens, CK seeps into the blood in growing amounts.

1. https://healthcareconsultantsusa.com/what-do-blood-work-muscle-enzymes-do.html
2. https://thekingsleyclinic.com/resources/understanding-muscle-enzyme-tests-procedure-levels-results/
3. https://drjockers.com/functional-blood-analysis/
4. https://mdaquest.org/key-diagnostic-tests-for-neuromuscular-diseases/
5. https://thereadystate.com/blogs/how-to-use-bloodwork-to-understand-inflammation-and-movement-quality/
6. https://www.rupahealth.com/post/lab-tests-for-patients-with-persistent-muscle-cramps
7. https://www.medicine.com/health/tests-musculoskeletal-disorders

I have had two expensive lower back injections for scoliosis and a herniated disc.
They proved useless as far as pain was concerned and left me with permanent numbness in both lower legs.
For the past 10 years I have taken daily doses of Hydrocodone, as needed. That relieves the chronic pain and pressure on my back and helps me sleep at night.
I still can only stand for a limited time and need to rest between chores, but at least the chronic pain subsides enough for me to tend to most of my personal needs.
I am also fortunate to have a family member nearby when I have taken a tumble and cannot get to my feet without physical help.
A back specialist said an operation would leave me in a wheelchair. Enough said.
In some cases, opioids can provide the only relief from chronic back pain.

Any nerve damage seems to have stabilized. At last check my A1c was 6.9 and I was told it would need to hit 7.0 before I would need something like Metformin. I don't know if it would be better to consult one of the local endocrinologists to manage my diabetic issues or my PCP.

@bajjerfan
You can work with your PCP or an endocrinologist but it may be good to see a nutritionist/dietitian to help you modify diet to reduce A1C rather than wait for you level to go from 6.9 to 7.0.

I am prediabetic and my mom had type 2 diabetes. My A1C is below the level that they prescribe the new medications. I find it frustrating that our healthcare system waits until people get sicker to reach a certain level before doing anything. They are still focused on illness and prescription medication and not wellness/prevention. We all suffer as a result and waste a lot of money for poor health outcomes and poor patient quality of life.

One of the things they recommend is exercise, but it's not possible for me to do enough to do any good. Shouldn't be hard to look up A1c and diet.

Had a research visit at Mayo today. My A1c has dropped from 6.9 in March of 2025 to 5.7 today. Not sure at this point if it's from the med I'm taking or me being more diet conscious as far as carbs go. Must be the diet as I've been taking the med since late Nov of 2024.

I have the same kind of pain you describe in my right buttock. I can't do much . I am in severe pain. I put ice on my butt and that helps, but I don't want to live just sitting on ice packs. Been to acupuncture, PT, cortisone. Nothing works. Now Dr is putting me on pain meds. Maybe they will help. I am keeping my faith in God. He will help me. Marlie

I had a visit at the Mayo spine center yesterday. He said it's a tough case, but if anything positive comes from it I will post here. My pain doesn't really get into my glutes or lower.

Hi there! Let’s look at “defeated attitudes” and work with that first. My attitude was adjusted when I walked into a pain management doctor 15 years ago (after an additional 15 years of suffering) and I sat next to a man who had a complete marvel exoskeleton outfit on! Every bone in his body was compromised. He was only middle-aged. I was so thankful that I was me and not him. Let’s talk about the 30 years I suffered with a bazillion, different arthritis. My Doctors never looked at gout, which was a simple fix and should’ve been considered in my suffering when they ruled out the RA and told me the OA was responsible for my pain and my autoimmune type reaction. It wasn’t— it was the gout. They didn’t find this I did. it was because I was here with this group. I am an overachiever and I promise you every day I would look for things and I guess God didn’t want me to find the gout for 30 years. Maybe so I could be an inspiration to others here.
Let’s also talk about the opioids. 30 years ago, the military ibuprofens me into the hospital with an allergic reaction because they kept upping the dosages on my little body to the point where I had an allergic reaction. I had the worst withdrawals from over-the-counter ibuprofen. I always tell people never take it unless you’re in like a crisis where you’ve thrown your back out and your muscles going to spasm and you need it for three days. But that’s it! start tapering off after the three days. so after I was released from the hospital and the attending doctors told me never to take ibuprofen type medicines again. The military agreed to put me on the opioids. I have pain in my lumbar tailbone area That is exacerbated by barometric pressure change. They can’t do anything about it or they won’t. I did my research and consultations. removing tailbone is not recommended. So I accepted what life threw at me. I always believe there’s the good with the bad: so the bad news is that I am on low-dose opioids - during a timeframe where it is made political, and I have been humiliated on several occasions. Every year I have to pee in a bottle and take blood test. It is a small humiliation to pay for being able to live my life on my terms!

What I have learned is that the opioid will mask the pain such that I can exercise gently on a stationary bike walking and stretching over the course of the day. This is critical because I’ve had more than several spine and joint replacements and the muscles after surgery around those areas atrophy and they must be made strong again. And how can I be expected to make them strong if I can’t tolerate any movement?? So the good news is that the opioid manages the pain so I can do the necessary exercise.

I am 68 and bouncing around between surgeries and recovery is definitely a balancing act when one has degenerative bone diseases and my muscular problems. I recommend MFR my facial tissue release. there is a section here you can learn about it. Like one of my doctors told me in 2007 when the Darvan was removed off the market and I was in sheer terror “don’t worry there are 1200 pain medicines that we can try.“ I keep a small pharmacy of everything from Vicodin to morphine under my bathroom sink to remind me I am NOT an addict! After less than 10 tries, we landed on the Percocet. Every once in a while, I test myself and I am not addicted. I just need to mask the pain so I can do the other things I want to accomplish in life.

After about 15 years on the Percocet, I finally had a reaction/irritation in my bladder and I think it was because the every day use of the Tylenol. So I switched to the OXY (same dose) and that fixed the irritation! I wasn’t as panicked this time around.. I can’t tolerate most medications, I am very medication sensitive, I’ve tried all the nerve medications. I don’t know what I would do without the low-dose opioid that I do take, which helps me feel good enough to do my exercises. I am with a great Doctor Who is supportive and we navigate the political issues together.

Another recommendation is that you have something else important in your life. That is important enough to make your physical ailments take a backseat. On bad days I do not want to take more medication and so I have things lined up that I can do that make me super happy. I believe we have to do soul-searching to find out what brings us joy. I have seen it in other people that are worse than we, and it helps them navigate the good with the bad or the bad with the good. None of us get out of this alive in the-end, but it’s how we navigate the journey to fulfillment in our life. We are living longer than our ancestors and we want to be independent, but we have to navigate our own individual path in order to do that Good luck.