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Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself
Chronic Pain | Last Active: 1 hour ago | Replies (7728)Comment receiving replies
I'm at my wits end with pain. Three years ago I had a bad fall & landed on my right shoulder after which my right arm/hand failed to work. I had a reverse total shoulder replacement--nasty recovery--and my shoulder pain hardly left. After almost a year the shoulder surgeon said my pain must be from my neck. Seems the fall hurt my neck as well as shoulder. I had radiculopathy both arms with neck & back pain and trouble controlling my legs. I had two (posterior)cervical spine surgeries this year. The second was a PCDF, fusing C3 thru C7. I'm 8 months from the surgery and finding the pain unendurable despite oxycodone & ibu. he surgeon was against PT until 6 months out. After 6 weeks of PT the PT said he did no know what to do woth a 5 level fusion patient.
I need to take charge since the surgeon shows no interest in helping and relying on the system has left me a mess.
I'd appreciate hearing how others with similar cervical spine surgery have found relief from pain. Thanks.
Replies to "I'm at my wits end with pain. Three years ago I had a bad fall &..."
@gid Hi . I’me fused (front & back w/rods then fused 2-3? Naturally lost count. Docs thought i had AS. Also got hit by car landed with arm up 3 shoulder surgeries-Anyway the only pain relief i get is from the fentanyl patch.
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@gid
Good grief! What a nightmare! I certainly sympathize with you. Personally, I would be collecting my medical records. (I make copies and request copies of all of mine regularly.) I would also be checking with your medical insurance to get a 2nd and 3rd opinion.
Then, I would be getting a free consultation from every attorney I could speak with to see what each of them would recommend you do in your situation.
To do all this, you need to be very organized. Attorneys and doctors only have a few short minutes to hear your problem and decide whether or not they can help. If you can, get referrals from friends and always check on Yelp or other website that allows people to post comments about their experiences using the services of the attorneys or doctors, you can save yourself a lot of grief. (I've had a lot of bad experiences with incompetent attorneys. The only experience I've had with doctors in the past was that they were reluctant to get involved with other doctor's mistakes.) If you can be evaluated at the Mayo Clinic, it would be a huge win for you.
I broke C-4 and C-5. Over two decades later, I have degenerative changes and bone spurs in C-2 through C-7 and osteoporosis. Over the years I've had numerous problems with "referred pain." The only thing that has helped me is keeping myself in the best physical shape possible. But currently can't exercise without going to bed for days afterwards.
Aside from the neck, I have a variety of health issues. Was using Norco for years to help with pain. Worked fine. Only took 2 - 5mg pills a day to take the edge off except while recovering from shoulder surgeries. (I did not like oxycodene. It didn't work as well for me.) Now they don't want to give Norco to me anymore.
I am checking out the Buprenorphine patches (The "film" and pills that you dissolve in your mouth can do damage to your teeth.) to see if that will take the edge off of my pain so I can function and get in shape again. ICE is amazing for pain too.
I've had a bunch of medications suggested for my health issues and pain problems. I look the medicine up on the internet to find out their side effects. I only read the posts by Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. However, we all need to understand that a lot of medicine is a life-or-death matter, and if so, we need to take that!
Best of luck.