Hello,
My name is Gail and I live in Austin, TX and am 62 years old. I have scoliosis which I did not know about until about 10 years ago. I was having pain down my left leg and my left ankle was constantly hurting and swollen. My back did not hurt at that time so I went to a podiatrist to see about my ankle. He finally said he thought it was coming from my lower back at which time I had an MRI of my lumbar area and that is when the scoliosis was discovered. While it is only noticeable if you know about it, on the MRI it looks very scary. Also degenerative disc disease, facet disease, a few bulging discs,etc. After several courses of unsuccessful PT I was beginning to feel weakness in my legs. After some testing I was told that I probably had two problems--severe arthritis in my left ankle that 3 different orthopedic foot and ankle guys said I needed to have a subtailor (sp?) fusion and I was also sent to a spine surgeon who specializes in scoliosis in adults as no normal back surgeon would see me. The fix for the back was just too aggressive for me at my age (basically a fusion with a rod from the lumbar area up to at least the bra line). So I declined. I did however have my left ankle fused in 2011. It has helped with the pain some but has not stopped swelling. In 2012 I had the pins taken out of my ankle because it had completely fused and also had my sural nerve cut to stop some of the nerve pain in my left foot. I have lived with nerve pain in my foot and ankle since about 2008 and recently the nerve pain is down both of my legs. They burn all of the time. I have been told I have scoliosis, stenosis and spondylosis and that the only thing that can be done is the surgery described above. As far as meds go, I take 4 Norco 10/325 tablets each day, recently went up from 3 per day. I also take 3000 mg of Gabapentin. At one time lower doses of these two meds helped a lot. Now I don't know how much they helpl. I have tried injections in my back and have not had any very long-term effects so have decided not to do them anymore. I have tried the spinal cord stimulator trial where they keep the device on the outside of your body and just place a temporary lead at the point in your spine that is the problem area. I found this very annoying and unstable. I hear they have improved them but I just don't think it is for me. Meanwhile the pain is unbearable and I am a college professor on my feet several hours each day, so I took some of my over 3000 hours of sick leave to just re-evaluate things. I wonder if there is some new miracle procedure out there for people like me. I was in ballet from about age 5 until about age 30 and after that worked out several times a week until I no longer could. I hate not being active. I do what I have to do in the mornings and then I come home and lay down with my feet elevated. I have a wonderful chocolate lab that I cannot walk so I hired someone to walk him. I have a garden that I can minimally work in so of course I have hired some folks to help with it but I wish I could do it myself. I live alone and actually like it but am worried I won't be able to for as long as I had hoped. I guess I will stop there. I have left out all the witch doctors and alternative med folks I have been to and I am sure a million others. I have spent an awful lot of money and I have good insurance but some things that you want to try when you are in such pain are not covered. I am sure everyone in this group knows all about the money part of chronic pain. I wonder if there is anything out there that I have not come across since for several years I have just accepted that the only option was the awful sounding surgery which I have my doubts would help even if I were willing to go through it. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, ideas or anything you are willing to share.