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Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself
Chronic Pain | Last Active: 5 hours ago | Replies (7075)Comment receiving replies
Given the dates on the most recent posts, it appears as if this blog might be discontinued but just in case I'll give it a try anyway. My name is Ed, I'm 56 and live with my partner of 15 years in NYC. I have been dealing with progressive, adhesive arachnoiditis and radiculopathy for most of the past 7-10 years. It's a long story which I'll go into if someone asks me to but suffice it to say that it's not clear whether my pain is the result of failed back surgery and more than 20 spinal punctures for epidurals or from the original injury (Dec 1995) which ended up needing to be fixed with L3-S1 fusion (May 2005) which then had hardware failure complications and was redone two months later (Jul 2005).
Replies to "Given the dates on the most recent posts, it appears as if this blog might be..."
Hi @eddougher, I would like to add my welcome to Mayo Connect along with Hazel's. Connect is a great place to share your story, ask questions and learn what others are doing for treatments of their health concerns. I have heard a few Connect members talk about a spinal cord stimulator that helps with the pain. There is a Sharing Mayo Clinic Stories from patients, family, friends and Mayo Clinic staff that is a story of how it's helped a Mayo patient here:
http://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2016/10/24/stimulating-activities-after-back-surgery/
An easy way to find another Connect member that has talked about a particular health problem is to click the small search icon (magnifying glass) at the top of the Connect window and type in a search term and press the enter key. I did a search using your phrase "adhesive arachnoiditis" and it shows two links - your's above and one other. If you search just on arachnoiditis, you will see a lot more links.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/?search=+adhesive+arachnoiditis&hub_data_process=&hub_mvc_submitted_form=true&action=wp_handle_upload
Hope this helps,
John
Hello @eddougher,
I would like to add my welcome to @hazelblumberg's. This blog is certainly not in danger of being discontinued as Hazel said. You may notice that some discussions are more active than others and so those may have an older date on them, but we do not discontinue any of the discussions. They are generated by members, like yourself, and will fluctuate in their activity level!
You mentioned a few of your diagnoses and I think there are a few more discussions you may want to read through and participate in. If you are replying by email, I suggest clicking on the VIEW & REPLY button at the bottom of this notification.
Here are a few conversations I think may be worth your time, simply click on the link to go them:
- I am desperate to find a dr who treats arachnoiditis, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/i-am-desperate-to-find-a-dr-who-treats-arachnoiditis-i-live/ (members who have arachnoiditis reside in this discussion)
- Back Injuries & Treatment, Introduce Yourself, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/back-injuries-treatment-introduce-yourself/
- Chronic Back Pain for Years, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/chronic-pain-for-years/ (members discuss surgeries, failed surgeries, pain, etc.)
If you have any trouble navigating to the above discussions, do not hesitate to ask myself or the Community for help!
It can be confusing, trying to figure out when conversations take place. I participate in several of them, on various subjects. I had a spinal cord stimulator implant a couple of months ago, for peripheral neuropathy pain in my feet and numbness there and other places. My pain has been reduced from 6-8, down to 1-4, though it does spike sometimes when I do much walking. I think that the stimulator is especially suited to back pain.
There's ongoing discussion about the many treatments out there for chronic pain, and as others have said, you can find discussions specific to your medical issues. Welcome to Connect. I've learned a lot here, and have appreciated the support.
Jim
Connect
Welcome! I don't think there's a danger that this'll be discontinued. We've been blathering up a storm here. I get a lot of messages every day to look at.
I don't even know what arachnoiditis and radiculopathy are. My pain issue is TMJ pain. Currently, I'm getting a break from it; it comes and goes. When it's here, it's in the 8 to 10 area on the pain chart of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most pain you can imagine.
For the past week, I've either had no pain or have had twinges that don't exceed 5. I have NO idea what I might be doing differently, if anything, to cause the change. I've joked that, as soon as I ordered an inexpensive TENS unit the pain stopped! My primary care told me today to try the TENS unit on my arm or leg first, just in case it's not made for faces. Sometimes even the lowest setting on a TENS unit may be way too much for one's face. I haven't even taken the shrink wrap off the package yet.
Hazel