Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself
Welcome to the new Chronic Pain group.
I’m Kelsey and I’m the moderator of the group. I look forwarding to welcoming you and introducing you to other members. Feel free to browse the topics or start a new one.
Why not take a minute and introduce yourself.
Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.
@sandytoes As I'm reading this I have my Tens unit on.I read up on Baclofen
in I'm going to talk to Dr about this .My newest thing I have is a bulging disc.
Hi Jen and thanks for the welcome!
I had my Spinal Cord Stimulator put in May of 2006. (I'm working my way to the pump.. :-))
My stim worked real good until I started to degenerate further down. I'd say about 3 years of fairly good pain control but once the degeneration progressed further south it didnt work. It worked about 20% of the time I had it on. So the doctors put me on more oral pain meds. (Yuck) and I was in a wheelchair for a good while. Standing was unbearable. The lumbar ridiculopathy was nightmarish. Electric current flowing down both legs in the back. I had a bandaid surgery that for lack of medical terminology, carved away some of the vertebrae to allow room for the nerve so it wouldn't be rubbing against bone. It worked. I got out of the chair. I was so blessed, I felt normal for a few years. Then in 2013 my doctor decided to put the pump in. He said it would only require 1/300th of a oral dose of morphine targeted right where my pain was. No more nausea, no more constipation, no more feeling the medication. It was going to be much better for me. I had a difficult time with the implant surgery. It normally takes 2 or so hours, mine took 5. The doctor said he got it all hooked up and it wouldn't pump the saline. (Used before the morphine is added) So, he had to back up and find the kink in the catheter. He did and like I said it worked as expected.
It was nice not to have to carry pain meds with me or not to have to keep track of when is it time for my next dose. I felt more free. More pain free than ever.
I've had it 5 years. My doctor here thought my dose was severely high first time we met. I dont remember my exact dose it's something like 4.075 mg per day. Theres not a doctor alive that wont tell you that after a while you build up a tolerance to morphine. It required a little more, and a little more to get the same relief. I hope the trial works for you. Just ask lots of questions. I'm not sure if you read all of what I wrote but not many doctors, very few to be quite frank will fill another doctors pump. Remember this if you're planning to move or travel for a extended period.
Wishing you the best,
~M~
Hi I have constant facial/nose pain for 15 yrs which is getting worse. This happened after extensive sinus /nasal surgery. Has anyone been diagnosed with Empty nose Syndrome but have the major symptom of trigerminal pain.Thanks Joanne
@oregongirl I'm sorry you had such a bad ordeal coming off morphine.Thank goodness for the doctor who saved your life.
Jen what do you do about your bulging disc I,be Ben in pain all day did you find some relief from it?Linda
Thanks @nmo2016. I'll take all the prayers you can give. I try not to get discouraged especially when I know others are suffering much worse than I am. Some days are better than others. Keeping you in my prayers too.
@lioness my mom used to use that on my brothers for growing pains! I remember her rubbing their legs when they played to hard and had leg pains at night. Mine isn't restless leg although I used to get that all the time. I had a b-12 deficiency and once started taking it that stopped. I can literally see my muscles jumping in my leg and if I move the wrong way, I get a weird kind of cramp from my thigh to my foot. Sometimes if I push really hard behind my knee, I can make it stop along with the stinging in my foot but it's only temporary and I can't sleep that way. My pain Dr had a cream compounded and shipped to me that helps some. I put it everywhere and then wait 10 minutes and follow with lidocaine cream. I'm not sure what exactly is in the first cream but I do know it has Gabapentin and some sort of muscle relaxer that is absorbed through the skin but they said it has something for pain in it as well. I may have to look up Arnica cream though.
@lioness it sort of is like a tens but no one else can feel it if they touch you and it doesn't really feel the same. The wires (paddles in my case) are implanted between the spine and the vertebrate and the wires are funneled under the skin to a battery under the skin either in the butt, back or like mine, the belly. Its sort of like what they use for people who have pacemakers. Similar battery
You use a hand held device to adjust the amount of buzz, intensity and to switch between programs. I have to charge mine every 3 or 4 days but some come with a non rechargeable battery.
Thank you so much and I just got finished telling my mother about people hurt much more than I do.
@mdmo thanks for the info about the pain pump. My pain Dr keeps pushing me to have one but I've been dragging my feet with it mostly because I didn't want another surgery. I have a neighbor who has one and he likes his but he never goes anywhere. Most of my family live a great many miles from me, one daughter lives in Germany. I usually spend a month at a time there. Knowing that I may have trouble getting my medication helps me to decide.