Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

Please disconnect me from Mayo Clinic Connect. Thank you!

Good morning all! My name is Kimberly Doctor, I am a nurse at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. I am obtaining my Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Leadership. My focus is nurses as I love my profession and nurses need more support. I am particularly interested in Safe Patient Handling and Management programs compared to just installing Safe Patient Handling Equipment alone. Recently I suffered a back injury and I am no longer able to work on the floor. I have been in pain for 5 months. I have had to completely change my life! It certainly changed my focus in school and finding Evidence-based solutions to make nurse's safer. So glad to be part of the group!

Kim

@nursedoctor
Welcome Kim!
I am so sorry for your injury. Yes, when you are hurt and in pain, it makes us take a good look at our lives and how we live it.
After living with chronic pain for more than a decade, I had to retire early on disability. I was an elementary school principal and could no longer do my job the way I wanted to and needed to.
I am certain that as a nurse AND a Mayo employee, you will be able to give us insight we might not have thought about.
So, again, welcome!
Ronnie (GRANDMAr)

@nursedoctor Good morning Kim I am a retired LPN but after having a frActured L2had to retire ,working private duty at the time so w.c. Case couldn't work anymore fast forward to today ,fracture was in 05 in a senior building helping where I can did start a chair exercises .Welcome to our group .

@nursedoctor Hi Kim! Welcome! I'm glad you joined the group. After being a Mayo patient, I wish I could work there, but I guess that's why I'm here, to help if I can. I'm a Mayo spine surgery patient, and an artist who was loosing the ability to be able to paint, and I came to Mayo and got that back. I truly believe that patients have real power in healing injuries and illness in what they belief about themselves. I learned to advocate for myself after several surgeons refused to help me because they got it wrong. Prior to changing careers, I worked in research for a neuroanatomist at the University of Chicago, and I have a biology degree. I've also learned a lot as a patient from my physical therapist. My focus as a patient going through major surgery was to use art and music to heal and comfort myself, and to defeat my anxiety. I was also a caregiver to my elderly disabled parents, and had to try to manage without injuring myself further when I was in need of spine surgery myself. I think you will have a positive influence on nursing and patient care, and have some great input here on Connect. Here is a little bit about me. I participate a lot in the Art for Healing Discussion (Just Want to Talk Group).
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/page/about-connect/newsfeed/meet-jenniferhunter-where-health-and-art-meet/
https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2019/01/09/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/

Nice to meet you, sorry under these circumstances. I was diagnosed with Lupus. Been living with it for years, but the Lupus fog really getting to me.

Nice to meet you, sorry under these circumstances. I was diagnosed with Lupus. Been living with it for years, but the Lupus fog really getting to me. I also have reynaurds.

@kelseydm. Hello, I'm a 70 year old gal with severe bilateral foramenal stenosis L5S1, compression on bilateral exiting nerve root, grade 3 spondy L5S1. Surgery, injections discouraged. Now living on OXYCONTIN, baclofen neither of which take the bare edge off my pain. Severe calf and thigh pain, foot tingling, numbness grossly limit my mobility and I'm feeling like I'm losing this battle. Any and all suggestions would be carefully considered at this point

@katie215, So sorry that you are having such severe pain. But I write to encourage you to do exactly what you are doing by seeking answers in such places as this. You will find many sympathetic people who will share their stories and their experiences and perhaps you will find some answers. I will briefly tell you my story which is very similar to yours. Recently I began a new pain medication called belbuca which I will tell you about. I can sympathize with you as I have had stenosis at L5S1, L3L4 and L4L5 on both sides along with severe disc degeneration bilaterally and with some of the other things you mention. I have suffered for more than 10 years and had been taking 6 Norco a day until fairly recently which barely made a dent in my pain. I started having severe burning/nerve pain down both of my thighs and after a new MRI was told I was having some stenosis on the right side now along with a cyst at S3S4 on the right side. About 15 years ago we discovered a fairly significant scoliosis and therefore surgery would be life altering and I elected against it. I began to think there was nothing left to try until recently.

Recently my pain doctor suggested I try belbuca. I was very skeptical but am glad I gave it a try. It is a small square sticky patch that you place inside your cheek and wait for it to dissolve. It is meant to last 12 hours so you are relieved of taking so many pills. It is an opiate agonist and antagonist and so is one level below Norco on the drug schedule. I was able to go from 6 to 4 Norco per day with even the lowest dose belbuca patch and am now trying to reduce my Norco further with increasing doses of the belbuca patch. The belbuca has completely gotten rid of the burning pain in my thighs which was extremely severe. I still have some sciatica type pain that runs down my left leg and is quite painful. But I am hoping as I increase the belbuca, I will see more benefit still.

I would encourage you to ask your doctor about belbuca. I hope you have a good chronic pain specialist. I am 64 and even 10 years ago decided that getting a rod in my back with a 9 hour surgery was not for me and so I committed years ago to go the nonsurgical route. I have tried injections and a trial with spinal stimulation without results.

While I am a mentor for the Women's Health group, other mentors for this group may read your post and direct you to some other posts and resources they are more familiar with than I am within the Chronic Pain group. But I saw your post and just wanted to encourage you with my recent experience and let you know that I have found Mayo Clinic Connect to be a wonderful resource with a lot of caring people.

Hello, so sorry to hear about you= back issues. I recently saw a neurosurgeon and he recommened 2 lactinosopy cervical and lumbar and 2 disc removals. Im getting a 2nd opinion tomorrow. Any recommendations on what I should ask also the belbuca sounds interesting and will ask my pain doctor about it. Thanks for sharing.