6 Cervical Thoracic spine surg, severe scoliosis and sciatica nerve pa

I will first give a little background on my pain history. An 85 y/o hit me going 55 mph while I was at a stop light in 2002. The impact was so severe it broke the back of my seat. Have a history of metastatic thyroid cancer. I was 16 years old had 2 surgeries followed by 3 additional annual inpatient high dose radiation treatments. Twenty years later had a recurrence with another high dose inpatient radiation treatment. The reason I mention the cancer is I’ve been on synthriod for 46 years which affects bone health. The other component that negatively affects my bones is almost receiving my lifetime limit of radioactive iodine treatment. At this point, I’m a hair away from being high risk for other cancers.

After the MVA I’ve had a total of 6 cervical thoracic spine surgeries. I’m completely fused with instrumentation from C2 - T3, rods, plates, wire mess, a cage and lots of screws! LOL MY physical therapist says I have a hardware store in my neck. I also have severe scoliosis which curves to the left vs a vertical curve. Hope that makes sense. LOL LOL LOL
In 2017 a 16 year old rear ended me as I yielded to traffic making a turn. My totaled my pristine Subaru Forester with 55,000 miles on it was totaled. That accident exacerbated what I already had going on. My walking started getting worse due to walking bent forward. On 6.30.2025 a 21 year old rear ended me as I was exiting the highway, stating he didn’t see my black Subaru. It was a sun shiny blue sky day! No insurance as he was driving his grandparents vehicle. Almost 2 months later and the body shop is still working on repairs. This kid wanted to give me $1,500 not to involve insurance. That was never going to happen. My urgent care bill cost more than that plus the repair cost has skyrocketed since they took everything apart. I already needed a knee replacement due to Rheumatoid Arthritis. I hit my right knee in the accident and it is completely messed up and constantly painful like I’m pulling and ripping ligaments ever time I take a step plus my walking is horrible due to my low back, neck and sciatica nerve pain going down my left leg. At this point I try to do anything to avoid walking. I used to love to shop. Now I try to avoid it at all cost. The only thing I do these days is go to doctor appointments and physical therapy. The pain is so bad I can’t stand it. The other complication is in 2017 I was diagnosed with osteomyelitis with MRSA Staphylococcus. I’ve had a total of 3 bone infections in my left foot and had an open 1” diameter open wound on my left leg above my ankle. To paint a very clear picture since 2017 I’ve had 15 PICC lines for inpatient and at home IV antibiotics. Normally with infectious diseases your assigned whoever is up next. After my second bone infection & multiple other cellulitis infections I was assigned a permanent ID specialist! LOL LOL LOL. It’s a darn good thing I really like him! LOL because of all my infections I no longer can get epidural steroid injections in my spine. My pain management specialist is concerned about me getting a spine infection. So until the open wound goes away I can’t get back injections, knee injections, I will never be able to get a knee replacement (I’m high risk for amputation), an orthopedic surgeon told me he would do an amputation before a knee replacement because it’s a matter of when not if I would require an amputation.

I can’t walk my dog now. I would do almost anything to be able to walk Henry outside. He is a 70 pound Airedale Terrier who would take me for a walk like a kite on a windy day! LOL

Pain management, I currently am allowed to take 5 10-325 mg Percocet and 2 30mg OxyContin twice a day every 12 hours. Even though my doctor knows I need more medicine he refuses to give it to me. This is the same pain management specialist who had me on fentanyl patches one every three days with 6 Percocet for breakthrough pain. He titrated me off of fentanyl in 2017 when the opioid crisis became a big deal. I seriously don’t understand the big deal about it. I couldn’t even tell I was being taken off of it. I didn’t experience any withdrawal symptoms which I’m most grateful for. The only thing that did change was the amount of pain I experienced. The following two years I basically did nothing and lived in my bed. Can’t remember what happened that he added the OxyContin but up to that point I was only allowed 6 Percocet per day. Every time I bring up how bad my back, scoliosis and knee pain is now I’m told if I don’t like how he is managing my care I can look for a different doctor. I’ve been a patient of his since 2007 after my 3rd spine surgery. Besides it looking really bad I don’t want to change drs. I act like that he is conservative. I can only imagine what my life would look like if I got a spine infection from an ESI because another Dr didn’t know or care about my history. How do you cope with crazy making pain? I do understand where my dr is coming from to a degree. But I do feel like I’m caught in the middle because he won’t give me more oral medicine when ESI’s are appropriate to fix the issue. He point blank told me he won’t prescribe medication for an issue an ESI or other procedures were appropriate. I reminded him I can’t get the procedures, would love to get injections but can’t. That fact doesn’t matter to him. My life keeps shrinking and shrinking down to nothing. I used to be an artist and would work in my studio everyday. It’s been years since I’ve done that’s I haven’t even been in my sewing room either. I have an embroidery/quilting machine I spent over $7,000 for. It has about 25,000 stitches on it. You might as well say it’s brand new. I used it for two projects then went on medical disability.

I really need to find out how other people are coping with similar symptoms!

Thank you so much!
L