Hi Jeri,my heart goes out to you,keep taking your pain killers.Its so very hard when your family don’t support you when dealing with chronic pain,makes it so much tougher.I am in similar situation,they just don’t want to hear about it and feel you should be able to put up with it,five years now for me.The pain meds just keep you sane in dealing with the pain,otherwise one couldn’t cope.

I’m amazingly frustrated right now, I have had all kinds of back issues and broken shoulders and surgery after surgery on it, but I recently decided I was just going to get off pain medication because I wanted to see where I was that and if I could do it without it. It seemed like it was getting better but my neck was hurting and I’ve had a headache since I stopped all the medication. It’s been over a month now and the headache is gotten worse. I’m basically bedbound by it.

Thank goodness one of my doctors did an MRI of my cervical spine which I got the results back from today. I can’t even rename all the problems but basically my neck is a mess, no wonder I have headaches and neck pain. After I got the MRI results, I called my m pain management doctors. I deal with one of them that gave me narcotics, the other one does not and my internal medicine doctor. All everybody could tell me was that no one was willing to give me anything for pain relief other than in the NSIDs and few muscle relaxers. Those didn’t do anything. I’ve been living on ice in bed.

They’re only suggestion was for me to immediately get in to see a neurosurgeon, last thing I wanted to do or here. Fortunately I got into someone good within the next couple days. All of a sudden I’m afraid again, and my pain management doctor said he was not going to give me any more pain medication ever, I was tough and I could handle it. He was so proud of me for getting off of all meds, he would not put me back on anything no matter what. Wow did I shoot myself in the foot. Now I’m faced with neck surgery, or some other therapy I have no idea about, or living with unworkable pain.

I know as I go on for the next few months if I stay off any medication the pain is supposed to diminish as the number of pain receptors I have diminishes. I truly don’t think that’s going to make the problems in my neck any better.

I am now afraid everyone’s gonna leave me without any alternative if my neck can’t be fixed or it looks like surgery and all I know about our neck surgery or back surgery it that most fail. Would sure love to hear from somebody that has had positive cervical surgery. All I ever seem to hear here are the failures of all spinal surgery. I’d love to hear from someone that had a positive outcome. Thank you for listening, Jennifer

Jess, you are not alone.  It's horrible to be so depressed.  Have you checked with your Dr?  Also, be aware that thyroid problems can cause depression.

Hi jerliz, my name is Marie and I also had a spinal fusion and now the Dr is talking about doing another one but when I hear stories like yours I don’t know what to do . Could yours be fixed? What happened? I am falling asleep so I will wait for your reply and answer it with my news. Good Luck.

Hi, I am Marie, and also had a fusion L4&5, now wants to add L3 to the fusion. What happened that yours didn’t take? Was the Dr. able to fix it or it just didn’t take the pain away? After several years my fusion caused a cyst on my spine that had to be removed. It grew right between the fusion. How are you now and what are you doing for the pain?

Hi, @marield65. I noted you mentioned having knee replacement surgery. I wanted to be sure you’d met @contentandwell, @beatricefay , @niazumbanut , @gailfaith and @maryx1937, some of the Connect members who have discussed post-knee replacement surgery here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/after-knee-replacement-surgery/?pg=1.

Stop E-Mails !!!!!!!!

Go to the top of this page, open the drop down menu on the right. Go into your account and turn off all email at the bottom of the page.

Hi Ronald,
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@marield65 Marie, don’t you hate that when you hit something and all you wrote is gone? That happened to me last night on a different post. I was too tired to recreate then but will have to today.
JK

@kadydash Kady, I guess I understand the privacy issue but I think someone on your doctor’s staff should ask patients who have undergone the same thing if they would mind sharing. I know I would be happy to if someone was going through the same issues.
JK

“Should have”. But it did not happen. I hear exactly the same thing from a number of other people in the reviews posted on my book. I am so glad I was able to help others! The book was #1 Best seller in Physical Impairments category for 30 hours! It felt great! Thank you for taking time to comment!