My Back Woes
13 July 2009
Well, this may be long but I’ll try to spare you too many of the old details. I was born with a disease in my back called Spondylolisthesis. It was aggravated by an incident that happened when I was a child. Then, I believe it was 1995, I fell off my deck and landed flat on my back in my driveway. Since that fall the back wasn’t just an intermittent problem but a constant problem. I spent two years going through therapy, seeing specialists, etc. and all to no avail. Nothing was making the pain better as a matter of fact some of the stuff they tried made it even worst.
Well, back in 1997 I had back surgery to relieve the constant pain. I had two titanium implants put into my lower back. The problem was not with the disks but with the vertebrae. I seemed to do well with the surgery for a while but that didn’t last more than a year. I then went for cortisone shots. I had two of them, the first one didn’t do anything but the second one gave me relief for about 6 months to a year.
I was given a Tens unit, I was taking pain medication and nothing seemed to relieve the pain. I kind of got used to the pain. Then, once I got onto disability I found that I could no longer afford the pain medication so I had to stop taking it.
Now, 12 years after the surgery the back is so bad I have to seek help again. I just cannot live with the pain any longer. And to top it off it’s not just the lower back anymore but the upper back as well. I have found that I have arthritis in my upper back. Well, I do not know if this has anything to do with it, but I have never stood straight up. I’ve always kind of hunched over, so the fact of the upper back pain really wasn’t a surprise but it has gotten to the point that by the end of the day I cannot hold up my own head. And the headaches are unbearable. I live on Extra Strength Tylenols. I take them 3 at a time and I take anywhere from 3 to 15 a day. Which is way too many. Some days I take so many I make myself sick and other days I take enough just to make me very tired and I end up falling asleep. But to say they give me relief would be a lie. Maybe they take the edge off the pain but that’s about as much credit I will give the Tylenols. I have tried other over the counter stuff but nothing works and most bother my stomach.
Anyway, my regular PCP had to retire because of health problems and so I was stuck without a PCP. So, it took me several months but I finally found a PCP. When I went in to see him he sent me to a back specialist. Well, I’m not going to name names nor am I going to go into much detail but let me just say my experience with this back doctor was unbelievable. He literally was falling asleep during the visit. He was sitting there and falling asleep, then he got up and was leaning in the corner of the room and was falling asleep while standing there. I was very upset by this that when I got home I wrote him a two page letter.
When he received the letter he called me immediately, he wanted to apologize and explain. He then recommended I see a different back specialist. He told me my back problems were too complicated for him and he had to refer me to somebody else.
Ok, so that’s the background. A bit much but believe me a very long story cut way short for you. I don’t want to bore you with all the gory details but all said and done it really is just unbelievable.
So here we are now and I went to see this new doctor on July 6th, 2009, last Monday. He was a very nice doctor, he was very friendly and polite and kept asking me if I had any questions for him. He told me that he could only work on one problem at a time and he asked me which I would like for him to work on first. Either my upper or lower back but not both. I told him that I would prefer he work on the upper back first. He asked me why. I told him because I have lived with the lower back problems most of my life so I can manage the pain, but the upper back is at times unbearable and it’s so hard to hold up my own head. He said that it sounded reasonable to him.
So, he set me up for some shots, the procedure is called Medial Branch Nerve Block
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/anesthesiology/Pain/Patients/blocks1.aspx?subID=submenu3
What he explained to me the procedure will be exactly as described in this article except he told me that I will be lying on my back facing the ceiling and he will give me the shots in my neck. I’m hoping I misunderstood him because those will have to be some mighty large needles to reach my spine if he’s going through my neck.
Anyway, he set me up for this procedure on July 21st, 2009. I will admit that I am scared about this. I asked him if he could put me to sleep and he told me no he cannot. This is very unusual for me because I generally refuse any kind of medical help that is invasive but the pain is bad enough that I know I need something and so I am willing to give this a try. My Mom told me this is the same procedure they used on her when she had the Shingles a little over a year ago. She said the first treatment didn’t work but the second treatment worked almost instantly. So, I’m hoping that although I’m scared that the relief will make it all worth it. He did offer to give me a Valium before I go in for the procedure but Valium does crap for me so I just refused.
Also, he sent me for two MRI’s, he works fast, I went for the two MRI’s the very next day, July 7th. I was given both MRI’s at the same time they did my C-Spine and then my L-Spine. This was a bit much for me because I have a hard time lying flat. My only comment about the MRI’s was that one knows they are getting old and fat when the Tech is young enough to be their son and he has to help you sit up. I just was lying there for so long, I couldn’t move. The Tech was very nice I couldn’t have asked for better but he also was very young and made me feel old. He also put some pillows under my knees to help alive the pain of lying flat. While this helped a little, it really didn’t do much and I found the next day my back was so bad I could hardly move. But at least this doctor is moving fast and getting stuff done. I couldn’t ask for better.
So, they gave me the MRI’s on a CD and I decided I would try to view them on my computer. Well, this was a very easy task because the MRI’s came with a viewing program on the CD so I was able to view the MRI’s. While I really have no clue what I am looking at, I can see the spine, the spinal cord, etc. It was really neat. So, I will bring this CD with me when I see the doctor next Tuesday for the procedure.
While I am scared I am looking forward to this procedure and I am hoping it gives me relief. The doctor did say he can’t guarantee that it will work or give me any relief but he thinks it will give me relief for about 6 months to a year. I hope so.
So for now…
