Chronic Pain

Hi Everyone,

I am new here and let me tell you a little of my story first...

I was born with a leg & foot deformity. As I started growing I developed scolosis. I have always had sever migraines and sever back & leg pain as well. Thru my younger years, I went to all sorts of specialists to figure out "whats wrong". Everyone just said...no idea.

In 2005, I had my first MRI...
I was diagnosed with Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome. This is apparently what caused the deformity in the womb to begin with.
I have been seeing my reg. Dr regarding the migraines & pain and he refered me to a Neuro.
The Neuro & my reg Dr dismissed the TSC and started me on specific migrain meds. (none of which work)

In April, I got such bad siatica pain that I couldnt move for 3 days. I went back to the Dr and he told me that I have to give it time and anti-inflamitories. (dont work) But I was getting 7 percocet a month so I had to use those instead.

It has now been 3 months & that specific pain is still there. I have gone to see a spine specialist and had another MRI. (I get the results today)

I guess my question is....I have been on SO many meds for ALL of my pain, I have found that only the percocet actually helps. I dont want to sound like a druggie to the Dr, so how do I approach this? There are good days & bad, but mostly bad, and I hate being in pain all the time.

Any advice?
Thanks
Donna

Hi Donna,

Welcome to ChronicPainConnection! I'm sorry to hear you're having so much pain. We all know how miserable that is.

I'm afraid there's no good way to ask a doctor for an opioid medication like Percocet. If you out and out request it, most doctors are going to suspect you may be a drug abuser. About the best you can do is to tell the doctor that it's the only thing that has helped your pain at all.

Having said that, I'm afraid if you start taking Percocet regularly, you may find that your Migraines increase because opioids tend to have a rebound effect on Migraines. We have an excellent Migraine site – MyMigraineConnection.com – with tons of good information and a very active forum. You might want to discuss the issue of Migraine medications with them. They also have a list of good Migraine specialists. (Not all neurologists are Migraine specialists.)

It sounds like you may also need to see a different neurologist who will take the TSC seriously. There are surgical procedures that can be done for TSC if it's causing a lot of problems, although of course, I don't know if you would be an appropriate candidate for surgery or not. But you at least need to see someone who will discuss your options with you.

Good luck! I hope you'll keep us posted on how you're doing.

Best,
Karen

Got my MRI results....
I have a very, very LARGE "mass" in my spine that is pressing on the spinal
cord at L5. This is what has been causing all the siatica like pain. My Spine
Specialist has stated he is very concerned and this is way beyond him and the
neurosurgen in my area. They have refered me to a neuro surgen in Seattle. He
stated that I have to watch out for muscle weakness and blatter & bowel
incontence, if that happens to go to the ER immediatly.
>
> I am very much worried, espically he dosent know exactly what it is......

This is so painful.....

DonnaY, I just got reading your letters. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I'm so sorry you are going through this.My prayer for you is that they get all of the mass.I'm so appalled that all the doctor would give you was seven percocet. What is wrong with him? Try to hang in there. If you need to vent I am here. God Bless You. Scooter ( Sharon )

Hi Sharon,

THANK YOU for your kind thoughts & prayers.
I really need it right now.
Looking at the MRI, this "mass" is almost the size of my spinal cord & is taking up all the room in there, squishing the spinal cord into a small bean shape.

I am going to try to call the spine specialist today & see if I can get something.....ANYTHING.
I know I cant get Percocet because my Ins wont let me for another 2 1/2 weeks. So I dont know what to say to them or ask them....?

Again, sorry to be whiney...Im just so tierd of the pain.


Donna

I was just rereading some of the chronic pain connections and was wondering how you were doing. Did the doctors ever do anything for the mass on your spine? I would like to hear from you to see how you are doing,but the private messaging part doesn't work on my computer for some reason. Could you write to me here in this section? Last time you apologized for whining. You were not whining. You were venting and you have every right to do so.I wish you the very best. Scooter ( Sharon )