Sciatica pain I am at my wits end

Posted , 7 users are following.

hi I have had back pain problems now since 2008 I am currently taking morphine and pregablin which help but don't eliminate the pain. I have flare ups where the pain in my back becomes unbearable for couple weeks then goes back to the pain I am used to living with daily. Two weeks ago I had another flare up but this time is completely different the pain is so intense horrific but the pain I am getting in my buttocks and down into my right leg is just to much it's disabling me more and more every day I have never sobbed my heart out as much as these past few weeks. My skin has gone numb in my lower leg and tingly pins and needles top of leg I cannot put full weight on it at all just taking a few steps is unbearable. I felt like calling ambulance this morning as the pain was horrendous. I know from mri scan I had few hrs ago that I have two discs that are no good and a tare which was giving me the pain I have been in for hrs now. But this pain I can't cope with even with the morphine. I believe that a disc has gone causing pressure on the spinal nerve which would cause the leg pain. I want surgery the fusion of the spine where the discs are no good. I would like advice from people who have had the surgery, has it helped are there any complications people have had after surgery. What is it like how long was the stay in hospital are you pain free now. Or is there anyone else with same problem that is awaiting surgery. Thank you ps I am 49 yrs old. 

0 likes, 9 replies

9 Replies

  • Posted

    Angie ,have you got Pudental neuralgia ? Pain unbelievable with that . Try cold pack. 
    • Posted

      Hi to you Deni ,long time since last spoke ,Im much the same, but now on HRT 11 days . Sill got PNE and V . Drop me a PM on how things have been going with you Deni lovely to be in touch x 

       

  • Posted

    Hi Angie,

    I had the same problem as you. Long story short I had pain for 10 months in my lower back and running down my right leg. I finally got surgery and now im feeling better than before! The process of the nerve healing is REALLY SLOW, but I do feel about 50% better than before! I may have a better success rate of healing just because I am 18. I dont know how a 49 year old would hold up or how much longer it would take for you ( I am not calling you old ). My surgeon said that hopefully within 6-12 months my pain will be gone! I had my surgery 4 months ago.. I hope this helped..

    • Posted

      Hi well i have now had the surgery last night and am now home after been discharged. I am very scared and worried now. After the surgery I was so pleased to be pain free in my right leg and most numbness has come back. It's just now I have started getting like cram feeling in my bottom cheeks and wondering is this kind of normal. Suppose it is so scary because you don't want to be in that pain again. You don't want it to come back. I am doing everything they have told me and I am resting. It's not been 24 hrs yet. 
  • Posted

    As I sit here and read these forums I'm in tears because the past 10 weeks have been the worst 10 weeks of my life. I have been to 3 ER'sq where they give me a pain shot and a muscle relaxer and I leave in the same condition I came in . I'm pretty sure I have almost if not OD on my medication ( Norco 5/325 1 every 8 hr and baclofen 10mg 3 x's a day) I work in a factory where I'm sure I'm about fired I miss no less then 1 day a week. My pain tolerace is extremly high (I've given birth naturally 3x's w/out so much as a Tylenol) the pain is excruciating. I have been to the chiropractor no relief.I called my FP and he reccomends I go back to the ER. The streches that will "cure" it I can't bare to do. I've peed my pants several times because I can't make it in time. My husband, children and my job are all suffering because of it. And I also have NO QUALITY of life. I cry daily (i like to believe that I'm thffer then nails, then the sliced cheese falls out of the fridge and I cry like a 2 year old who dropped their sucker in the mud) I cannot escape this pain!! (i have even taken up Marijuana which doesn't help the pain but I CAN sleep all night long) Any suggestions ....... ( I'm waiting for my insurance to ok the MRI.)
    • Posted

      Hi Tracy, I see your post is a month old so I am praying you have had help

      By now. I felt the same, my pain was horrendous I didnt know what was wrong my doc told me chiropractor, osteopath, I went to three and two made no difference and the third nearly killed me with the pain he caused. Ended up ER, sent home.after another 5 days hardly any sleep because by then I had no way of sitting or lying down, the pain was so intense. Icrawled about on my hands and knees wailing like a wounded animal.my partner took me to ER again and a different doctor sent me to another hospital where they gave me an MRI. I have three degenerative discs and the bottom one L4/5 was pressing on my root nerve, hrnce the excruciating sciatic and piriformis pain that had left me disabled. I was given pain relief.for the first time.here lies a cautionary message: be carefuk with the morphine.i didnt even know it was an opiate and addictive but thats another story. End result is that hospital and those doctors saved me, I was given a caudal.epidural within three weeks, they bumped me up the list and for that I will be forever grateful. Immediately after the injection in my back the pain lessened and now, two months on I have only some dull bum pain and front leg ache that has only just started, these past two months havr left me feeling I experienced a miracle. When I was in the darkest.days of that evil pain I felt my life was not worth living,once I had the morphine and a big sack of gabapentine, zapain and morphine I was able to control it a little bit ans walk with crutches but the agony still tortured me. Getting off the drugs after only three weeks was horrible but after that injection I felt reborn. I was able to walk without my crutch soon after. I still cant walk more than half hr without pain but compared to what it was I can easily handle it drug free. If you have not already had an mri to determine herniated disc bulges so you can qualify for a caudal epidural please get one as soon as possible!Dont go for full surgery yet, you can try three I jections before any decent doctor will referr you for full on back surgery. Hugs, Louise.

  • Posted

    Hi I don't know if this will help you but I understand what you are going through I have had 26 years of back pain. Morphine is no good for nerve pain. Amitriptyline is good but it's better to have it in the evening as it makes you quite sleepy. It does take the edge of your pain. I don't know if there is a pattern to your pain but mine was worse before a period.. This is because hormones make your ligaments more lax. I am hypermobile, I have had my leg realigned because my pain started in my knee. It then hurt in my hip, low back and one side of my bum. I had my SI joint fused, this helped but didn't get rid of it. I recently saw a gynecologist because after the birth of my second child I didn't feel right. I'd been told by 3 Dr's that nothing was wrong. My only symptom was everything seemed very low and sex was painful. I insisted on a referral to a gynecologist who said that I had a bladder and bowel prolapse. I had this surgery 4weeks ago and I haven't had my back pain since. I've had the odd day and that's it. I have read since that a prolapse can sit on the sciatic nerve . Before I didn't go a day without pain. I went into hospital for something else and it helped my back pain.

    Please make sure you are sure about what is causing your pain before you have surgery because the only real pain I have now is from the metal from an operation that I probably didn't need.

    Good luck and don't give up!

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