Spondylolisthesis

I'm sorry, I don't get the relationship between Herpes and my disease. But anyway, mentioning Herpes, my husband used to get it and I just avoided kissing him. You can get cream for Herpes and it helps.

Tell your boyfriends.

You can also get Herpes from someone who has it.

My daughter who's 12 has got spondylolisthesis L5 S1, she is having a fusion and decompression surgery at the end of this month. Without it she could end up not being able to walk. We have a great surgeon...so hopeful this will be the best treatment for her.

I'm 56 and was diagnosed as having spondylolisthesis in 1997. The pain had first manifested in 1991, but pain was then ascribed to a cracked coccyx, following a fall down the stairs.

Over the following six years, the increasing pain was treated as arthritis - a condition I'd developed at 25. Itaffected my right knee first, then moved into my right ankle and wrist and then into my left elbow and right

shoulder. Standard Ibuprofen-based drugs prescribed over the years led to severe stomach problems. I

suffered constant acid indigestion. Eventually, I had to bear the pain as long as I could - before resorting to a Cortisone injection......

The pain in my lower spine was thought to be another manifestation of the arthritis and treated as such for 6 years. However, injections had no effect on the pain. I was prescribed Diclofenac - and suffered a

sever asthma attack after the first dose!

My GP then referred me to the hospital to have spinal X-Rays......That was when the spondylolisthesis

was discovered.

Long story short: I've been prescribed several different drugs over the 16 years since. All, one by one,

became ineffectual.

In 2008, I had an MRI and was then referred to a spinal consultant. The slippage, she said, was such

that she could see on just looking at my back! She said that I'd need surgery. But, to be absolutely sure,

she ordered a series of X-Rays.

Returning to the hospital for the results, I was told that I'd need spinal fusion surgery. I knew something

about that procedure - my ex-father-in-law having had it - and suffered greatly afterward.

I researched the surgery - learning of the percentage of total failure of it AND the percentage of patients

whose mobility had been LESSENED after surgery. So, I decided NOT to have the operation. And my GP fully agreed with that decision.

Five years later, I'm in CONSTANT pain from the spondylolisthesis. I take Co-Codamol 30/500 every day. Varies between 3 & 4 caps per day. I also take Gabapentin. Now up to 2,100mgs a day.

I developed Raynauld's Phenomenon in my left hand in February of this year. Oh, just pins-and-needles at first. Into March and we were gripped by a severe cold snap. Snow and sub-zero temperatures. My left

fingers began to turn purple and then white and totally devoid of feeling.

Friend of mine had recently been diagnosed as having Raynaud's, so I suspected that it was what I was I was experiencing. Went to GP - and had Raynaud's confirmed. Had to find underlying cause, however.

Suggested that I should simply wait until temperature rose.

It did - but I still experienced Raynaud's. I, several times, cut and burned my fingers while preparing food!

Then, I began to experience severe pain & weakness in my left upper arm. Got so bad that I wasn't able

to even dry my right side after my morning shower without my left arm becoming so painful that I had to

pause every few seconds.

To the present, then. I've had no less than ten blood tests. My GP was convinced that I had scleroderma.

Blood tests returned an ambiguous result, however. I MAY have scleroderma; on the other hand, I may

NOT! My GP is helpless to prescribe anything that will ease the pain in my arm. He could only suggest

that I up my daily dose of Gabapentin; from 900mg a day, I'm now taking 2,100mg a day. And it isn't

helping at all.

The spondy is degenerating at a much faster pace than was expected. I'm in constant, piercing pain all

the time. It lances through my hip, into my leg and thence to my foot. I've been forced to up my Co-Codamol from three caps per day to between four & five a day.

I wonder whether the Co-Codamol has actually CAUSED the Raynaud's etc.

The pain caused by the spondylolisthesis and the uselessness of my left arm caused by the Raynaud's

robs me of sleep and appetite. I'm also very depressed because my elder son, Asa, died of cancer very

suddenly, last November -exactly a month after being told that he had cancer.

Seems to me that no-one in the medical profession can separate the grief from the pain. No-one seems to know how to best treat all that is, 'wrong,' with me. And I get to feeling utterly DESPERATE at times.

The pain from the spondy is very REAL! It grinds me down constantly.

I'm dependent on Co-Codamol. But is that drug causing the Raynaud's & related conditions.....?

I'll be grateful for any input.