Suffering

hi BB/ELB,

omg! you are v young, but please don't think your life is over and you don't feel as if you can go on, but no this condition does not get better but there is medication to help releive symptoms, and i know it can be very painful, we have all been there and you sound very down, nothing wrong with that, alot on here with this condition have gone through feeling depressed and generally feeling low, mainly becuse they have severe pain and it is not picked up or reconised by doctors,

i know it must be heartbreaking to get as far as you have to find you have this condition, but like i said get on the right medication and you will feel a little better, if you are offered depression tablets try them, not only will they help boost you a little but they are also used to help relax muscles etc, which believe me i found they helped and didn't even realise i had a problem there.

i'm not sure about your chest pain, or seen anything related to kidney disease so i'm no help there,

you don't mention whether your on any medication, or whether you have seen anyone else apart from a private specialist, but now you have a diagnoses you should really see about getting treatment, but i would't let this beat me, not now i'm abit stonger (not so down)

sorry i wasn't much help, but i wish you well, please get some help from your GP,

take care,

:rose: mandy :rose:

oh p.s. let us know how you get on ok,

Hi BB

You have come to the right place - just reading everyone's experiences and comments helps so much. It is well worth going through them all as you learn more and more.

Firstly as you have been advised try to find some good pain medication. Amytriptylline and an anti-inflammatory can often be very good. I should not worry too much at this stage about the side effects because some poor people with mental health and other arthritic conditions take medication all their lives. Try and see if you can get Lyrica as this can be very effective and has far less side effects on the stomach that you get from Ibrupofen.

I too think that things will get better but you may need to make some adjustments to your life. I find that walking distances of more than about 50 metres at a time causes a flare-up. Get a Disabled Badge for your car (ask your GP ) and tell your employer that you are disabled. There are many disabled solicitors doing a great job of work and getting promotions etc. Once your employer understands that you have a serious long-term condition that affects yours daily living they may help. I think that if they are worth anything they will start making reasonable adjustments and allow you to do what you can and not what you can't do. When you ease up a bit the pain really does get better. I think that you may find that the chest pain improves when you lie down for a while as you are relieving the pressure caused by the osteophytic bars and other adjustments that your cervical spine is making to accommodate your condition. You can do this perfectly well at a lot of places of work or just lay on the floor. I get real sensations of not being able to swallow properly when I overdo things.

This condition can affect your water works - but it is more likely to be your bladder than your kidneys. This is unpleasant because it causes smelly wee. Try upping your fluid intake and just ignore the smell in the early morning - after all it is only you that has to put up with it.

I should think that there would not be one person on this website who has not been where you are now - but hey we are all still here and the outcome and course of Cervical Spondylosis varies from person to person

I hope what I have written helps and lets hope that someone else from the website can help you with the being really young bit and coping with your career.

All the best

Christine

hi bb i am so sorry to hear of your pain and distress, and yes i understand about the talking to family and friends you can only talk about so much and they then think ok so get on with it, but like everyone on these sites know that is defo not the case we have to live with it 24/7. (i have cervical disc prolapses) i do find and hope you do to in the future that this site can be of immense benefit when your down and just need to chat to someone,(i got a pain buddy and shes my rock when im in pain hi mandy) please dont think your life is over far from it , there is treatment available, ask your gp if anything can be done surgicaly, and as mandy says try the anti-depressives i take amytryptaline at night and i know id be in a right state without them they work by relaxing the nerve pain as well as helping with depression, and also dont forget WE ARE ALL HERE FOR YOU. so if you feel low get on line. i wish you well and will chat again in the future. take care. gail (disc prolapse thread)

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Don't worry about the bad breath. It can be resolved by a tongue scraper and a good mouthwash. If it is a kidney problem, it won't be caused by CS (from the info I have gathered over time). I also suffer from breath problems from time to time, and all I do then is scrape my tongue and use a Hydrogen Peroxide based mouthwash, and all is fine again.

Best thing to do if you are worried is to see your GP and request a urine & blood test to check for kidney problems.

Any questions regarding CS, I am more than happy to try to help (it won;t let me edit my posts for some reason).

Thank you all so much for your support and kind words. I feel like I have hope.

I would be interested to know your experiences with how the pain evolves over time. Does the pain keep on getting worse and worse or does it come and go in waves? Since I started my new job, about 3 months ago it seems to be getting progressively worse but this could be due to the long periods sitting at a desk plus the stress of it all.

I have beeen going various GP's for the last 4 years complaining of pains in my back/neck/arm/shoulder and I got the same response from all of them. Nothing - take ibuprofen/paracetamol. Eventually I demanded something be done and I got to wait in a 7 month queue to have 2 x-rays taken which did not show anything. Eventually I was sent to see a physio (another 6 months waiting list) and she diagnosed me with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and said I suffered because I was an uptight, stressful person. The 3 physio sessions I had at 2 week intervals seem to make the condition worse. Back to the docs I went as the pain was driving me crazy. He prescribed me co-dydramol which seems to take the edge off but not much else.

The pain just kept getting worse and worse and that was when I paid to see private specialist who after a 5 minute chat said I had CS and said I would need an MRI. I couldn't afford this private (£450) so I had to go back to my GP who referred me to the Pain Management Clinic (with the help of my letter from the specialist) . First appointment is in 2 weeks. Will they refer me for an MRI scan? It is all just so ridiculous and exhausting.

I told my boss today who is very understanding and told me to do whatever I had to do and that he and the company would support me however possible. I guess in this sense I am very lucky.

Reading everyone elses stories had made me realise how terrible the health system in this country is. I never thought it was good but this is a joke. No doubt if I was suffering with depression because I could not have children I would get IVF paid for. But an MRI scan for a young healthy girl who is suffering from pain to the point that thoughts of suicide run uncontrollably thorough her mind, no, lets lets just tell her she is making it up and leave her to rot in a pile of pills!

My boyfriend did make a couple of comments recently that I smelled like wee so I think I will get that checked.

Thanks to you all. Best wishes BB

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hi bb

the waiting list \"game\" is a joke seems to be 18 wks for everything then they put you on a new list for some other test i know i,ve been two years going through the tests, i know judith (disc prolapse site) paid for her mri through bupa and it seems to be a lot cheaper than i thought it would be £250. i wish i had known two years ago about the private way of doing things . i hopefully am coming to an end to my waiting. Not sure about the pain with cs as i was diagnosed with prolapse discs and my pain was there constantly but occationaly like now i have real bad flare ups and boy is it painful, i use the meds codeine, paracetamol, amytriptaline, and of course my wheatbag either warm or cold. at least your boss is understanding my employers are helpful as well even though i,ve been of work now for 8 mths , my manager even phoned today to ask how i was, im sure that eventually you,ll get some sort of diagnosis confirmed and then the right treatment, but in the mean time we,r here to chat and support . gail