Once again THANK YOU to everyone who has commented on my post.
I am having a bit of depression because of this issue, and hearing people that are going through the same thing (probably much worse than me) being so supportive really makes me feel good.
To answer some of the other questions:
No surgeries yet. The most invasive things that I have had done is the Selective Nerve root injections. They took a hour or more, they would take x rays while doing the injections and then load me up with several different types of meds. I have had three of these and the first one was some what helpful. The second one mildly helpful. The last one was horrible, the procedure gave me massive migraines and actually made the pain way wosre.
Recently my doctor put me on cymbalta to see if it would help with the pain, only 60mg a day. It has been about 6 weeks, and I don't think it is making any difference. My doctor said that if this doesn't help then I need to go back to the spinal specialist that did the nerve root injections to see what else could be done. The problem is I do NOT like the spinal doctor. His practice deals largely with workmans comp cases, and I am not that type of patient. I work at a computer all day long. I lead a team of highly intelligent dedicated computer professionals. The last thing I am going to do is say that working on a computer hurt my back....
I will undergo any tests that are needed to try to get this pain to stop. Every time we think we find something that will help (physical therapy, spinal decompression, trigger point injections, nerve root injections, increases in meds) the decrease in pain is very short lived. I am slowly needing more and more meds and getting less and less relief.
I will ask about all of those tests that you guys listed and see what can be done, luckily I have very good relationship with my General DOC, and many other docs where I live.
My biggest fear is that the doctors will want to take me off my meds since there is no obvious problem (once again sounds like there are a lot of tests that can be done). I don't want to sound like a pill seeker. The neurontin helps for sure, but by no means does it stop all the pain. I usually need some sort of combo of a pain killer to aguement the neurontin. And it is next to impossible to do my job (once again extremely fast pasted highly technical computer/networking) when I am suffering from this kind of pain.
I will talk to my doctor about the other tests. Please let me know of any other suggestions, I really am becoming desperate.
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