The lesser of the 2 evils?

[martyusa]

My Surgeon has put me on Lyrica for the nerve pain problems that I have been having from the supposed damaged nerve root at L5-S1. Sciatic pain is not as bad as the pain in the big toe as well and the numbness in the other toes. Feet are cold most of the time. The mass majority of these symptoms are brought on with increased activity. The doses of the Lyrica are 150mgs at night and I take 75 mgs around noonish.

It's been about 1 week and I must say the first couple of days were great. No more waking up in the middle of the night. However, lately I have noticed some serious fluid retention and my BP meds are not touching the hypertension problems. i.e. 50mgs of Toprol-XL, 150 mgs of Tekturna with a mild Diuretic. I have yet to take my afternoon dose and have replaced it with 40 mgs of Lasix. Which of about an hour later was followed by some extra potassium and a multivitamin.

Now the Percocet , which I came off of in place of the lyrica, worked OK and made the pain tolerable. Although it was still there it took the edge off of the sharpness. NSAIDS are out of the question, so my options are limited. Yes the pain can raise my BP as can the increase in fluids brought on by the Lyrica and I find myself in a catch 22 here.

I do not mind a mild diuretic with the other BP meds. I do not like taking a loop diuretic due to the fact that it pulls more that water out of the body. i.e. just about every nutrient the organs hold. But I do have the lasix for emergencies like this morning.

I will be speaking to both my PCP and my Surgeon. But my thought are this. The Lyrica must go as it seems not to be worth the side effect for my situation. If I must stay on the Percocet, current BP meds and Diazapam until something can be done, then so be it. When 12.5 mgs of Ambien doesn't keep me sleeping for at least 6 hours, we have a problem. I wake up about 3 hours into sleep and I needed to take 5 mgs of diazapam and 5 mgs of percocet to fall back to sleep, pre Lyrica. If my BP stays high, I will not get clearance for the procedure on the 25th. Septum, Tonsil and adenoids. Which should also help me sleep after it is done.

The assistant did give me some literature about a device they place into my body for some type of electric stimulation to help with the pain. But I feel my pain is not bad enough for something to that extreme. It's not like I can't walk or perform the average task while taking my normal pain meds for a limited period of time. And I don't want to get caught up as an insurance guinea pig test subject either.

As if "we all" don't have enough stress in my lives right now dealing with insurance companies, both medical and Disability as well as our employers. It's just seems to be a big mess as I toss my hands up in the air thinking "what else".

[guymontag]

Hi

Hi Marty. I've just read your history about your fusion. I just wanted to clarify something. with this CD HORIZON® LEGACY™ PEEK Rod System, is this a posterior operation? your discs ar l4-l5 and l5-s1 were not removed? if so, why did the surgeon opt to do a standard posterior lateral gutter fusion rather than an interbody fusion like a PLIF TLIF ALIF? Question now arises if the disc is leaking chemical proteins will it stop as the fusion progresses over time?

The reason why I ask is, my symptoms are so similar to yours. I haven't had a fusion but I have had a microdiscectomy(l5-s1) done on 1st july 2008. I was fine for 5 weeks, I had a very little stumble and felt a small surge of sciatica and now its been over3-4 months and I've been having to deal with a lot of nerve pain on both sides all down my leg + numbness in my feet which i never had pre-op. I did get an MRI done and everything checked out normal, doctor said don't worry.

I've researched this to death and I'm absolutely sure without being 100% postiive without a discograph that I have internal disc disruption/ annular tear such as Doug Gillard has described on his website ChiroGeek's Home Page, and I'm getting chemical irritation from a leaking disc.

Sorry, I'm not trying to hijack your thread but what you describe is uncannily what I've got. I've got a bunch of theories as well as a conservative remedy which I'm trying out and will save for a new thread....

[martyusa]

Believe me when I tell you I tried everything I could. I do not suggest using anything without consulting your doctor, but I even tried doses of Adequan in an attempt to assist in the healing of at least L4-L5. L5-S1 was completely blown through as the discogram showed. So I believe there will some chemical leakage and/or some problems with the chemical leaking out while the back is under a load. Which when anyone looks that up you will start to see the conspiracy behind our human medical system. I will be talking to him on the 22nd and speak to him about that. I'm not sure I'm ready to go through all of that again just yet.

And on a side note...Does anyone know if they do an MRI while putting the body under a load or weighted down? I think this would save all kinds of time if there were comparative MRI's with and without loads to see what the extent on the damage would be with the onset of non-consistent symptoms. Just a thought!!

[Maria]

Marty,
Have you tried Neurontin, Topamax or something like Elavil for the pain?

[martyusa]

Originally Posted by Maria

Marty,
Have you tried Neurontin, Topamax or something like Elavil for the pain?

Yes, I was on Neurontin, but the doses were so low it would have been no different that a Placebo effect. I have a neighbor who take 3400 mgs everyday and literally take 3 cups full of pills everyday. Granted his condition is the neck area and worse than mine. But the last thing I want is to feel stupid being doped up all the time. I'd almost rather deal with the pain that is somewhat controlled with short term meds and keep my whits about me. If I'm gonna have a constant 4-6 pain level, fine. Just tell me and I'll make an attempt to make that a new baseline for me.

Still waiting on a call back from the doc.

[mmglobal]

most of the time I was on Neurontin was at 900mg/day. I did not like the brain fog and would not let the doc ramp me up to 3600. Rarely, I would take a 4th 300mg neurontin at night to help sleep.

This level of medication did help substantially with my leg pain.

[guymontag]

I still don't understand why they didn't remove the discs, esp at l5-s1. ? especially if "l5-s1 is blown out"