Oh this guessing game continues
 

ive been posting here and seeing a pain dr since may. I have done chiro care, PT, meds, radiofrequecy neourpathy, Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection all with no relief longer than a month....

DX w Degen. Disc; Lumbar Radioculopathy; Fibro.;lumbar spondylosis, and who knows what else.

Seen a Rheumotologist,who jsut said my blood was normal and my fam dr wants me to go back to a diff Rheumo who she likes better..

Im soo depressed. My lower back hurts and hurts. my pain dr wont give me narcotics or a patch. i take Gabapentin 300 mg 3 xs a day; an antidepressant; tramadol & tizanidine as needed for pain; and an antiinflamitory every day.

I had a LTES injection on a week ago monday to my RT side becasue i was in HORRIBLE TERRIBlE PAIN, it worked! (so far anyways) on that side. BUT i wish he woudl do on both sides! my LS is still hurting..

I wonder if I trust doctors-it seems as if they are just shooting in the wind trying to dx me. they are willing to inject me yet not willing to give me a darn pain patch to apply to area-idont get why. My dr says that my Fibro that he just recently dxed me wiht is why im in so much pain-that im just feeling extra pain from the fibro and that pain meds dont fix it. IS THIS TRUE?
Do you feel like your docs are just guessing???

I feel the exact same way. Been treated with physiotherapy, 600mg gabapentin, anti-depressant, co-codamol and an anti-inflammatory everyday. I haven't even had a proper diagnosis yet! This has been going on since around April/May and finally after physio yesterday she said someone will come and "determine" whether i need a scan next week. Funnily enough it was after saying I was going to go private that they agreed to give me a scan, probably incase something bad comes up and they need to cover their asses.

Have you not had a MRI or anything yet? ihave had a mri, in Feb. I have not had a CT scan or anything else for some reason.

If MRIs were free we would get them much quicker. Unfortunately it is very expensive. Pain is not life treatening. Nacotic pain meds are a big liabillity for the doctors due to the dependency/addiction problem. It look litterally years before my doc started to prescribe them. Now after many years I don't have a problem getting what I need but it took a lot of pain to get there.

re guessing game
 

I have to say it seemed that way to me for a long time until I had my 2nd spine surgery which failed terribly and then we went with the diagnosis "failed back surgery" which seems to encompass so much. I was not given pain meds either for many years until I started seeing a PM in 2001 and by then I was 48 I think and had stopped working so pain meds were prescribed and made quite a difference in my life. The difference between lying in bed crying all day and being up and about. Then ESIs were added and I felt like I had a new life. Got them for about 10 years. Now WC won't authorize anymore so just taking pain meds. Doing ok tho after many many long years of pretty horrendous chronic pain. Pain is pretty much episodic again with flare ups or lower levels unless I do things that do exaccerbate pain.

Nope nothing at all. Will find out on Wed if I am getting one, as i said i think they got worried when i talked about going private. If they say I don't need one I am still paying for one private because i'm struggling to even stand for 20 minutes now.