Hi everyone! I'd like to share my back pain story with you all and get your opinions. It all started about 6 years ago.
I would go to bed feeling fine and wake up in the morning with my back completely shot. I'd be on the couch for 2 days, rolling off very slowly and walking half bent over and to the right, I wouldn't be able able to do anything but go to the bathroom. Then on the 3rd day, I would wake up fine. Well, in april of 2004, on easter morning I was getting off the toilet, and all of a sudden had shocking pains shooting from my lower back through my whole body. It sent me to the floor and made me cry. It took me about 10 minutes to finally get up, and at least a couple hours to feel right again. After that day, I had a nagging, horrible, pain in my lower back that killed when I coughed, sneezed, hit a bump in the truck, when I sat down, got up, moved wrong.....Anything! I just tolerated it for months. In september I finally went to my doctor, he sent me for x-rays and physical therapy, he gave me muscle relaxers and anti-inflamatory's, and the night before pt started, I had a horrible night at work, everything I did was painfull, every move I made sent little lighting bolts of pain through my body. When I got home and went to bed I couldnt get comfortable for anything. I spent hours tossing and turning and trying to get to sleep, finally I got up took a muscle relaxer. I got back in bed and holy cow I all of a sudden had the worst pain i've felt in my life, tons of shooting lightning bolt pain all through my body, I was afarid to breath. My right leg started going numb, and started aching. I layed there for about an hour not daring to move, and thinking that it would go away and everything would be fine. Well, it didn't go away, it just got worse. I yelled for my husband, and he took me to the hospital. They gave me a shot for pain and said I had a sciatic nerve attack, and told me to go to my therapy that morning.
Well, I went to pt for six weeks, and had heat therapy and ultrasound. My leg continued to stay numb, and my back was worse than ever. In the fourth week of pt they started putting me in tracktion, it felt good but did nothing for my back pain or numbness. So I went back to the doctor and he sent me for an mri, after about 4 weeks I finally heard back from them, and they said they were sending me to a neuro surgeon because I had a ruptured disk and nerve root compression. I went to the neurosurgeon the week before christmas, and he told me that I had a very large herniation of l5, that was literally hanging down to l4, and my nerve was piched off from this.I also had degenerative disk disease. He wanted to do a right hemi-laminectomy on the 21st of dec., said we have to get it done quick to save the nerve. I was taken out of work, and had terrible back pain and a numb leg.
Ok, so, I had the surgery, and I was feeling pretty good for about a week, then all the pain came back, and my leg started aching daily, he put me back on vicodin, and that only worked for a couple weeks. Now my right hip is killing me all the time. It has a terrible, deep, stabbing pain, especially when I walk. About 3 weeks ago I started getting a burning sensation in my leg and my back.I get it about every 2 days. Now i'm on nortriptyline, which worked for about 2 weeks. I am back to walking half bent over and to the right. Now i'm getting a new sensation....Are ya ready for this? It feels like I have bugs crawling all over my leg! My leg aches everyday of my life, along with my hip and my back. I'm sceduled for a steroid injection on may 11. I'm still out of work, and I feel like my doctor is missing something. Last week I walked 4 blocks with my kids, and my leg throbbed so bad, before we even got where we were going. I am worse off now than I was before the surgery.I cant sit for more than 15 minutes before I have to get up and I cant stand for more than 15 minutes before I have to sit down. If I vacuum my livingroom and diningroom, I am down for the rest of the day. I cant carry groceries, walk on hard floors for more than 10 minutes, rake the yard, or even carry laundry or i'm down the rest of the day! I cannot do anything, it seems like. I feel like I should get another doctor, but everyone says I "already have the best neurosurgeon around". I have to get back on my feet again, i'm only 34, I have 2 very active kids (13 & 9) that need me to do things with them, I want to go back to work, but I cant even keep my house clean like I used to. I'm so depressed over all of this, :( I just dont know what to do anymore.
He says if the injection dont work, he's doing surgery again. I had another mri and he cant see past the scar tissue to see if there is another herniation. What if the second surgery leaves me worse off yet again, like the first one did? Do any of you have any input on my situation? Please tell me anything you know!
Thank you, sherri