JNG055....Without boring you with my back pain odessey, I will say that back pain is a very difficult diagnosis to make with certainty. I have been to numerous doctors and pain specialists.

It sound like your fiance is getting little help from the doctors other than the nerve damage diagnosis. That location is exactly where my problem is and I also have had some erection issues. To be blunt, I get hardons when I don't want them and then can't when I need one. The doctors also say that the nerve damage is to blame (as if they knew for sure). Viagara has mostly solved the penis problem.

Does he have numbness in his legs as well as pain down both legs? There are many avenues to try including going to a pain specialist and finding out whether steroid injections, nerve blocks, facet blocks or physical therapy might help. Tell your fiance that they have a big eight-inch needle to inject in his penis to solve that problem (not really ha! ha!).

I would hold off on looking into surgery just yet because , in many cases, it just doesn't work. Try the other things first. I am presently trying acupuncture and massage and I have heard that spinal stretching can help the discs open up the compression on the nerves surrounding the spinal column.

If you need any further explanation on any of the procedures, I can fill you in since I have had almost everything in the past 7 years. Good luck.

Yeah, he's had probems with numbness and tingling in his arms all the way down to his fingers and down his legs as well down to his feet.

We've told all of this to numerous doctors and none of them seemed like they cared enough to actually try to figure out what is really going on.

It's just really frustrating for me to see him in pain constantly and all of these other things going wrong, and the doctor's just dont have any idea what's going on.

Is the actupuncture helping at all? any other suggestions??

Yeah, yeah, yeah....don't get me started on doctors. Just about eveyone, including doctors, have no clue about the pain. You are blessed if you find a doctor who can empathize.

I still think you guys should try another pain mgmt doctor just because they have several procedures that can help. Just because some of those options did not work very well for me does not mean they wouldn't work for you. I have been to three different pain management doctors and each recommended different approaches. I will warn you that none of the procedures are very much fun to go through.

I just started the massage and acupuncture options so it's too soon to know if they help.

He might also begin a regiment of drug therapy starting him out with pain relievers and muscle relaxers and then progressing to the major leagues of oxycontin, hydrocodone, morphine, etc. The drugs do work as long as you don't become addicted because it takes larger and larger doses to get relief. I just got off of a 4-year merry-go-round on drugs which I hope never to repeat.

Where do ya'll live? Near a big city? That helps when you're trying to find the perfect doctor.

I hope both of you continue to fight this together because I wouldn't have made it this far without my wife. Just when you're getting ready to share your life together, you get thrown a curve. Do you ever feel like God's testing you?

lsg

Just be sure to get the rights on this before it is an episode on Grey's Anatomy. Sorry, I know it's serious as I too have lower back pain, doesn't extend to anything else though. Not even legs.

You might ask for an opinion from a Physiatrist. it is a special kind of doctor who can do nerve conduction studies to see what the actual sources of his pain and other issues are.