Yuku free message boards

I have it. The pain will not go away on it's own. You probably need to speak to your doctor about pain management. There are injections they can do, medications you can take, physical therapy can sometimes help (depending on the site of the degeneration), and some people are a candidate for surgery to repair or replace the disks involved. However, they tend to shy away from surgery because, statistically, the majority of people who have surgery report more pain than before the surgery. And disc surgery is considered a 10-15 year procedure, and for someone who is considered young (like me, in my early 30s), I would likely have to have the procedure re-done numerous times in my lifetime, and each surgery increases the risks involved, including the risk of increased pain.

Basically, they've told me "be happy you can still walk". But I have severe pain and neuropathy (numbness and weakness, and sometimes severe pains) in my lower legs and feet because of pressure on the nerve branches that go into those areas. So, I CAN walk, but not well and not without a tremendous amount of pain. But yes, I'm not in a wheelchair, so thankful for small favors, I suppose.

MomoBee wrote:

---

FallenAngelFound wrote:

---

I have it. The pain will not go away on it's own. You probably need to speak to your doctor about pain management. There are injections they can do, medications you can take, physical therapy can sometimes help (depending on the site of the degeneration), and some people are a candidate for surgery to repair or replace the disks involved. However, they tend to shy away from surgery because, statistically, the majority of people who have surgery report more pain than before the surgery. And disc surgery is considered a 10-15 year procedure, and for someone who is considered young (like me, in my early 30s), I would likely have to have the procedure re-done numerous times in my lifetime, and each surgery increases the risks involved, including the risk of increased pain.

Basically, they've told me "be happy you can still walk". But I have severe pain and neuropathy (numbness and weakness, and sometimes severe pains) in my lower legs and feet because of pressure on the nerve branches that go into those areas. So, I CAN walk, but not well and not without a tremendous amount of pain. But yes, I'm not in a wheelchair, so thankful for small favors, I suppose.

Thank you for the info. Mine is lumbar as well. I have a lot of leg pain and my left leg likes to go numb a lot. I'm on mobic and flexeril for pain management right now. I take Valium during the day, since my flexeril knock me out. I talked to the nurse today so she didn't offer up too much info but I have an appointment with my doctor next week. They are recommending an MRI.

I hadn't heard of mobic, but it looks like it's generally prescribed for arthritis. I have arthritis in my facet joints, so I take Celebrex for that. The flexaril used to make me sleepy, too, but I got accustomed to it. But they did switch me to Baclofen (because my insurance decided they only want to pay for so many months of one muscle relaxer). So maybe ask about trying a different muscle relaxer, or a smaller dosage? I used to take 1/2 of my Flexaril in the beginning, because I didn't want to fall asleep at my desk at work lol. Now, I generally take mine once in the morning (because I'm so sore and stiff) and once at night (to help me relax and sleep), but they don't make me sleepy anymore.

Talk with your doctor about seeing a pain management specialist. You should probably be on some kind of medication for the neuropathy. I am on a medication that is used to treat neuropathy (Keppra), and it's actually been a lifesaver in terms of controlling the pain. If you get the nerve pain in your leg, then you know how bad it gets. There is nothing you can do to make it stop, and it makes you want to peel your skin off to try to get at it. Sucks. But this medicine helps block the impulses that the compressed nerve branches are sending to my brain that says something is wrong. They started me on a fairly low dose, and had to adjust it up until it finally stopped the pain. They did try one other before (gabapentin?) that made me feel really strange, so I stopped taking that one and they switched me to this one (keppra) and I don't feel side effects from it, so that's good. Ask about something similar.

And while NSAIDs and anti-inflammatories (like mobic) can help with the arthritis symptoms, they don't really do much for the actual pain. Speak to them about pain medications. You don't have to become one of those people on Intervention who is sitting there, drooling on themselves. If you work, have kids, a life, etc. explain that you want to maintain as much normalcy as possible, but you need some pain relief. There are a lot of medications available, and a lot of different dosages that they can try, so they can find just enough to give you some relief but without impeding your day to day life.

Check about epidural and trigger point injections, as well. The trigger injections help me when my muscles in and around the discs that I have get all wrenched up, probably because I'm sitting and standing funny to try to compensate for/relieve the pain. The trigger injections force the muscles to relax and that helps. The epidural steroid injections can help relieve the inflammation and pain for some people, but for me, they really didn't seem to make much difference. And they wanted to do them every three months, and several people in my family (who work in medicine) told me that it's really not good to be poking and sticking things into your spine on a regular basis, so I try to stay away from those.

Hope some of that helps you. Feel free to message me directly if you have any more questions or need anything else. I hope you feel better soon