Hello, My mum has spinal stenosis, osteo arthritis and osteo perosis and has been getting nerve impingement in lumbar and thoracic spine, causing numbness and pins and needles in rams and legs. Sometrimes she thinks she will fall over, the numbness is that bad. NHS Physio have said they cant do anything and suggested we go to a pain clinic. She has had a injection years ago and had a bad experience, and not keen on having it again. We just want to explore the possibilities of treatment. Can anyone recomend a pain clinic from the following options we have been given under NHS choose and Book please:
Royal Free,
Barts,
North Mid,
Whittington and
BMI Kings Oak. Thank you in advance.
Written by
Ash-S
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Ash me Darling you are asking the best people because between us on here where everything,' pain related, we on here, must ' have in one way or another come across.
Your mothers case is a classic example, the way they seem to stick to the same mistakes by prodding and needling into the areas where the pain is located, as it seems they are not listening to patients, because what an idiotic thing to do to stick needles into the spine, as if there is not enough damaged tissue already, then by the time they go through the whole gamut of their little money saving ways (there are other reasons, sadly most of them are not clinical either) because there is so much stigma around people saying they have back problems, and so of course they stick rigidly to the same errors in treatment, (instead of firstly asking for an MRI in the fist place) instead it's when all other filtering process's have not wore you down, and into accepting , that it is, you' "the patient' who has psychological problems, and your imagining the pain.
Sorry Ash, it's a little long and rambling, but when did your mother first complain to the Doctor about her back ?, Oh and avoid the Whittington like the plague.
Thanks Coolpolitealex. She's had an MRI, thats why we know there is nerve impingement in the lumbar spine (L1-L5 have almost fused together), there are oesteo phytes on the intervertebral discs which is the partial cause of the nerve impingement. She has scoliosis and spondilitis too. So the GP just suggests pain killers but this doesnt do anything for the pins and needles and the numbnness in the legs) I'm very worried she might end up in a wheelchair (one time the GP told us she would end up in a wheelchais becuse he misread the MRI report as spinal stenosis instead of non spinal stebosis). The thing is if her spine gets worse - i want to know if its inevitable she will end up in the wheel chair. I also want to know if we can sort the spine out hence freeing up the nerve impingment. I want to know if there are any other treatments apart from injections!
Hence the original question - can anyone recommend a decent pain clinic? Its bizarre - we have a choos and book system but there is no inforamation available to make an informed decision!
Thanks for the heads up on the wittington though!
Oh - she's had back problems which the gp is aware of for over 15years.
Maybe you could phone each of the clinics and ask them questions about things like how long they spend with a patient on the first visit, what treatment options they use for spinal and nerve pain, and even things like how accessible the building is, and what the car parking or public transport is like. Also, how quickly you can get seen again if you have problems. That might help make a decision, or at the very least, rule out one or more of the clinics. The clinics may have a patient information leaflet, so you could ask about that and whether they would send you one out.
I was fearing that was the case, Wittington website says it offers more holistic treatment options including physio, acumpuncture, psychology etc, however i have had great feedback of wittington from several sources. ATM i'm hedging my bets on the Royal Free based on feedback from others.
Mum wants to avoid invasive procedures as the last time she had a steroid injection she had more pain which lasted 2 years.
The NHS website reviews are non conclusive, and it doesnt even have a description of all the services.
Not sure about Pain Clinic but I had facet joint injections then a cage fusion done at the Royal Free. Treatment was very good and staff very friendly. I wouldwould avoid North mid if youyou cancan. Hear lots of bad reports from there tho not the painpain clinic. You must be kinda near me as these are nearby.
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