Pain management for spinal injuries

[Col_in]

Hi everyone, hope the pain is not too bad today for you folks.

Anyway, the reason for the post is about pain management, i have impingement of the nerves in D5/D6, C6/C7 and L4/L5 of my spine. As you can imagine this is excruciating!

I have been for MRI scans which confirm this, but unfortunately they are not serious enough (so they say) to operate. I am on gabapentin 3 300mg 3 times a day, 2 dyhrdacodeine 4 times a day, 1 Longtec(oxycodeine) 10mg twice daily and 2  Dosulepin 10mg at night. As you can see i am on rather a lot of pills. Do these work? Well if i didn't take these tabs i would not be able to get out of bed, but they only lessen the pain by as much as 40%. I have all the associated leg cramps, arm cramps... in fact the list is too extensive to write them all

My life is a nightmare.

Can anyone give me any advice about how best to manage this? I have tried acupuncutre, just localised the pain and in fact made it worse. I went to a 10 week yoga class run by the NHS years ago but due to the nature and increased pain i cannot do this anymore.

The only thing i have found that works better than my medication is cannabis, but due to our governments refusal to give this lifesaver to people in chronic pain, we are labelled crimminals.

Please can someone save me from my despair.

Many thanks

Colin

[Ktchard]

Hello Colin 

I'm similar to you exept I have c3 degenerative disk c4 moderate foraminal stenosis , c5 annular bulge c6/7 large prolapsed disk which is pushing into the spinal canal & on a c7 nerve root I get arm hand shoulder weakness and pain also leg weakness & tingling.

I'm never without pain !! 

Do you get problems with your vision ? My vision is blurred & jumps intermittently. I'v had physio, acupuncture, iv tried tens machine, massage, muscle rubs,reflexology,  medication.& spinal injections.

Have you been refered to a neurologist? I'm waiting to be seen myself & my gp referred me to pain clinic.

Iv been told I'm too young for an operation which would be a fusion but because there are so many levels affected they don't think it's wise but in years to come Il probably have to have one.

Get on to your gp for more advice on what to do next if you haven't already had injections you may want to try them.

Although they didn't help me but everyone is differant.

I wish you all the best any  or just need a chat just msg me  take care I know it's hard 😊

[Ktchard]

    I forgot to mention the gabapentin made me feel ill had to stop it.

I take morphine for breakthrough pain I'm currently am prescribed paracetamol ,dihydrocodine & nortrypyiline but I'm trying not to take them so much. 

[earthwitch]

Can't really help with pain management, but wondered if you had tried asking questions on one of the spinal injury forums, like apparalyzed.com   I get an awful lot of good advice there even though my spinal condition is non-injury related.

[grace111]

i just left a post for someone telling them all about the alexaner technique and also the feldenkrais technique. you can google each one and then go to videos and you will see them all on utube, i'v very tired after posting that last post however you might see it as its someone who has an awful lot of pain and scoliosis. i use both those methods to help my pain when i had another condition i still use the technique and do the movement for the feldenkrais method as they are so helpful that they become a way of life and definately help if one has limited movement and pain, also the both correct the posture as when we are in pain we dont use the correct muscles and over compensate becasue of our pain which throws us out of balance good luck and im so sad to hear of your pain being a pain sufferer myself. different pain but pain is pain,there are also a lot of good pain management on  utube as well. all the very best 💐

[Dcraw47]

Try epidural injections. They work great for me and I've had four back surgeries. I still have two other bulging discs and spinal stenosis also  three bulges in my cervical spine. The epidurals help in both lumbar and cervical areas.

[cocklover46742]

bear gyrlls had spinal injury but he recovered so there is lots of hope 4 u!

[johnsmith]

See both a McTimony chiropractor and Alexander teacher.  You need to develop muscle control skills so as to reduce the amount of muscle pressure caused on the impingements.

Taking drugs does not give you the knowledge of muscle control that you need.

Hope this helps

[Hidden]

Sorry you are suffering. I just resumed going to pain management for the reasons you described. I had nerve blocks, injections of a short acting anesthetic, in 6 lumbar facet joints to see if they were causing the pain. It worked. Now I'm scheduled to have them burned by a process called radiofrequency. This scares me because it is a very painful procedure. Sedation isn't used. I have stenosis in both cervical and lumbar spine due to collapsed disk. The pain doctor is letting me have trigger point injections in my neck because the muscles are so tight. I've had an MRI and a myelogram and found that I don't need surgery!

[coolpolitealex]

I myself have lived with pressure on my nervous system for nigh on thirty years or so and I have found that if you get a reasonable amount of pain meds and you practice breathing to relax your muscles especially every time you sit down or when the pain starts, then you must move as much as possible and you have to be bloody minded about it.

I know it's not easy, but if you lie down and think about your breathing (or sitting) you will find that your mind will feel each muscle relaxing and you feel your spine taking it's shape and you can slowly control each muscle that is pressing into the spinal area where the pain is, so it's vital that you learn to use each muscle, because you can with practice.

Then you hopefully will know just what movements or which muscles not to tighten fully before they are warmed up... and you must look upon it as a full time job in itself

Relaxation, movement, and manage your muscles .

Well it works for me, but your situation may be very different to mine, so always ask the physiotherapist first, but I suspect he or she will concur best Alex