Pain and appointments

[Ladywriter1968]

H,i I am new and this be my 2nd post tonight. As of my previous post sufferer of sciatic pain. My GP centre is very good but the problem is getting an appointment, you will wait a month for one, you can go on a daily emergency if you can get through to get the appointment within time stated. They have so many patients on their books the receptionists cant cope at times. With nhs appointments you can wait like 3 months, luckily for me I had mri scan at private clinic arranged via my gp and the hospital due to my severe pain. It was so nice, no waiting done straight away in a private room. No sitting with a gown on waiting for hours with people walking past seeing all your bits. I have read that operations are not successful for sciatica and dont know anyone who had them that has said they were better afterwards. I have never had this myself. It scares me. This is an alone illness with pain, as no one else knows what you are going through or the pain. But I am finding out that more people I speak to seem to have it. My late father suffered with it for years in agony. they say to stay positive as it helps the pain but not everyone can do that. I find walking helps me. Even in this day of medical science and technology they still dont have cures for things.

[Rosepetal60]

Have you considered Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. ? It works for me. The biggest problem is finding the right practitioner who has the advanced qualifications and years of experience.

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to Rosepetal60]

None of my practioners can do this. I dont know anyone who can do this now. or who I would even trust to do it.

[Hidden]

Sorry to hear that you are suffering so much. You do not state what your Mri result showed. My bilateral sciatica was brought on by excessive NHS physio and swimming and it is getting the correct balance. What job did you do or do or could you be in habit of doing things that irritate sciatica as I know I am. If your core muscles are weak that can also that can cause or increase sciatica. Core is not rippling abs it's all your middle body like the trunk of a tree supporting the roots and branches. I've got myelitis and osteo arthritis and taken up gentle swimming again as my core was weakened from protein deficiency. Please get your vit d3 checked as this is mostly produced from daylight/ sunlight and lack of it can cause lots of illnesses. It is actually an hormone and gps are becoming more aware of it being rife due to our cold climate. Good luck

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to Hidden]

I am still awaiting the results of my mri scan, they said it could take couple of weeks.

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to Hidden]

I had all my vits checked as do regular as have other health issues as well, like hypertension and thyroid disease on top. so have bloods checked regular. I used to to office work but cant work now as to the pain. I cant sit for to long cant stand for to long. leaves me rather limited. cant lift things. have trouble with stairs. As I am new to this site had trouble at first find my posts as it looks like I cant save them to check my replies.

[Hidden in reply to Ladywriter1968]

Until you get results of MRI you don't know what you are dealing with so it is hard to advice. I know stretching and lifting exacerbates my sciatica.

[johnsmith]

There is no cure only work. Much medical treatment is based on treatment. Someone does something for a short time and that's it. Muscle behaviour shortcomings require continual work to ensure that muscles move well and over shortened muscles are lengthened out.

The medical profession treatment for over shortened muscles is pain killers. This cannot work. Over shortened muscles need to be lengthened out again. Over shortened muscles and muscles in cramp can only be detected by hand type skills. These hand type skills have been thought in complementary medicine for years and never taught to nurses or medical doctors and medical consultants. Which is why medical treatment does not include hand type treatment.

The brain controls how muscles function. As we get older the brain loses some of its ability. The ability loss can effect the fine tuning of muscle control by the brain. To compensate for this there is a need to pay more attention to fine tuning of muscle control. This requires work on part of the patient and on part of the doctor. In a lot of cases neither party wants to the work that is needed to be done.

Any comments would be most welcome.

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to johnsmith]

I do understand what you say and it makes sense, but considering we only get like 10-20mins with our gps these days due to all cutbacks etc it does not give much chance really for going over the stuff you mention. When you say work I assume you mean exercise to strengthen the muscles. I do this but it takes time. unfortunately some treatments which have been mentioned here are helpful but expensive and I cant afford them. So find myself stuck on pain killers that then upset my stomach. I know its not the answer but what is really. have even read that operations are not successful through people I have spoken to who had them. I had physio but had this within a group before, while the exercises were very good dont you agree that everyone has different back conditions and what may be good for one may not be good for the other. They tend to use standard same exercises for everyone. they dont treat much individually on the nhs really. When I saw the physio for 3rd time I only saw her twice and she gave me these exercises, no follow ups or nothing to see if it was working or not.

[johnsmith in reply to Ladywriter1968]

I agree conditions for backs are different for everyone. There are patterns which suggest possible approaches. However, the approaches need investigating as they are done to determine if the approach is one that is helpful.

I pay for treatment from an Alexander teacher on a regular basis. This is expensive, but the alternative does not bear thinking about.

If you have a Hindu temple near to where you live you could inquire about the possibility of attending their yoga classes. This is often free or at very low cost. That should provide an input from people skilled in the use of muscles.

Exercises in your case should not be about strengthening muscles. It should be about using the muscles better. This is different from the strengthening muscle exercises of the physio where one size fits all.

An exercise for you to try is hold a cup of coffee with as little strength as possible. Let the weight of the cup determine where the hand goes. Another exercise for you to try is to use the weight of a knife to cut vegetables rather than use force downwards. When you have got the hang of these two exercises apply the principle to your back problem.

Let me know how you get on.

[Pepper2nd in reply to Ladywriter1968]

Reading your posts seems to echo my experience. Waited several months for a MIR scan and paid for a private consultant who said the scan showed no nerve impingement and didn't recommend surgery. I've tried the lot, drugs, physio, accupuncter, injections etc

I asked to try medical marijuana but got a big No!

I guess I will have to source it on the street!!! Or grow my own.

[Lou_inpain]

Hi

Its really frustrating isnt it? I have to call like 100 odd times just to get through but thankfully my GP will talk to me on the phone as my condition is so rare she just follows the letters and advice from my consultant. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia - so as you have probably guessed it is a neurological pain as well - in fact its nickname is the 'suicide disease' and it too has no cure and gets worse as time goes on (and im only 30). I had a bit of sciatica when I was pregnant so I can emphathise a bit but you have all my sympathy. Neurological pain is the worst and so difficult to treat. Are you currently on any meds? Maybe physio might be worth a go - Im usually skeptical of physio but you might have trapped the nerve and they might be able to manipulate your muscles to stop them squeezing it.

My Dad once completely pulled his back out whilst lifting a chicken out of the oven (men lol) but they gave him some muscle relaxants for a week or so and that helped.

Sorry to hear your in so much pain

Hugs

Lou xx

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to Lou_inpain]

Hi there, sorry didnt see your message here before, new to this site, I also have TN as well, but have only suffered a little with it or so i was told it was TN, but whats going on with my back I could not take it at both ends, the weekend gone I slipped on my bad back to make matters worse, twisted my ankle as well but thats not to bad though, and hurt my back more on top. Before it only hurt worse on getting up for couple of hours but now it hurts all the time, am just living on pain killers, this seems to be my life now. I have got to wait four months for a pain clinic in my area. I was put on various meds but some I cant take. so take diclofenic and co codamel and tramodil, but thats what it comes down to, we are all on a life long treatment of pain killers. I have two herniated discs and a pinched nerve on the 3rd. They dont operate now unless you are practically disabled, but then again dont know if I would take the risk, the operation is high risk on me been told. I try to live my life as normal as possible but living with constant pain is horrible.

[Ladywriter1968 in reply to Lou_inpain]

oh had physio already, it hasnt helped much. I cant afford private treatments and nhs only offer so much or you end up waiting months on end for it. Yeah my doctors is a pain to get through to, its a fight to get them on phone for emergency appointment or wait a month for routine one, patients should not have to keep fighting for all the time, we are tired of it all. We get little support either with our pain. Sorry you have TN thats terrible...when it starts up massage your face in circular motions that helps it. massage from temple down to face area.

[Lou_inpain in reply to Ladywriter1968]

Thank you for the advice but unfortunately touching my face is just not an option for me, particularly during a flare up.

Everyone seems so downcast atm on all pain forums - i feel the tide is changing and the NHS just doesnt want to deal with Chronic Pain Patients (CPPs).

[Tinuccia]

Hi

I have sciatica as you may have read one of my previous posts. Never suffered so much from such excruciating pain before and staying positive is very hard. At the beginning I found that walking made me feeling better and sitting was the worse i could do. At the beginning I could sleep at night and felt no pain in the morning. The pain started around midday and worse in evenings. Anadin was the only medication I was taking now and then. Then things got worse suddenly and now I have pain in the low back, hamstrings muscles and calf of my right leg. Tingling, burning and pain, all on the right side of low back. I was lucky to be called for a Mri after 4 weeks I had seen someone at the hospital and 8 weeks since I my Gp. The Mri said it was a bulging disk and wear and tear.the usual L5/s1 and the sciatic nerve was irritated. In Europe immediately they send you to a physiatrist but here you go through so many people before you see the right person. I know Gp have their books full of patients but it has become a sort of fashion to have a policy in place allowing appointments after a period of three/ four weeks. It is like they hope your problem goes off on its own and they don't have to deal with it. It took me weeks on line and phone before I could see someone. Only 4 doctors on duty at the surgery. Yet there are almost ten of them plus nurses registered at the address.

My surgery also close half day during the week for training and meetings. The doctor I used to see for the last twenty years is on long leave. How can things get better?