Looking for thoughts and advice - please help

[N2Fun]

I totally agree, quality of life is what its about! Normally moderate activity doesn't bother me, but I literally cannot sit for 5 miuntes wihtout the onset of pain. Maybe over time things will get better.

I wish I had a more definite timeline regarding the steps the docs want to take regarding my care - ex. after so many months wihtout improvement we will try "X" and if that doesn't work so many weeks later we will try "Y" eventaully leading to surgery if necessary. I think I struggle living with the feeling of living this way of an indefinite period of time.

I also know that there is a psychological factor to this situation, I simply have to try to work to focus on all the great htings I have and stay positive so that I do not stand in the way of my own recovery - any thoughts on this?

Hope everyone is having a great day!

[Cirobi]

Hi N2Fun,

I'm actually in a similar boat as you right now. i was always athletic up until the start of college in 2003. My back problems surfaced in high school with me yanking something in my back during time trials for track my sophomore year (2001-ish)

Last January (2007) they resurfaced with a vengeance when I literally stood up after using the ladies room and wound up in serious pain. My primary doc figured it was a muscle issue based off of the history i gave, but I pushed a bit and got him to send me for an XRAY. His initial reaction after an XRAY and Bone Scan were that it was arthritis but that diagnosis didn't sit well with me. I was 25 at the time, how the heck could I have "mild arthritis" and be in that much discomfort daily. I had another episode from bending over to spit out toothpaste last summer to which he said "well, that's the nature of the disease" and i was completely deflated. I weathered it out until this January when my insurance changed so i could make more decisions on my own for my care.

After an MRI, i found out I have two herniated disks at L4/L5 and L5/S1. i've been trying to get back to being more athletically active since i stopped most of everything when i first ran into regular pain issues. I've had to just grin and bear it to a certain extent without pushing myself too hard. The grin and bear it method has lost me 30-40 pounds in the process and i'm gunning for more thanks to finding that swimming laps including flip turns is still mostly ok.

I've done chiropractics, stretching, some PT (but no traction which i'm actually going to ask my doc about tomorrow) and anti-inflammatories. I wound up switching to over the counter stuff when the anti-inflammatories didn't do much for me, but i avoid taking anything unless the pain/discomfort is approaching the unbearable level. My ortho doc says I may be a candidate for a 2 level ADR, but had me go for a discography 2 weeks ago to see what exactly was going on in there. I find out the results tomorrow morning and am both nervous and excited.

I don't want to have surgery just yet and plan on getting more opinions before I take that plunge, but i'm so frustrated with dealing with this problem for approx 7 years that i've half resigned myself to the fact that i'll likely have to get surgery. heck, before i even had it resurface last january i had it in the back of my mind that eventually i'd be facing surgery since conservative the most simple pain management options weren't working or had minimal effect.

feel free to send me private messages if you want to chit chat and compare situations more or i'll just keep checking in on this thread.

[N2Fun]

Hi all,
I had an addtitional question....has anyone ever heard of an epidural steroid injection causing a condition to worsen. In Jan. I though I was getting better as I waited for my first ESI, then the same day my doc and I discussed cancelling it I suffered an onset of pain so we went ahead (first injection 1/28/08). Since that time my sitting tolerance is zero, worse than before. Has anyone heard of anything like this, could this be related to the ESI or is it more likely that the ESI just correlated in time to when my symptoms worsened?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hope everyone is having a good day.