Hi, I just found this forum and now I know that I'm not alone. I was in a car accident in Feb of 03, and walked away uninjured....or so I thought.In October I woke up one morning with a very sore neck. After talking to some of my coworkers I decided to see a chiropractor, which I did for a very short time because he scared me, I thought he was going to make it worse. So I went to my GP and she ordered an MRI. The results were that I had a herniated disc at C6-7 and a bulging disc at C5-6. She referred me to an Orthopaedic surgeon who suggested traction, which I did for a total of 4 months. Didn't really help so he started talking surgery. At this point I was in so much pain with numbess in my left arm, excruciating headaches and shooting pains into my head. My head felt like it weighed 80 lbs. So I went ahead with the surgery in March of 04. The surgery was a success, my arm pain and numbness was gone, but not the neck pain. I saw him for 6 months of follow up after the surgery and he just told me to be careful because of the bulging disc underneath.
I was in pain, but he said that I could go back to my normal activities and the fusion was healing nicely. Fast forward to Dec 05, the disc at C5-6 herniated and I had another surgery. Same scenario, follow up, but still in excruciating pain. He finally told me after prescribing physical therapy like 3 times with no improvement that could no longer prescribe pain medication for me. So I tried not taking anything and just dealing with the pain. But I couldn't sleep and was in tears the pain was so bad. I called my ortho dr. back and he referred me to a Pain Mgmt Clinic which I am still going to, have been since 2006. They are very good at this clinic, but have yet to diagnose the source of my pain...after trigger point injections, botox injections, facet injections, nothing has helped. He prescribed physical therapy 3 times to no avail. He recently sent me to a neurosurgeon who did a cat scan and a bone scan. The results were not good. He told me that my fusions had never completely healed. First time any one has ever said that to me, and I have a several MRIs, CT scans, & bone scans over the years since my second surgery. I have to back track a little bit here, I forgot to mention that I was rear-ended in October 2010 so obviously there was concern that it may have caused me more problems. I don't know yet if the accident caused the space in my fusions or if they actually didn't heal, but I have never been told that, I was always told that my fusion healed fine. I have a disability case pending, which my attorney thinks will be approved, but I now also suffer from lower back pain, which I will begin physical therapy for this week along with more PT on my neck. Hope it helps this time, seriously. I'm tired of being on pain meds that don't even touch the pain anymore, and anti-depressants. The neurosurgeon said he could do a third surgery but they would have to go in in the back of my neck, and use screws to secure the fusions, but he told me it wouldn't relieve my pain, and there is only a 50/50 chance of success of this surgery. My only other option is for the Spine and Pain Clinic to continue to manage my pain. So I basically feel like i'm just screwed. I'm a 48 year old woman who thank God is wonderful and helps me and loves me. Most men would have packed their bags by now, so I thank God I have him. But this zero quality of life is getting to me, it's very depressing and frustrating to me. I was a very active before my problems began and now I can't even clean my house, it takes me about 2 hours to shower and dress, and then I have to rest for a couple hours just to get up for a half hour. Just really tired of it all, and I feel like I have pretty much exhausted all of my options. I would sell my soul to the devil for just one day pain free, to feel like the old me...does any one know if there's anything else I can do?