Spine

[Clem78]

I am a 31 year old lady, from Namibia and have been suffering from a spine pain for 2 years, non-stop.  I went to a Neurologist, they did a scan and found that I have a tb spine infection, they also found that some of my discs are collapsed.  The medication they prescribed, does not help me at all.  I am constantly in pain, am forgetful, suffer from headaches, even forget the name of my daughter at times.  I also have a numbness on the left hand side of my body.  Pliz advise me as to what I can do.  I am emotionally drained of this pain.

[ggreg]

I just looked at my post, and I don't know if stars show up on yours, but the words that were starred is equivalent to "medicine treatment."

[ggreg]

Well, first of all, you have to be undergoing ************** for the active TB you have in your body.  This takes anywhere from six months to a year of following an exact course of treatment with medications specifically for TB.  Now, as for the pain, I have two things that may help you.

First, you should be in physical therapy so you can strengthen the muscles that are associated with the part of the spine that bothers you, this keeps it from hurting so much.  For example, if you have the collapsed disks in your lumbar spine, you should strengthen your tummy muscles.  Me, I have a similar problem from a car wreck in my thoracic spine, and I have to pull my arms back and squeeze the muscles between the shoulder blades.  But there are a variety of exercises you can be taught to do by the PT people to help your back stabilize.  Another thing I do at home a lot that helps my back pain is to lay flat on the floor and put my lower legs and feet up in a chair, this takes all the weight off the spine and within minutes can bring relief that will last anywhere from an hour to all day.  

Second, you should have them either increase the dose of the medication you are on, or change it.  Any opiate derivative is a good choice of medicine, to include drugs as strong as methadone (not as addicting), demerol, or even morphine if necessary (very addicting).  You can also get these nerve block shots in the spine periodically, or shots of cortisone and other drugs in the spine, too.  They only help temporarily, for a month maybe, and you have to go back on a regular basis to get them, if they help you.  There are other kinds of drugs that can help, I take Lyrica for lumbar pain, Neurontin is a cousin, but they don't help my thoracic spine pain at all.  Anyhow, the gabapentin or pregabapentin has to be increased threefold within three months of beginning to take it.  But if it's going to work, you will notice it as quickly as overnight to within a few days.

Surgery is another option, but even if they remove the old disk material and fuse your spine, there is a chance you will still have pain.  This is the kind of thing that is to be decided between you and an orthopedic surgeon.  By the way, the reason you are having problems with forgetfulness is because pain ruins the concentration.  And the numbness you feel is because the nerves associated with your spinal disintegration are compromised, and since the spinal nerves go out from there and into the rest of the body and the extremeties, you'll get everything from tingling, to numbness, to pain in those areas.  You could try visiting an acupuncturist or professional massage therapist to perhaps minimize those sensations.  

I hope some of this helps you, I know exactly how awful you feel, I hope you can get proper ************** or shots, and I hope you will get into physical therapy, and do visit someone who does acupuncture or massage to at least give you SOME general relief.  Me, so far I can live with what I have by doing those things, but I also know that one day I'll have to have surgery or I may endanger my ability to walk.