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Extreme Chronic pain in back, neck, shoulder, arm.

April 16, 2021

Hello..

I been recently diagnosed with Intervertebral disc degeneration that hasn't stopped spreading since the orginal accident that ruptured my lower back causing a severe herniated disc and whiplash about 25 years ago.  At 60 yrs old now, this degenerative bone disease has spreaded into my  neck, upper right side of my back, collar bone and shoulder.  My entire right arm is having extreme muscle contractions in the bicep, underneath and top sides of my forearm.  I feel like I been shot in the upper right side of my back!  Yes, it's imaginable.

IT IS EXTREMELY PAINFUL !!!

My right hand feels like it been attacked by bees - numb.  The PAIN does not stop and is much worse in the mornings - I wake up in some type of seizure and shock due to this PAIN's EXTREMITY.  It is making it almost impossible to lay on my back or right side to sleep.  My left ear hurts due to having layed on it so much to attempt sleeping.  I am practically disfunctional due to EXTREME CHRONIC PAIN.

Before it got to this extremity I had went to the Ottawa Civic Hospital using the emergency entrance the first time on November 12, 2020 and they told me that my pain at the time was not an emergency and to just take pain killers off the shelves and that it would go away on its own.  I was sent home after giving me some Tylenol.

With respect to the maximum dosages I have tried every pain killer pill off the shelves from Shoppers Drug Mart (Motrin, Advil, other Ibuprofen generic brands, Acetaminophen pills as well as Tylenol Extra Strenght, Aleeve, Aspirin, you name them I tried them all seperately for days at a time giving about 12 hours space between changing from one type of pill to the other.  ALL WERE INEFFECTIVE OR NOT TOLERATED!

I had went back to the emergency Ottawa Civic Hospital in December between Christmas and New Year.  They again, told me my case was not an emergency but that time they had taken an X-RAY and that is how I got my diagnosis about having DDD.  They prescribed me Naproxen 500mg in which they told me to take twice per day and to seek physiotherapy for right upper extremity radiculopathy / cervical strain.  I sticked to Naproxen for almost 3 months as I had nothing else and it seem to help a bit.  A sports injury doctor that is located in the same building for the physiotherapy is the one that follwed up with me for the refills of Naproxen.  There was no way to do any physiotherapy exercises with this type of PAIN that got from bad to worse and now to EXTREMITY!

Now, all of the above pills I tried off the shelves and the Naproxen are totally INEFFECTIVE !!!  

My family doctor is more or less retired and refuses to prescribe me Statex (morphine) that is so much needed at this time of my life.  However, he prescribed me Pregabalin but is totally useless to fastly relief me of this type of PAIN at this level.

Is there a doctor in Ottawa Ontario that will PLEASE subcribe me STATEX 10mg x2 (blue pills) that was once prescribed to me for this type of pain and that worked!?

My endurance for this PAIN is about to fail on me and the thought of running toward a bus, truck or train at high speed has come to mind.

P.S. It took me long hours to put this letter together for HELP!
4 Responses
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29837 tn?1414534648
Pain management doctor
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I am a nesurosurgery resident. I would advise you to do an MRI of cervical and lumbar spine so we can see what is happening and EMNG of upper extremities.
Helpful - 0
2 Comments
Thanks for that. I really hope you come back and help answer questions here!  That would be awesome to have that kind of help.
No problem, write it here so i get notification. Hear from you when you have the results
Avatar universal
I am a massage therapist (24 years).. I see clients EVERY day with what's called TRIGGER POINTS that  lie dormant until muscle are over-used or traumatized. If I don't get the trigger point I don't get the muscle "knots" to relax. It requires DIRECT pressure on the point that hurts for about 20-30 seconds most of the time,and then gentle rubbing. A trigger point can feel like burning and stabbing, refers pain elsewhere and  causes range of motion problems. Most MD's don't look for these or know where they are in the body.. an Orthopedic or pain management Dr. knows. .. but pain management will usually want to inject medication for relief, but if you have active tps the direct pressure is what counts. Massage without elimination of the tp is ineffective. Look for a massage therapist who knows trigger point therapy.
Helpful - 0
2 Comments
My favorite caregiver in my life is my former massage therapist. I can no longer afford it but it is the thing that gave me so much relief.  Massage and stretching saved me and gave me my life back.  You do good work!
May i know how much per session your massage therapist charged you?  I'm thinking of trying this out myself.  I even got a prescription from a doctor to get massages as well as psysiotherapy for my condition.  Thanks.
Avatar universal
I doubt you're going to run into anyone on this forum who knows docs where you live, and because of problems with painkillers they're not as easy to get as they used to be.  But if you have a structural problem that is in fact causing this, you should be seeing an orthopedic surgeon about possible surgery to alleviate the problem.  If the problem is more muscular than structural, which is often the case, then you will be sent to physical therapy.  The movements they give in physical therapy start very slowly and then proceed to resistance as you are able to handle it.  Nothing will work immediately.  The painkillers are all toxic if you take too much of it.  Acetaminophen is liver toxic if you take too much.  The other OTC pain relievers are both liver toxic and can tear up your stomach lining.  Some others can cause heart problems.  Opiates are addictive and over time you have to take more and more of them and can cause constipation, but oddly are probably less toxic than the OTC ones unless you get so addicted to them you take too much, in which case you're back to possible liver toxicity and overdoses.  You appear to have been talking to primary care docs, who can't diagnose you.  You have gotten X-rays, but not mentioned MRIs.  You have not seen the specialists who handle these injuries, which would be orthopedic surgeons, or the pain specialists who have other things that can be tried, such as physiatrists.  There's a lot out there you haven't tried yet.
Helpful - 0
3 Comments
Hell:

I am not exagerating in my claim on the level of this pain wbich is extreme.  I don't do drugs nor do i smoke or drink any alcobol when taking medication.. I just want some help with bringing down this torchering PAIN!

I have very recently seen a physiatrist whom gave me a prescription for "Pregabalin" which is useless to me for immediate PAIN RELIEF.

He also made arrangements for me to get some kind of cortizone  injection that could take several weeks to a couple months to get.  I am on a waiting list for an operation to the lower disc in my back.

Taking a cortizone shot would only prolong my waiting time up to 6 more months to having this operation done.  This long ago arrangement is not to be messed around with and is a totally different part of my body to begin with.

I replied to you here now because I felt offended by this line: "There's a lot out there you haven't tried yet".

Let me tell you that I am 60yrs old and there's a lot of me you know nothing about.
We can only know what you post.  If you don't post it, we don't know you.  It appears that your surgeon seems to believe this problem is structural and requires surgery, which may or may not be true and may or may not help.  Physiatrists have a plethora of things they can try, but most of them are intrusive and take time and many are not officially certified by most of the medical oversight agencies, such as plasma therapy, prolotherapy, and others.  Some find acupuncture to be helpful.  Some find chiropractic to be helpful. Some find massage to be helpful.  I don't know the Canadian medical system, so I have no idea why it would take a long time to get a cortisone shot -- your physiatrist if he thought it appropriate could have done it when you were in his office, so again, no idea why that's something that takes so long.  It might be that with so many different areas of your body hurting he didn't really know where to give it to you, because it has to be right where the inflammation is.  There are a lot of different things out there that are used for pain, including marijuana, opioids, nerve blocks, muscle relaxants, movement, and SNRIs.   Sorry I couldn't be of any help.  
I fully feel your pain.  Oh my gosh, this must be terrible.  I do find massage to be THE thing that did the most benefit for me after an injury post car accident. So, Mayo clinic does some unique things with pain. However, I'm sure some of the things they do can be found at other places.  Cleveland Clinic, Hopkins, etc.  You may need to travel for an appointment. But one thing that they do sounds a bit radical but I happen to know someone it greatly helped. It's an implant that makes a buzzing.  It's meant to distract from the pain.  They could not solve the pain issue of the person I know as he had a nerve that retracted up never to be found again causing severe, unrelenting pain. This worked for him. The mind is complex yet simple. The distraction transferred his focus off the pain and he actually lives a fairly normal life whereas before he couldn't.  https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2018/12/14/spinal-cord-stimulator-sparks-a-pain-free-journey-to-better-health/
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