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help im in pain

S

starlight1

Well-Known Member
Messages
67
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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people who have no manners
hi there, i suffer with chronic back pain and i have had many tests to find out why, they have all come back negative with no actual cause exept wear and tear. I take oxycontin 2x 40 mg daily and iboprufen x 4 times daily and gabapentin 2x 300mg four times daily for the pain control and i have an epidural every three months. i want to know does being diabetic type 2 cause pain in areas other than the feet?
 
My 25-year chronic back pain has recently been diagnosed as lumbar spinal stenosis. If you Google it you'll find some info.

If standing gets more and more painful the longer you do it, if the only way to get some relief is to bend over and touch your toes, if you're okay going round the supermarket as long as you've got a trolley to push - then it might be worth enquiring about it. It's very difficult to diagnose - my GP finally suspected it and sent me off to the Spinal Rehabilitation Unit's senior physiotherapist, who said it's much more common than usually thought. Depending on the results of my MRI scan, I'm having an op. I want to be able to walk more than 100 yards!

I'm not qualified, can't diagnose, and it may be nothing to do with it! But it's worth asking :D

Viv 8)

Edit: most pain-killers don't touch it. I take 2 x 10mg Nortriptyline at night, and 1 x 75g Volsaid Retard morning and night; this after the most awful 7 weeks of my life when I could hardly bear to stand upright. The pain's under control now, but they don't help with the weak legs!
 
Viv, has it 25 years to diagnose? I have hip pain that is being put down to back pain and I'm in agony most of the day, I get no relief, painkillers don't seem to work for me. What have you tried for pain relief?
 
Hi
I suffer with a bad back and have had this problem on and off for about twelve years. Like yourself i have tried different meds, eventually they put me on a MST treatment which id a form of Morphine, but about a year ago i saw a pain specialist who suggested it could be my Facet joints. This is caused by wear and tear not diabetes. Yesterday i had the left side Facet joints done L2 - L5 done.
Like you i have had Epidurals which worked a few times, but if it hadn't been for the pain specialist doing a diagnostic test on the Facet joints and it worked, i was starting to think i was going mad with pain.
I'm now coming off MST as i have had some horrible side effects, ask them to request you see a pain specialist if your not under one already and please mention to them about your Facet joints
Take care and hope you get on ok
Tracey
 
I'm sure mine is nothing to do with diabetes, because I've had it so long. I've only had diabetes 18 months.

My knowledge of anatomy is not good, but if the facet joints are in the lower spine (lumbar region), that's similar to the spinal stenosis. Wear-and-tear on the joints where the nerves come off the spinal column to the hips and legs can result in an arthritic-type overgrowth of bone, which pinches the nerves and causes pain, numbness and tingling - any or all of these, in either or both legs, hips and lower back.

The condition can flare up, which is what happened to me in June/July, with my right thigh muscle in constant cramp, my lower leg numb, a hip that felt as if someone had stuck a red-hot knife into it, and the only comfortable walking position bent over at right angles.

With me, it started off 25 years ago with "monthly" back pain; has gradually got worse over the years, until it is now constantly there, and worse with standing; the last flare-up was the worst ever, and led to a nice fit of hysterics in the GP's surgery, which in turn led to referral to the Spinal Rehab Unit and a diagnosis :P . I don't know whether anything can be done about it yet, but at least I know what it is now - and it's nothing to do with my weight! :lol:

Anyone who has been told for years that every single problem will be solved by losing weight, will know exactly what that means to me!

As for pain-killers - paracetamol won't touch it; NSAIDs do help to keep it bearable - I've taken them every day for 20 years, which can't be good for me. At its worst, I was taking 8 Tramadol a day which gave some relief. The Nortriptylene is an opioid which acts on nerve pain; in a higher dose it's an anti-depressant.

I did once have a short course of steroids for a persistant chest infection, which cured the back pain completely and I could walk freely again, but my GP won't put me on steroids. I think he's right in that, but it's tantalising knowing there's something out there that works!

I'm waiting for the results of the MRI scan now, and we'll take it from there - maybe an op., maybe the pain clinic.

Viv 8)

Edited once for spelling :oops:
 
All these symptoms seem like what i have. I've had xrays and an MRI scan and it shows just wear and tear. I've been to an orthopaedic clinic and looking at my MRI scans they have said nothin needs doing surgically, which I quess is good but doesn't solve my pain problem. My GP seems to just be content with it being lower back pain/nerve pain. I've had this 2 years and no pain relief has been effective. Obviously as soon as I read someone has similar pain I think there maybe a solution to mine. I am desperate for some pain relief that will work! I'm at my GP on Thursday so I will mention this.
 
Thank you for that link, catherinecherub. It exactly describes my symptoms, which got worse over the years, ending in this recent inflammation flare-up which finally achieved a diagnosis!

I was so angry when I first read an explanation which exactly described a condition with symptoms I had been telling at least 4 GPs about over the years! However, I calmed down enough not to have a row with my GP; I have been told that the condition is very difficult to diagnose without the detailed anatomical knowledge of a physiotherapist, unless you get an extreme flare-up like I did.

My doctor originally referred me to the "usual" visiting physiotherapist, who gave me a series of strengthening exercises for my lumbar region muscles, which have helped greatly. The GP also wrote to the Orthopaedic Unit giving his suspected diagnosis, which led to me being referred straight through to the Senior Physiotherapist at the Spinal Rehab unit. He just listened to me and said "I agree with your GP's diagnosis. Your symptoms and progression are so typical of lumbar spinal stenosis that I hardly need to examine you." He did, of course!

The details of available treatments given in your link have reassured me greatly about length of time in hospital etc, so thanks again. I hope the same things are offered on the NHS as in the USA.

I shall wait patiently - meanwhile keeping up the exercises and getting a bit more weight off! :lol:

I'm glad I didn't row with my doctor. It's too easy to forget that our GPs are just that - General Practitioners - and can't know everything that other specialists spend additional years training for. Nor do they have the amount of time that I spend to search on the internet! :D

Viv 8)
 
I agree wih what you say about GPs VIv but I think the problem occcurs when they forget that they are GPs and not experts in everything and refuse o listen o patients.

My diabetes would have been diagnosed en years earlier had my Gp at the ime listened and I might not now be facing blindness.

Personally I always trust a Dr more if he has the confidence to say that he doesn't know but I think this has the opposite effect on some patients so I suppose it is difficult . Although I do think some like to play God. Its nothing to do with age either.

Back pain is nooriously diffficult o diagnose I know. My daughter suffeed from he age of seveteen wih cripppling backache which didn't respond to any treatment . She was in agony and nothing could relieve her pain,
As she was just die to go to university we found ourselves paying privately for consultants and scans . In the end it was he physio who diagnosed the problem and helped her deal with it.

Physios are worth their weigh in gold I think but only if properly qualified. There are many "sports " physios adverising their services and the unwary are sometimes misled.

I hope you solve your back problem soon. Consant pain is debikitaing and depressing.
 
Unbeliever posted:

Personally I always trust a Dr more if he has the confidence to say that he doesn't know but I think this has the opposite effect on some patients so I suppose it is difficult . Although I do think some like to play God. Its nothing to do with age either.
Click to expand...

I agree with you completely on both points! I haven't quite forgiven my present practice for a partially-torn anterior cruciate ligament that went undiagnosed for 6 years :shock: - an inability to see past the fat person! That happened in the days when I could walk distances, and it hasn't helped my back problem one little bit. However, onwards and upwards :roll:

Thanks for your good wishes, Unbeliever. You have no idea how much relief I feel at just having a diagnosis. Everything I was being told led to me seeing myself as a disgusting, fat, lazy person whose problems were all of her own making. Now I know there really is something wrong. The problem has also cost me my job - as I became less and less able to walk any distance, I couldn't do the job, so chose to retire at 60. If only!

Viv 8)
 
hi there thankyou for all your replys. i have been told that the pain in my back is due to facet joint pain and wear and tear, but after reading what vivienem says about spinal stenoses and the syptoms i can relate more to that because it is exactly how i suffer. so i will talk to my gp and ask him to refer me to the pain consultant that i am under at local hospital to discuss spinal stenoses further. the oxycontin i am on is a morphine based medication slow release , i have been takeing it for years now so my body has got used to it and it does not have the disired effect for pain relief anymore so maybe i need to get my doc to up the dose or try something else to help relieve the pain, and perhaps i will be able to walk a bit further without experiencing leg pain and back pain.
 
I seem to have hijacked your post a bit, Starlight, (sorry!) so I'm glad you've got something out of it. Like the diabetes - it helps me to know I'm not alone, so thanks for your original post.

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on. :D

Viv 8)
 
Just to update this post about the results of my MRI scan - apparently I have severe arthritic wear in my lumbar spine, and the facet joints are much enlarged which is causing the nerve pain. I'm having another flare-up at the moment; I knew housework was bad for me :thumbdown: .

We have decided I shan't go in for an op. at the moment - the physio because he thinks the orthopaedic surgeon might think I'm not bad enough to operate, and because operating on one bit at the moment might upset everything else and in fact make things worse. I don't particularly want to schedule it in just now, because I think I need to lose a lot more weight before I go in for a fairly long op., and because I'm going in in two weeks' time for a gynae op which will need a short general anaesthetic - let's see how that goes first!

So I'm going to discuss pain relief next. The main thing is, as I said before, that now I have a diagnosis, so I can get on with coping with it.

How are all of you doing with your problems? Have you got any relief, Starlight? and Sarah69, have you got any further? Tracey69, how are you now after having your left side facet joints done?

I'd like to know how you've all got on.

Viv 8)
 
Hi all, I have degenerative arthritis of the lower spine, had an MRI to diagnose it after years of back pain and for the last 5 or 6 years a constant referred pain down my right leg. I have tried almost every drug ending up with DF118 Codeine 40mg after Gabapentin and Pregapalin failed to work, well one of them worked but unfortunately worked so well that I pretty much lost all feeling below the waist and it gave me erectile problems so I had to stop it :roll:

I cant take Ibuprofen as I have asthma and COPD so codeine is all I can use, unfortunately it gives me such chronic constipation that I try not to take it too regularly and instead rely on hot Gel pads, the reusable re-heatable ones from Boots and place one on my lower back and after 10 minutes or so my back/leg pain subsides. Give them a try :thumbup:

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Although my leg pains are similar to neuropathy they are not connected with my diabetes as I have had them much longer than I have been diabetic.
 
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