I Just Got Another Diagnosis

Hi Everyone

I haven't posted for a bit. I've been dealing with a fair bit of pain lately. I starting getting cramping in my feet along with the sharp heel pain from the sciatica and both happening together so figured it was probably my back. The last CT scan about 18 months back showed a disc prolapse that was leaning on my sciatic nerve sheath. Well my doc is away, so another doc I saw ordered another CT scan to be done. The scan result shows I now have facet arthropathy (aka: osteoarthritis) in all my lumber joints and weirdly enough the 4.5mm prolapse is now smaller... all the discs are bulging although not by much. I'm baffled how it improved after I got told it wouldn't. Anyhow I got told a couple of months back my C3/4 in my neck also has arthritis in it. I'm not sure what to make of it as I haven't had any reprieve since my car accidents and I'm wondering if all those whiplash injuries I had are the cause of this arthritis that has developed so quickly. I'm noticing doing things like turning my torso or tilting any way is now hurting so I guess I have the reason why that is. Sometimes I wonder whether they make mistakes on these scans too because how can you have something 18 months ago and still have the symptoms for it and they're now saying it's not 4.5mm anymore... so it obviously must fix itself even though they insist it doesn't. I guess my discs are all not ok though if they're all bulging and now have facet arthropathy which I gather just means more inflammation in my body.

Guzzler said:

With scans it often comes down to interpretation. Hopefully you will now get appropriate treatment/medications. All the best.

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Thanks Yes the doc wants me to continue with physiotherapy. The only thing is I've been having physio since 2016 after my car accidents (had 3 of them between Aug 2016 and Apr 2017) and I just seem to be getting worse rather than improving. I get headaches all the time now and my bursitis from the accident hasn't got better either. I now have to let my lawyer know as well about the latest findings as I don't know what that means exactly for the insurance claim for the accidents... none of them were my fault at all and they have accepted liability although they're waiting for my injuries to stabilise. Now I've been told I have arthritis where I was injured I'm not sure how stable I'm going to get. ugh.

Guzzler said:

Strange things are spines. During autopsies pathologists have found individuals with multiple sites of injury/disease and yet no history of acute pain and the opposite can be true, too, individuals having been on high dose opiates proven to have few sites. Good luck with your claims, though money is going to make no difference to your pain levels it can go a little way to improving your quality of life.

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Yes we certainly do all experience pain differently. I have a lot of pain going on and some days I'm good with managing and other days I want to just stay in bed. With my back though I remember being admitted to hospital after the 3rd accident and a trauma team checking me over when I first arrived at the ER... all but 2 vertebrae in my back hurt from base of skull down. I think it was somewhere in the middle that didn't hurt, the rest was very sore. My GP reckons I'm just not recovering well because I had the accidents all within 8 months and no time for my body to recover from the previous accident before I had the next one. The 3rd one was probably the worst out of them as I had myocardial contusion and pericardial effusion with that one plus wrote my car off. Fingers crossed this arthritis doesn't progress too quick and get too hard to manage.

Guzzler said:

The ray of hope there is that a lower carb lifestyle will go some way in aiding your recovery. I suffer with chronic pain (physio was good for me at first but after a few years it became less effective) but since being on LCHF there has definitely been no increase in pain levels and I experience fewer flare ups re inflammation. I hope this proves to be a similar experience for you.

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Yes, unfortunately that diet didn't work too well for me. I'm eating what I can eat in moderation these days, as you can see I have a lot of different illnesses to please. I'm glad it's working for you though.

Alexandra100 said:

Could you try a different physio? They are not all equally gifted. After years of fairly useless physio appointments I finally found a wonderful one who treats successful Olympians. Consulting her costs a small fortune, but it's worth it. When I think of the money I wasted over the years on physios who did me absolutely no good at all ...

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Yes, I am in the process of finding another one. I'll give this new lady a go as my physio went on maternity leave as it turns out. I'm already seeing 2 other physio's to treat another condition I've got so it's proving to be rather expensive as those ladies are specialists and charge even more than your average physio.