Pain management and treatment

liz29

Hi.
Have been suffering with lower back pain since last January. This has progressively become worse and have been on sick leave since September 2021. Following MRI in March I have degenerative discs in lower lumbar region and bulging disc. 
Doctors and Physio help is a slow process and despite guidance for gentle exercises and pain relief nothing is improving. This is also affecting my mental health due to pain and limited mobility I rarely leave the house maybe twice a month. 
Just wondering if anyone has similiar experience or knowledge for pain relief, daily management and future treatments.
Thank you.

Ross_Alumni

Sorry to hear about how much your pain is impacting you @liz29, it can take quite a lot of time sometimes to adapt to new experiences such as living with pain and frustration over not seeing fast results in terms of managing the pain can make things even more difficult.

Have you informed the doctor and physio that nothing is improving? Perhaps they might be able to look at an alternate way of supporting you to manage your condition.

liz29

Thanks for your response @Ross_Scope. Yes on numerous occasions. They appear to gove conflicting advice. They said that they will make referral to the pain clinic but as of yet has not happened. Additionally due to the current waiting times for an appointment particularly for the doctors this can be anything from 6 to 8 weeks. 

L_Volunteer

It sounds really frustrating that they appear to give conflicting advice @liz29. Like, how are you supposed to rely on inconsistent support?

Hopefully, you will receive the referral to the pain clinic sooner rather than later. Though, I can hear how this might take a while with the current waiting times.

If we can do anything else to support you, even if that is just a listening ear, please don't hesitate to let us know   

Cartini

liz29 said:

Hi.
Have been suffering with lower back pain since last January. This has progressively become worse and have been on sick leave since September 2021. Following MRI in March I have degenerative discs in lower lumbar region and bulging disc. 
Doctors and Physio help is a slow process and despite guidance for gentle exercises and pain relief nothing is improving. This is also affecting my mental health due to pain and limited mobility I rarely leave the house maybe twice a month. 
Just wondering if anyone has similiar experience or knowledge for pain relief, daily management and future treatments.
Thank you.

Hi @liz29,

I was medically discharged from the Royal Navy 20 odd years ago with lumbar and cervical spondylosis, for which I was prescribed coproxamol but when that was banned, cocodamol was prescribed.  Before my discharge I had sessions of physiotherapy which made the pain worse so have never tried physio again. 

Recently my surgery was replaced by a larger, multiple location, practice and since then I feel the service offered has gone downhill.  I`ve recently been diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis which causes severe pain when standing or walking, the longer I stand or walk, the worse the pain gets.

Even though the "new" surgery put me forward for the MRI, and are aware of my stenosis and pain, it refuses to prescribe any opioid pain relief (and, in their words, there is no decent alternative).  It has, however, prescribed 30mg amitritpyline per night; this is fantastic for my insomnia but does absolutely nothing for my daily pain.  I`ve asked several times for pain relief, but they are reluctant (read that as refuse) to prescribe any but keep harping on about physio. 

It`s got to the stage now where I`ll try physio so I can say "told you so, now can I have some pain relief"; if that doesn`t work, I`ll be submitting a formal complaint.

Like you, I don`t go out very often and I have my weekly shopping delivered.

It sounds like your surgery is similar to mine.

Andy