Help Please !

[Fredo]

My Brother-in-Law had a bad back for years & finally got a scan on his back which revealed a cyst (thought to be cancerous). This was putting pressure on the spine & causing the pain. The option taken to relieve the pain was to have the offending cyst removed but being fully aware of the potential complications...... Cyst removed & tested & found to be clear of the BigC.... relief on that front but the operation left problems & BinL paralysed in a wheel-chair.

He was a Psychiatric Nurse, my sister was a trained Nurse turned Specialist Teacher. She now has to look after him full time.

I myself put my back out when 19yo & suffered ever since, my best pain relief is a mix of Diazepam, Diclofenac & Co-Codamol, I usually only take them when my back starts to feel tight (usually after I've done some heavy lifting) & usually Diaz & Diclo before I play paintball.......

Sorry to be on the down side but you did ask

Andy/Fredo
LOKI

 

[Mikey D]

My mother had surgery over a year ago due to a nerve problem. She suffered from severe pins and needles down one arm and after a good 18 months of them trying different drugs and physio they finally gave her an operation. It involved a metal piece being put in her spine I think to stop the nerve being trapped, she now no longer suffers but as a result has pain in her legs but this is more likely to be due to the fact that she spent much of the time off work pretty immobile and so she gained a bit of weight and didn't do much activity.

Your best bet is to go private, you pay for what you get. Luckily my mum had most of her costs covered by her work scheme but you will get seen to much quicker and it would seem you get a different opinion as in the end the doctors have got to get paid!

 

[Bolter]

My mother had surgery over a year ago due to a nerve problem. She suffered from severe pins and needles down one arm and after a good 18 months of them trying different drugs and physio they finally gave her an operation. It involved a metal piece being put in her spine I think to stop the nerve being trapped, she now no longer suffers but as a result has pain in her legs but this is more likely to be due to the fact that she spent much of the time off work pretty immobile and so she gained a bit of weight and didn't do much activity.

Your best bet is to go private, you pay for what you get. Luckily my mum had most of her costs covered by her work scheme but you will get seen to much quicker and it would seem you get a different opinion as in the end the doctors have got to get paid!

yup as soon as i mentioned private health care to my GP for a knee problem, I was referred, operated on and home again within two weeks. Was unbelievable, and really good after care as well.

 

[Robbo]

It seems agonisng pain doesn't figure too highly on the NHS's priority criterion when considering an operation. And even then, if you do manage to get a date, it tends to be anything over 6 months and climbing .....
If the condition is life-threatening then that does tend to push you up the ladder in terms of prioritisation for an operation but a person enduring such back pain isn't in itself life threatening but I'd tend to argue that point because I am damned sure there must have been many a person suffering such levels of chronic pain whereby they eventually elect for a bottle of vodka and a few dozen sleeping pills, I kid you not.
To wake up every morning with unrelenting acute pain on the agenda varying only in its intensity is a humbling but debilitating experience.
If it's not operated upon, it will kill you indirectly because not everybody can face that sort of pain for that long ... it just kills your will to live eventually but thankfully I'm typing this out and so I haven't reached that ultimate point of desperation but I can easily see why they do seek that avenue of rather drastic pain relief.

 

[Gadget]

One of my wife's ex-colleagues had an operation on his back, can't remember the exact details but it was pretty major, he was off work for 6 months afterwards. It all went ok and he was fine last time I saw him.

My wife has a prolapsed disc (always reminds me of scallops looking at the MRI) and she has (fingers crossed) been pain free for a couple of years due to regular exercise & yoga.

 

[BaconDude]

A friend of mine from the local watering hole has suffered from severe back pain, had surgeries, seen multiple specialists of varying aspects of the spinal chord, etc, etc. He seems to know a fair amount of it after many years of research on it for his benefit. I'm sure I can ask him when I see him next (won't be long. I'm there regularly, he's there every evening) and see what he has to say.

The only issue though is that... people here have only had experience. Non of us are doctors and the experience any of us have had, or friends/family have had may have nothing to do with your issues. So it's all well and fine with plenty of posts coming up here saying "risks are...", "this happened..." and the quacks you're seeing may well be saying it's too risky simply to avoid getting you expensive surgery on our ever-so-helpful NHS. The flip side is he's telling the truth, and the risks are too great.

I'm sure you took this into consideration, but I thought it would be worth pointing out all the same.

 

[Tom]

Hi Ren, as you say, you tend to get used to living with 24/7 pain and you can eventually function; I've had the cat scan to determine bone density etc, I've also had 3 mri scans now with the last one done a few weeks ago and even I could see what was fuhkk'd up.
Let's hope the bone density is good enough to operate upon :/

I have a buddy who has gone through numerous back operations each time having had the warnings that each one could cripple him, but these were done at times that the other option would be to remain bed bound, success at each stage has meant he can still walk etc
Now he won't get anymore operations due to what's left of his discs

However under the term 'pain management' he has been on cocktails of drugs for decades and as a result is a morphine addict. Thus he self 'non' medicates where these ate concerned, but sometimes thats all that will have an effect
He accepts the pain will always be there, but for so long was suffering withdrawal symptoms every morning which he attributed to be a fact of life for being on so many painkillers. It took a locum doctor to insist on a review of patients histories to diagnose this not as inevitable but to rewrite the painkiller regime. Not to withdraw certain pills but to reassess how much of what and when, shortly after the morning symptoms were virtually gone
The pain is still there but the suffering around it was improved

 

[renie]

Yeah the good old pain clinic... dont get me started with them timewasters...
The problem with cronic back conditions is unless you've got one or had one its impossible to understand the pain levels,
Some think just take these pills it will go away.. if only...

Also some people think well i hurt my back once i know how you feel.. Trust me i wish it was that easy..
Like Robbo said when ur in pain like he is, if you were offered a 50/50 operation you would take the odds.

Robbo try googling a back specialist in your area, they might be able to give you some different answers

 

[renie]

On A lighter note you could give OCP a call:

 

[Dobby]

I'm sorry for indulging myself here but since it's my site, I'm gonna try and use it for my benefit even though it has nothing to do with paintball, rather it's an appeal for information if you can help.

I know lower back problems are really common and almost all of us will experience them at some stage with varying degrees of seriousness.

My question is this, does anybody here know someone who has had chronic back pain whereby it needed surgery?
The reason I am asking this is because I need to have an idea of success rates of that surgery.

I have been requesting some sort of lower back surgery for over 10 years now and I have always been denied it on the basis of the risks involved; those being, making no difference or making things worse either by increasing pain levels or even something more serious such as paralysis of lower limbs.

The clinical brigade, i.e., all the docs, consultants, physios etc that I have seen over the years have invariably used this argument as a reason for not doing any surgery on me.

I'd like if possible for any of you to let me know if they are aware of anyone they know of, either family or friends that is, who have had surgery on their backs and I'd like to know the outcome of that surgical procedure in terms of success please.

Thanks in advance for anybody contributing, I really appreciate it.

My dad has had chronic back pain for many years, and along with bad blood circuluitation because of his diabetes, it is quite painful for him at times.

He spoke to a chiropractor who told him that the sucess rate for this type of surgery is about 40%, but also can make your back alot worse.
It's a gamble I suppose Robbo!

HTH,
-Joe