advice after surgery

i had fall a year ago landing on both hips really hard. no one could find anything wrong but the pain in my hip persisited, after going to a back dr. he did an mri and said i had a herniated disk and in that i had done all i should by that point to try to help myself, he recommended first the injections in the back adn after that was no help--surgery. i had the surgery on the disk(tho my back was not my biggest complaint at all) and i did not even look at the mri results as i usually would do before surgery.after surgery  my husband said the dr, said i did fine--that it wasn't exactly what he thought when he got in there but that i was fine.  what did that mean? anyway, i am and have continued to be in extreme pain in my upper thigh my knee area(which is a knee replacement and my knee dr has made sure all is well there) and in the front of my lower leg...after walking funny now since the surgery to compensate the other hip is hurting too., i am in a fix here as the dr. did not like to be questioned about any of this and i felt he wanted me to just 'go away;' that has now suited me and yet i do not know what to do. i want to do strengthening of the legs and back but i am afraid to now as i have no clue what might really be going on....the hips hurt and the lower back/the legs . can't sit long/stand l;ong/ walk long/can't do every day things that i enjoy--just get through the days....best i can...
i need to know if i were to go for second opinion somewhere --first is that is the thing to do and if so where does one go for that....i get the feeling sometimes that drs. protect drs. and i am not sure if i want to stay too close to home so that i might get an unbiased diagnoses. and what might they find?  i have done all i knew to do after the surgery--it was the most painful surgery i have had and i had 2 knee replacements,,,,it has been a nightmare...please advise...thanks.,

[JainMD]

Hi msh,
How old are you? What is your name?
I am of the view that you should definitely go in for second opinion. You can find list of orthopaedician in your area and try to see the one who is more experienced and reliable. When you meet the other doctor, you don’t reveal about first doctor's opinion about you.
I think you should be repeating imaging studies.
Are you on any pain meds? If so, which one are they? How frequently are you taking those? You can also try out Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.
You can try a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator, which is an electronic device that produces electrical signals used to stimulate nerves through unbroken skin. The unit is usually connected to the skin using two or more electrodes. TENS works to decrease pain perception and may be used to control acute and chronic pain. It helps in regenerating nerve.
Nerves regenerate, or heal, at a rate 1 millimeter/day. The only nerves that can regenerate are the nerves outside of the spinal cord, or peripheral nerves. The nerves in the spinal cord, once damaged, cannot regenerate. However, if the peripheral nerve is severely damaged or stretched it may never heal.
Hope this helps.
Keep me informed about your decision and regarding your disease progression.
Bye.

[msh22]

who are you? are you a physician? or just a kind soul up late tonight? or both?
my name is margaret.i had all the TENS i could take/it was painful/i use heat and cold/
--did physical therapy and yet i
don't think that anyone really knew what i needed as they could not isolate the pain. can nerves be
damaged during a simple disk surgery. the only reason i had it was because everything
i read spoke of people having immediate relief. this is a nightmare. i have got to get my life
back. i stayed in therapy until i got shingles...i wanted to do yoga -just stretching-but am afraid to-this is not like me--i got throught those knee replacements fine but i worked very hard to come back from that...so this is not from lack of working on it phyically.i can not take any anti-inflammatory meds due to the
immediate pain in stomach. can't even take motrin or advil....took so many through years with knees i guess that is why.
i am on lortab 7.5 mg and am taking it about every 3 hours. i tried very hard to go without it for a full day and
it took me 2 days to get it back in my system good,  i had also meant to state that my pelvic bones hurt so badly at times that i can hardly stand that. i told my husband that they don't make a heating pad big enough to cover all the painful areas...can u imagine how sick he is of it..u would never know tho...he is a kind soul....
the surgery itself was a nightmare as i was given the paralytic drug too early-that is the second time that has happened to me. i told the anethesiologist that it is so very hard to knock me out to PLEASE be sure not to let that happen. but he was not in there-/his assistant was and he must not have told her or he didn't even pay me any attention.,....i would not wish that on my worst enemy..i think about it now as i write and if i were to have to have another surgery i think i would just have to say no. why they can not hear me when i say it is hard to knock me out and to be sure not to start that drug too soon...i do not know..oh well,
i tried
swimming after the surgery as we have pool-i was lucky if i got in and walked around--could barely get out. i don't like showering alone in house in case i were to fall. i have bars in my shower but sometimes the pain is very bad and i am afraid it will take me to my knees. i have gotten to where i can hide it from my mother who is 88/but mainly by NOT visiting her.. this is so frustrating -- so very frustrating. i don't know if its muscles/nerves/ or what/so don't know what kind of dr. to go to........at night i take 2 valium and 2 benadyl at night to sleep. i still wake up if the pain gets too bad,,,,i have weird restless legs in that the only way to stop them is to actually go to bed, if it do go i have to sleep sitting or lying down really funny as i have a partially torn rotator cuff..thats okay tho..i just have trouble getting comfortable,,,,thanks

[JainMD]

Hi Margaret,
I am a Physician and a kind soul, two in one.
I believe it depends on type of surgery and duration of surgery for disc pathology.
But yes a disc surgery can injure the nerve and cause nerve dysfunction.
What extent the nerve is injured is difficult to say?
I feel let Lortab be on and more spaced out so that analgesic effect is present day long.
You can add on with one more analgesic in 24 hours schedule.
You need to accept the fact that you would be having pain and it does require medicine. You sit at a quite place and ask yourself to accept this fact, do not try to resist this thought in your mind.
I think this strategy helps a lot.
Which doc are you consulting now?
I would be interested if you keep me informed about your disease progression.
Bye.

[msh22]

I am not sure I understand the second paragraph. Are you saying that I need to accept there is pain and live with it--without any medication?  also, you asked which dr. i am consulting now and that would be none. i don't want to go back to the back dr, and i think he is just as happy if i don't. have no clue what kind to to go to for second opinion..everyone seems so specialized. it is difficult to know. do i have to live with this????? that is just not acceptable. at least i hope i haven't.
I do space out the lortab as much and as often as possible and pat myself on the back when i can.
I did not even take it over to my family's during the xmas holidays.would wait til i got home at night. i don't like to make a big deal of it and they all are so pleased when you tell them you are feeling better. i just take deep breaths and try to empty my mind when it gets too bad. if i can not fix it that way, i then take something... they were only here a short while and i tried so very hard to keep a smile on my face. I have gotten almost too good at it.
i am not sure about getting a second opinion as I really do not know how far to take that. Starting over sounds awful to me..it has been a year and i know everyone is tired of hearing about it. but buying groceries is very hard...and i have not yet made it back to church. that is what is really killing me. i really wanted to do that but can't right now as of yet..i keep thinking i will try it but know better.
you asked earlier how old i am --that would be 56....thank you.

[msh22]

may i add, i will live with this if there is no alternative. My husband had bypass surgery about 2 years ago and i just want to be sure i am able to be there if i am needed again for anyone in my family../ i am of no use to anyone tho if i can not get into better shape than this. is it okay to do any walking on treadmills or strengthening of legs on machines.  right now my back feels like it is going to go out and that is not a kind of pain i get often, but when  i do  i pay close attention and find myself sitting very very up right and sometimes need to almost breathe as pregnant moms do --tho i have never been pregnant that kind of deep breathing deeply and blowing out of my mouth  helps for a moment and it keeps me from clenching my teeth so hard from the pain....

[JainMD]

Hi Margaret,
Such a lovely name you have.
What I meant in my paragraph 2, is add one or two more analgesic in to your list of analgesics.
Do not wait till the pain comes or till the pain becomes severe to take medicines.
You should schedule your pain meds and regularly, time to time you should take pain meds.
There should be round the clock coverage of pain meds for you.
I think you should go back to physician and chalk out at a plan for pain medicine.
You seem to be very brave and homely lady to keep on smiling in front of family even if pain is there.
I salute you for your keeping up the spirit.
Keep me informed about your health in general and about disease progression.
Bye.

[msh22]

Sorry to bother u again so soon. here it is now the first of the year which is when i was going
to take care of this pain.  this has been the worst day ever. i could hardly put weight down on ,y
legs-and it was both-it felt like a combination of muscles and the back thing, my back was hurting
and even the area all around over and under the incision is so tender....i know i had a plan--but do u know how hard it is to "start over" and to decide where to go to get help? its exhausting to think about it....we have a great neurologist friend (retired) that has been so good to us over the years but i am now at the point i need to move
on from his recommendations...he has helped us so very  through the years--but this i am afraid may be beyond him....especially considering he has been retired for quite some time...the last advice i had from friends and family--was to go to somewhere like duke or emory-------how does a patient know what to do....pain for over a year now is a bit much...and i swanee, it shouldn't be worse should it? even if it were a nerve and/ or muscles? would i be getting some better?  for the first time ever i had to take the lortab 7.5 mg tonight 1  hour early. i have never ever done that. i am soo very careful with my medications..at least it helped me to be able to move around. i sit here now in pain yet this level of pain i can tolerate for aq while then i have to move .....but it won't stay like this....it is only getting worse.  could anything else be wrong? if its the mucles how the heck have they gotten so bad..i have had alot of swelling in my legs last couple of days and took lasix..not much help at all.......if it is muscles that couldn't include alot of the areas that hurt--as i know its not muscles there...my poor husband..i even loose my
'cool' the times the pain is so bad...i hate that as he deserves better than me fussing. i am not a fusser so i finally decided that the pain was what was wrong...i wore the surgical stockings a while and used heating pad..ice..but it is from waist down and i don't think i have a big enough heating pad for that...and no electric blanket...the pain right now is actually pulsating like with heart beats--and the back pain is different in that it just hurts......i am so very sorry for sounding off and not acting all mature and sweet about this,,,,,i guess tonight i just can not handle the pain and i am a bit ticked off--and mainly scared and want to know what my best course of action is as well as to explain best and safest way to take the pain medicine please...thanks--and again i am sorry...

[msh22]

i always leave something out.sorry again. but my hip and both pelvic bone areas are still hurting also and today they were much worse as was all the other...one minute it all feels like bone and the next it feels like nerve and the next it feels like muscle....i just wanted relief from day one and do not understand why this is so hard in this day and age to be diagnosed correctly and the worst thing is to find the correct kind of dr. or place to go for that....it is scary to we laymen..we want help but must understand specialties of drs. to know where to go and to know when its time to go somewhere else like duke for reevaluation.....its very frustrating...and yet i know i am very lucky that i can walk and feel pain as there are many folks that can not. that is when i feel so foolish and silly for complaining...yet i need relief in order to have some quality life..i am not just sitting around --i work very hard at moving around-going to grocery store etc...so it isn't from being being a couch potato....thanks again.

[JainMD]

Hi Margaret,
Wish you happy new year to you and your husband.
I think it is time for you to see a neurologist and an orthopaedician.
I am asking you to see Orthopaedician as the pain you are describing is below your waist which signifies of being hip joint pathology.
Alternatively a visit to neurologist is must as lower back strain and spinal disc pathology can’t be ignored.
I think an imaging study of lower back and hip joint will be helpful.
Do you have other associated medical problems?
You are brave lady, in being moving around in pain and trying not to show it on your husband.
Keep me informed.
Bye.

[msh22]

funny you should ask about associated medical problems...i had not only fallen last christmas but the year before. i kept telling doctors something was wrong with my foot..well, there may have been nothing "wrong" on film but the arch finally fell . the last dr. i went to for that cost me tons of money to have special boot made --after wearing another type of boot for a while. dragging those boot things around was exhausting. and they did not prevent the foot from litterally going flat and now it looks as tho it is even flipping over to some extent..so i wear arch supports and new balance shoes. i did everything they told me to do. all i know to do now  is try  to keep that in the foot check as i do feel worse if i wear some cute little shoe or something. i was a bit upset that it got to that point but i couldn't seem to argue with the xrays with any one when saying something was wrong...i know i have probably also done some damage from walking funny to compensate for that also. the dr. didn't see the flattened foot until he walked in and saw me standing in there barefooted..that was oct. a year ago....and i am aware that this too can cause alot of the pain in my back and legs...i just do not know what to do as for the othopeadic dr. /all i have gone to as i said,  specialize and they don't "do feet/backs/legs/hips" all at one time/ its an either or thing..you can't get hips checked where your back is getting checked and your foot..and they don't really want to hear about the other as it isn't their expertise--they are all like that-- trust me -i have seen them since i was in my 30's...so  you see why i am at a quandry as to what to ..the 2 types of boots i wore did nothing to help at all....i did rehab for my second fall for months and did things on my own as i had learn so much from having had 2 knee replacements/i do not have arthritis--those werer what i call "basketball knees" --not wearing knee pads and such as a kid.......so i am just so very tired of it all.....i sleep in the chair most of the time...i just feel a bit cheated..and just don't want to hurt--just don't know what to fix.  thanks

[msh22]

i just wrote out an entire paragraph and then i think i erased it /typical way a bad day starts)-- i am sorry. i don't like to leave anything out when catching you up so i wanted to let you know that i have had a full body bone scan (1.5 years ago)--MRI of ankle/foot(twice)--knees were xrayed again to be sure they were okay(recently)--(i love my knee dr, but he is just at a loss as to what to do for me now)--had bone xray of lower back and of my hips..had my knee dr. xray my hip again just to be sure....after the surgery and before i left the back dr. for good i insisted he do an MRI of the back and the hip as i needed to be assured all was okay(he did so and it was done with dye) i am sorry if i sound abrupt..the pain doesn't make me very nice some days., as i wrote in the note that i think i just erased, my 88 year old mother handles her pains with dignity and is much better at doing that than i....i know it doesn't do any good to get angry...and it is most unattractive, but some days it is just too much. i am sorry as this was not the way i was raised....thank you for your time......

[msh22]

i know i seem to write on and on about the same thing--but it does help to at least get it out, I finally had to speak to my husband about just how bad the pain is. i am hardly able to work--and i work for him-so i needed to make him understand the crippling effect it has had and why i am so angry all the time--and sensitive to just about anything anyone says...i know you probably have no answers. especially since you don't know me..but i can tell you that i am a fighter--a survivor--and yet this is
so hard to deal with what with the length of time involved --that i am almost at a loss for words now-believe it or not,,,,i have no clue where to turn. i have done everything i have been told to do and more and yet it is only worse. i thank you for all your time and help. it has been comforting to have someone i felt was actually listening.

[JainMD]

Hi Margaret,
I feel sorry that you have to go through all this, but some thing you can’t change immediately.
Some pain will go away, some will take time and some will be like your friends which will stay for a longer while.
It is better that you have involved your husband and told him regarding pain.
It feels better when you comfort your loved ones.
I would not post regularly as I have nothing new to offer you.
Keep me informed.
I would be interested to know if any new development happens.
Take care.
Bye.

[msh22]

thanks for allowing me to at least talk about it. and i won't post any more.

[peppytoo]

Talking about it is a great way to cope with it. These darn aches and pains are evidently something many of us are going to be blessed with for the remainder of our days and need to learn how to accept it and get through it. I do find that deep breathing, long warm bubble baths with low music and candles and the heated mattress pad on my memory foam mattress have been a blessing in helping. The microwavable wraps are also nice, I take one out and put one in the oven, warm myself up good, stretch a bit, then wrap a bag of frozen peas in a light towel to ice up a bit. Working good when I put in the effort.

Hang in there.

[veejay342]

How can I contact a orthopeadician, are their any  in New York City.