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L5-SI back pain - sciatic nerve

I have an L5-SI protruding annulus - with sciatic nerve damage on the left side (numbness in left leg). I am being seen at a pain management center and am in the middle of havng shots in my back. I have had a total of 4 so far - each one being in different areas.  After each injection they tell me it will take a few days for the shots to take affect, however I hurt worse and the pain intensifies.  The last shots I had were the worst - I know have numbness in the right side - the shot must have hit the sciatic nerve.  Now I have numbness in both legs.  I am taking tramado hcl 50mg and tizanidine hcl 4mg for the pain and muscle spasms.  I have an ulcer and am limited on what I take. Trying to sleep at night is stressful, I wake up every 2 - 3 hours in extreme pain.  I went through PT and that did not help - i was in more pain after wards.
I would like to hear from someone who has similar problems and what they have done.
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Avatar universal
I injured my back in 1973, since then I have had laminectomies at L2,3,4,5,5S1... basically I have had one surgery after another since I  was 22, I have now dealt with either 4 or 5 surgeons including neuro surgeons.  I now have a neuro stimulator implanted at the suggestion on the back surgeon I was dealing with and trusted....I have had this thing in my body now over 20 years, it does help a little with the burning in my legs but does nothing for my back at all.  I can't stand for more than 10 min without holding onto something to help keep me on my feet, I can't walk more than a block as my legs will give out and the pain in my back gets excrutiating. The biggest problem is that I have tried every pain medication I think there is. I now take narcotics, a lot of them...twice a day. I am on the strongest dose of a certain narcotic my PM Doctor says he can legally give me, I am still in severe cronic pain 24 hrs. a day. Narcotics are not always the answer, they do not always help---they only get you hooked on drugs if they don't work. My life is hell, and has been for many years now,  I cannot work, I cannot go for the walks I used to love taking, I cannot get down to play with my grandchildren (I am now 60 years old) I am on so many different medications I feel like a drug addict.  I now have a neurologist wondering if over 20 years useing a neuro stimulator on the nerves in my spine  is causing the swelling in my brain that is helping to cause seizures I started haveing 3 years ago. I cannot have an MRI with the stimulator or wires & electrodes to my spine still implanted in my body, so they cannot tell for sure what the hell is happening.  In the midst of all this I had Cancer surgery on my kidney 2 1/2 years ago and had 2/3 of it removed on one side.   I know how depressing this can get, but I have a good loveing wife who stands by me through everything, without her I could have gotten to feel the way you are now, even through the pain I have a family that loves me and understands what I am going through and stand by me...without them I don't think I would be here right now and I have gone through everything you describe in your posting and then some. Life ***** and has for many years, but each day I have to find the strength to deal with the pain and it is not easy to do when you hurt so bad all you want to do is jump off a cliff,  it is possible to try to deal---I have done it for almost 40 years.  I hope you find either a doctor who can help, or the strength to try to live with the pain, it is not easy I know---and I don't know how long I will be able to keep dealing with this.  One day I know it will become too much to deal with, but I have been told by the doctors to go home and try to learn to deal with it. This is my life, it is not much of a life, it's extremely painful, and I can't do much of anything anymore, Most days you will find me lieing in bed with heat packs on my back, lower to upper.  Each day I ask for the strength to keep dealing and try to keep a smile for when anyone is near me...it's not much but it is my life.  This responce has taken me two days to get written, doing it in short sessions at time due to the pain.
I hope you find someone to help you, someone who may be able to stop your pain, it is worth carrying on if you have any family or not as things could be worse.  I hope you soon end up with a life with no pain, it is possible,  my thoughts and best wishes are with you.

Day to Day Guy 4782A
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Avatar universal
my wife got an MRI and the results says disk dessication and mild posterior disk bulging she got nervous with it, what shall we do we this kind of problem?
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547368 tn?1440541785
Hello QueenB,

Welcome to the Pain Management Forum.

Please note that the thread you have brought up to post on is over three years old. The original poster is no longer active in our community.

Please begin a new thread and make your comment new. Tacking on to an old post is not recommended. You will obtain much better responses by posting your own questions. I'll look forward to your new thread.

Peace,
~Tuck
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I totally understand. I have an extra disk, and in 96 I had my L5 and L6 (the extra disk) operated on after they exploded. Either the surgeon, or the particles from the exploded disks (what surgeon said caused it) damaged the sciatic nerve to my left leg resulting in years of 24/7 pain and night cramps in both legs that leave me feeling not only sciatic pain but also  pain that makes the muscles feel like I have done 10,000 leg squats!
I went through years of specialists giving me: several different types of blocks, conditioning, and all the crap they said would help! Unfortunately  none of it helped, unless sitting in one spot for hours n hours - zoned out, spacey, and in no shape - - to do anything but sit there drooling all over myself, and still feeling the prickling up n down my leg, an ankle thats so sensitive to the slightest touch of anything, and the wonderful nighttime leg cramps that leave my leg muscles feeling like I did leg squats!
The only relief I have found in all the years and money was quinine that stopped the night leg cramps (which was a great relief in its self) but the bad news is that the gov took it off the american market so now i am back to also dealing with those related pains again!  I have yet to find any of the substitutions the specialists have suggested that actualy work!
I suggest that u ice (never heat) the area where the damage actualy is, not the area where the pain is felt. This only helps to reduce the swelling around the damaged area, giving me only a slight relief from the dull pain I have around the disk area only.
All the pain management specialist I have seen say the same thing- work throuh the pain (which they said wiould decrease with time! Which we know is BS because the pain just gets worse!),
build strength up in the area damaged! Nothing helped other than the quinine for the night cramps. Oh yea they said I could be on a regimen of pain killers - not an option for me, I can't be on narcotics and have the sharpness needed to continue to teach and reach the highly at risk high schoolers I deal with daily.

If u have found or ever find any solutions to help relieve any of the pains we feel PLEASE e mail  and let me know what it Is! ***@****

My pain is 24/7! It either the: tingling from my toes to the spot where the damage is  
Helpful - 0
667923 tn?1421462724
Hi, I was interested in ur post. I live in AR. and there's no way they r going to prescribe that here 4 pain. I would give it a try, but also have concerns of it being religiously correct. I don't want to be paranoid @ that or to worry that I am commiting a sin. I know it is grown so I would feel that it does come from the Earth and all, but then think did Satan corrupt it. I don't know it is a controversial issue. I believe it would work. I might come more to taking it if it were in pill form..not smoking it. It just seems so demeaning, but I am sure that it would work...just scared to try it.
     I just have to take med. that man made and it is pretty scary in itself..not knowing if it is damaging my internal organs or not...like LYRICA..I had my experience w/that and believe me I will never take that again. I took it 4 ...oh I would say 3 yrs. and gained 80lbs. taking it and it made my sed. rate(inflammation in my  body) elevated. Now, I am finally coming down some after 2 mos. off of it, but don't know what it has done to my insides...MMMM?
     @ sciatic pain...I have so much pain in my legs and my muscles are disappearing right b4 my eyes..It is a sight. I have these rings that r going in a symetrical circle around my shin area. It is slightly under my knee and it seems to be making an indention that u can see and feel. IT is scary and my friend who is a radiologist told me that I had something going on and that I needed to get it evaluated. I said I am trying, but getting no where. I go to a new Ortho tomorrow and I pray that he will access and dx what is going on in my body. I have looked it up on the net and found nothing on it, but something called atrophy. Do u know what it is or have u ever heard of something like that happening? Could it be something like Mitochondrial disease or SCI(due to my nerve supposedly being compressed by a screw(in my C5-C6 area)..that is what my Chiro friend said I had happening and needed it out...yeah..it is still in there and I am losing the use of my arms/legs...they are feeling so weak and unusable).It feels like I have been running a race and my arms/legs just r give out. My Chiro friend told me I would lose the use of both of them if I didn't get it out...still yet to get dx by NS or anyone 4 that matter but a bunch of titles like DDD of Cervical, Lumbar and Hip/Joint..Spinal Stenosis,Myofascial Pain, Spondylosis and Cervicalgia(never even saw anything @ that one), Fibro( in which I think misdiagnosed...something is definately wrong just need to get to bottom of it...not giving up..got to have some better life than this PAIN...oh...so much pain.
     It is not fair to my love ones who take care of me. I feel like such a burden and it is hard on marriage, but have a good guy that has stood w/me. I love him so much and my family 4 taking care of me, but I know it must be hard on them.
     I pray that all has relief and that GOD will take care of us and make our lives better. All I want is to be able to go fishing again...to cast that rod and reel...see that line tighten up w/a big ole catfish at the other end. My kids miss that and so do I. know..Lord Willing, I will someday be back on my feet again and having some kind of life.
     I just can get so depressed @ life these days. Life can be hard and so difficult to get through, but we just have to keep moving forward...keep trying to get to our goal of feeling better...we will. Take care and always GOD BLESS... Karen
    
    
Helpful - 0
667923 tn?1421462724
I am interested in this but have to save at moment to come back. Hubby wants to get on. I will be back to discuss this further w/u...Thanks for I am suffering in my lower back and need desperately to find reason. Karen
Helpful - 0
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