Radiating Pain from Neck (Radiculopathy)

[RhiannonSongbird]

Hi, I'm new here. I found this forum and thought I would give it a shot. I have chronic pain due to what my DR says is Radiculopathy (which he said is a fancy term for pinched nerve). I have this in my neck and the pain radiates down my arm, making my arm/hand tingly sometimes. The pain is pretty bad right now, in fact I can barely turn my neck right now and it sorta feels like I have a knot in my neck. I have low back pain as well that comes and goes.
I am scheduled for an MRI on Thur to see if possibly I need surgery. My DR has me on pain medication (Percocet 10/325) which has been helping up until the past few weeks. I've had to take more pills to get pain relief and I am getting concerned about that. If anyone has any advice or tips to help deal with the pain please let me know. Thanks!

[EJ561]

So this is a pinched neve and in time it will go away Right?

[Ghilly]

OK, here's where I go into "preach" mode.  The surgery to correct the radiculopathy was a success, HOWEVER, the test they did on my before the surgery, the myelogram, left me with adhesive arachnoiditis and having to be in lifelong pain management.  If they are talking about giving you epidural steroid injections to help the radiculopathy, RUN in the other direction as quickly as you can because epidural steroid injections have also been implicated as a major cause of arachnoiditis.  Believe me, this is one disease you do NOT want to deal with.  It will make the radiculopathy seem like a Sunday picnic, and it's definitely NOT a fair trade-off for getting rid of the arm pain and numbness.  Please Google "Adhesive Arachnoiditis" before you agree to any treatment involving epidural steroid injections.  Forewarned is forearmed.

With regard to your other questions, if your doctor is steering you toward a pain specialist, then yes, he is going to refer you to someone else to help you with your problem.  He obviously feels that it is beyond his comfort zone as far as either treatment options or perhaps the need to prescribe opiates for pain, but something is making him refer you elsewhere.,

Ghilly

[RhiannonSongbird]

Your right I need to taper off some with the meds. I am so happy for you that your surgery was a success. My doctor is already mentioned referring me to a "pain specialist" because I may need shots of some kind. I am loosely quoting my DR here. Does that mean he will not treat my pain anymore? I don't want to lose him as he is a great DR, I feel comfortable with him.

[Ghilly]

Back at the beginning of all of my problems I was diagnosed with a cervical radiculopathy and the only thing that helped me was Vicodin ES, the 7.5mg hydrocodone.  Nothing else (in terms of OTC drugs or non-opiates) even came close to touching the pain.  The fact that I am in pain management 10 years down the road has nothing to do with the radiculopathy.  The surgery to repair it was completely successful.

As long as you follow the prescription instructions exactly when it comes to taking your pain meds you will have no problem at all leaving them behind after it's all over.  What might help you at least until you see if you're going to need surgery is to only take them at night before you go to sleep, and possibly one in the morning when you get up to get you going.  I would go all day without taking anything and would just do the best I could with ibuprofen while I was up and about.  The one in the morning helped to knock the pain out until I could wake up and get going.  The rest of the day I did without until about an hour before I was ready for bed.  Your doctor is there to help you through it.  Listen and do everything he tells you and you'll have no trouble with the meds.

Ghilly