Have u thought about seeking alternative treatment from a chiropractor? They offer a variety of different therapies such as decompression therapy. Anyway, I wish u well-:)
Hi Jojo,
I have the same thing and used to get nerve block shots. They didn't help me too much but I've heard a lot of other people say it worked well for them. You'll just have to see what works for you. I've also had cortisone shots (not a regular thing, with that the more time you can get by between shots the better. Lots of side effects with those cortisone shots so I've only had 2 in my life but that I found did help quite a bit). The Pain Management community here might be able to help you too. One thing I'd advise is to avoid narcotic pain killers. If I had my time back I would have RUN when the doc offered me oxycontin for my pain. Thought I'd never get addicted but I did - very badly addicted. So just some advice from someone who's been through it. Try non narcotic meds and therapies. For me swimming helps so much and also consider joining a gym to build up that core. Doing core excercises takes a lot of stress off your back. Try a number of non narcotic and non invasive therapies and find what works for you. It could be for example that an anti-inflammatory combined with excercise and acupuncture would be the trick to controlling your pain. Just stay away from the narcs, they only mask the problem and can actually make things worse. On oxy I'd tend to overdo it and my bodies way of letting me know to slow down - pain - was masked and when I finally got off oxy and now on suboxone (which does squat for pain) my pain is much worse then it ever was. No doubt thanks to me overdoing it while in the grips of oxy addiction and worsening my condition. Please stay away from narcs, although not everyone gets hooked, it's a crapshoot. Russian roulette and too many do get hooked and addiction is far more painful then any physical pain. If I had the choice now I'd gladly take my pain in the back over the pain of losing it all to a pill addiction. Think long and hard before you ever let a doctor script you an opiate. Opiates are not the answer for long term pain because of the tolerance factor. You'll only ever need more and more even someone who's just physically dependent as opposed to addicted has to put up with the tolerance issues. Just my opinion... hope you find a combo that works for you. Have you had a CT scan or MRI done?
If you have an MRI, you should see a Pain Management Physician who does injections. If you haven't had one, it should be ordered for you. Degenerative disc disease is common in everyone, however it is not always painful. Injections can be done to relieve the irritation to the nerves. If you also have leg pain, this can also be caused by irritated or impinged nerves in your spine. This is called radicular pain. Injections can also help with that pain as well. You would need to be evaluated with MRI results.