21 and in pain.

[MustJustBe]

To start this off, 3 years ago I was a furniture mover. I somehow twisted my back lifting some heavy items by myself. The company had a doctor on staff, and I went to see her and she told me it was nothing. My department head told me that they said I had probably torn a ligament, but I was not told, at any point by the doctor. I was only 18, and naive so I did not go see another doctor. They didn't send me for any x-rays or anything, and had me go to rehabilitation. My back made a clicking sound every time I would take a step on one leg, and always hurt on my mid to lower back, stretched to my sides, and up the left at a angle to the bottom of my shoulder blade.

A few weeks later it was starting to hurt much less, and the doctor was going to take me off my lifting restrictions with-in a few weeks.(25lb resriction). With my luck, I was crossing a highway, and someone ran a red light and t-boned my car on the driver side. I didn't notice any pain right away, so I just dealt with it and went home. The next day I was in a huge amount of pain. Being young I figure as before it would go away and I did not want to spend any money on a doctor, or look like I was a jerk that just wanted to sue the other driver.

There many be a couple of things I say soon that may be against policy, and I am very sorry, but I believe it is necessary to explain everything.

I went from job to job, and anytime I would do heavy lifting after I got home I would lay down to relax and when I go to get up I can't. All I would get in response to trying to move my back muscles was extreme pain, and they would not move at all. To get out of bed I would have to roll over off the bed, and have someone lift me up.

It took a while, but I adjusted to most of the minor pain, and just deal on day to day basis. One time it got so bad though I went to a doctor, and told him about it. When I went in I happened to not be in much pain. The pain is normally at night, starting a 7 to 8 hours after I wake up, and I saw him in the morning. He did send me for a lower lurabar x-ray, and the x-ray came back clean he said.

This is 5 months later, about once or twice a week the pain gets horrible. The now pain originates from just to the left of my spine between the shoulder blades, or four inches below the base of my neck. The best way to explain the pain is as if someone drove a nail into my back. That is about as close as I can get to explaining the pain. I get oxycodone, and hydrocodone from frienRAB (this is the part that may be again policy). I have tried many dosages, but even if I take 5 up to 25mg of oxycodone the pain is still so bad I can't even get up the strength to urinate, and I feel like vomiting. Without the drugs it is unbearable.

I want to go to my doctor, but I don't know what to do or say. I don't want him to think I am drug seeking, I want him to take me seriously. So I think I am just going to go in a tell him the truth about the drugs, and tell him I don't want him to prescribe me anything, if he wants to recommend something I will get my myself. And that is the truth. I don't. I can get the drugs myself. But they barely help anyways. I just want to feel better.

I want to be able to exercise, and go to work without suffering. I would love any advice.

 

[PEmom]

21 and in pain

You are never too young to get hurt, and you want to live the rest of your life without pain. There are other better drugs and therapies you can do to get better. You do not want to mask the pain it is happening for a reason something is causing it. YOU NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR!!! Start with your general doctor maybe an anti inflammatory can help or a steroid pack but only a doctor can determine that. Your general doctor can recommend an orthopedic spine doctor or neurosurgeon who may be better able to diagnose your problems.
Good Luck!! Go make an appointment!

 

[Kasey443]

I would also suggest an orthopedic doctor or neurologist, ( you can call your insurance first and ask if you need a referral ) or ask your doc to refer you to one. It is very frustrating when a doctor does not take you seriously. I had this happen once. I do not go back to a doctor when I see they brush me off. I have over 30 years of back and neck problems so I am not timid when it comes to dealing with doctors as I know my own body and when something is wrong. Just tell your doc you have been having alot of pain and problems and need to find out what is causing this because it is daily and the pain gets bad. If you do not get the response you feel you should, you can always go to a dif. doc. When you do get to a doctor, whoever you go to, just tell him or her what you told us here, every single symptom you have, write it down before you go if you need to. Just please don't put it off like I did. I was first injured when I was 18. I did not get the proper treatment either, because i didn't know any better either. I have spent my life with back problems that slowly got worse in the last 10 years. I wish I had known there were more treatments for the pain and inflammation. I took the pain meRAB and laid around with ice on the area, instead of going and getting more tests to find the cause, but I just didn't know, I wasn't the doctor. I was getting treatment yet not even sure of the source of the problem, and the doc didnt know either. So I learned to be my own doctor and I fight for myself to get the tests to find the cause of my problem first, then the treatments, and the doc neeRAB to be patient and listen to me and not brush me off. I have been to physical therapy, had epidural injections, toridol pain shots, surgery for a large herniation etc. I went through alot of pain when i didn't need to. I did not know that you need to find out the cause of the problem, before it can be treated, or a person is being treated blindly. So you need a doc who will listen patiently to your symptoms, have a good attitude and not be in a rush to get to the next patient, and one who will have a course of treatment in mind for you. Many people see a doc that they are not happy with, and move on to a dif. one. I hope you find one soon that listens to you and takes you seriously. Please keep us updated

 

[SpineAZ]

I'll start with this...do not tell your physician about prescription medications you have borrowed. This may prevent you from getting good treatment as any physician who knows this may be hesitant to take you seriously (may thing you are drug seeking) or may be hesitant to prescribe (as they may think you intend to will share them with others).

Start from the point of you have pain that is not helped by any of the over the counter medications. Then perhaps the doctor will provide you with some prescription medications. Tell the physician how severe the pain is and how you have become increasingly unable to function. It's important the doctor first start with an x-ray and if that is normal, based on your symptoms, insist on an MRI and a referral to an orthopedic spine surgeon and/or neurosurgeon. At the same time, if the pain continues, consider seeing a Pain Management physician.

You may want to check out the Pain Management boarRAB available on HealtrabroadoarRAB where you can see discussions in regard to pain medications and how careful all of us on pain meRAB via Pain Mgmt doctors have to be in what we communicate with our doctors. Many physicians are scared of prescribing too many pain meRAB or of having a patient abuse medications (which includes borrowing them).

 

[mary2165134]

hi n welcome im also 21yr i just had a spinal fusion after living with the pain from when i was 19yr i hurt my back lifting boxes at work i went to 1 docter the day it happened and he said it was nothing just muscle pain next day couldnt get out of bed went back 2 doc and sent me for a ct scan which showed 2 disc bluges at l4-l5& l5s1 went and seen a surgon which said im still young it should heal just by doing physio and hydro 1yr later still doing physio and pain gettin worse soo doc sent me back to the surgon who then did a mri which showed it got alot worse so he said i need surgery which was a simple microdisctomy after surgery pain got much worse in my legs and back but doc said just neeRAB time to heal soo then 4months later woke up with the worse pain ever and had trouble passing water doc sent me to hosp which i stayed ther with a cathater for 1month then transfered to a rehab hosp for more physio i was told the pain was in my head and that i was addicted to drugs which also didnt help for me anyway. stayed thier for 3weeks then sent home and same thing happend few days later had trouble passing urine and my legs giving way went back to hosp and stayed their then my surgon said i would need more surgery but was to young for it but things didnt get beter he got a nother surgons opoion which said i should do it soo i had a 2level fusion in jan and feel alot beter so belive in your self dont worry what people will think and ask for more tests dont let it go if your in that much pain