M
moerketid
Guest
First of all I'll say that I used to stay in the UK but as of January I now stay in the NetherlanRAB. But I really need some advice on this subject.
Last summer (around 1 year ago in fact) I hurt my back from a period of 5 hours sitting with my back both twisted and unsupported. The pain was in my mid-back right between my shoulderblades. I was in a lot of pain at the time, and that lasted for about 2 days. It went away, but about a month later, came back with a vengeance. The pain felt very similar but was so intense I was taken to hospital crying, vomiting from it too. I was given a painkiller injection and some codeine to take away. The pain would return several times more in 2009, being extremely painful, causing me to be unable to sleep, but the codeine was pretty helpful with it, controlling the "attacks" when they came on. I saw my doctor and was given more codeine to help and she referred me to a specialist. Unfortunately, this took a while.
In January 2010 my circumstances changed suddenly and I had to move out of the UK and to the NetherlanRAB, a couple of weeks before I was due to see a specialist. During moving I hurt my back again, and found myself with a lot more activity in those first few weeks after moving. This caused my back to start hurting a lot more, and far more consistantly. The main issue I have is when walking. The repeated impact through my spine builRAB up in pain till it becomes agonising - really, severely painful. I can no longer walk more than about 1km in a day without painkillers, which I only took when absolutely necessary. Also the pain wakes me at night sometimes, hurts when standing for 10 minutes or more, sometimes even hurts when sitting.
Obviously I ran out of the medication I had from my doctor. Unfortunatley here the attitude is very negative to pain relief (women in childbirth aren't expected to use any, even) and so my Dutch doctor won't give me anything to help me continue a more normal life. That doesn't help much. I was referred to a physio, who I saw for about 6-8 weeks. He didn't really listen to me, even in our last session he had forgotten what caused it or how it made me feel. The exercises given didn't really help, though they seemed to improve my tolerance to the pain slightly because they hurt to perform, and he also did some chiropractic manipulations on my spine which haven't helped either (the first made it feel a bit better, the second no effect and the last one seemed to make it worse). He located three verebrae in my upper back (around where a bra strap sits, so between the lower part of my shoulder blades) which hurt a lot when pressed on, where the pain originates from. He referred me back to the doctor, noting "I think it'll go away on its own, take some paracetamol" (which doesn't work at all on this).
The doctor told me he thought I probably had some disease where my verebrae are misshapen (no evidence of this) and stress was causing it. I should take paracetamol. I told him I was less stressed than usual, and he said it must be lack of stress. He reluctantly sent me for an x-ray at the hospital, saying it was probably a waste of time since x-rays are bad at detecting back problems (I know this from reading online). I am waiting on the results of that x-ray.
I am at a loss what to do now, and have no idea what is wrong with my back. If anyone has any story to relate of a similar issue, or knows what I should be doing if that x-ray comes back showing nothing, it would be massively appreciated. I'm only 25 and this is really affecting my day-to-day life.
Last summer (around 1 year ago in fact) I hurt my back from a period of 5 hours sitting with my back both twisted and unsupported. The pain was in my mid-back right between my shoulderblades. I was in a lot of pain at the time, and that lasted for about 2 days. It went away, but about a month later, came back with a vengeance. The pain felt very similar but was so intense I was taken to hospital crying, vomiting from it too. I was given a painkiller injection and some codeine to take away. The pain would return several times more in 2009, being extremely painful, causing me to be unable to sleep, but the codeine was pretty helpful with it, controlling the "attacks" when they came on. I saw my doctor and was given more codeine to help and she referred me to a specialist. Unfortunately, this took a while.
In January 2010 my circumstances changed suddenly and I had to move out of the UK and to the NetherlanRAB, a couple of weeks before I was due to see a specialist. During moving I hurt my back again, and found myself with a lot more activity in those first few weeks after moving. This caused my back to start hurting a lot more, and far more consistantly. The main issue I have is when walking. The repeated impact through my spine builRAB up in pain till it becomes agonising - really, severely painful. I can no longer walk more than about 1km in a day without painkillers, which I only took when absolutely necessary. Also the pain wakes me at night sometimes, hurts when standing for 10 minutes or more, sometimes even hurts when sitting.
Obviously I ran out of the medication I had from my doctor. Unfortunatley here the attitude is very negative to pain relief (women in childbirth aren't expected to use any, even) and so my Dutch doctor won't give me anything to help me continue a more normal life. That doesn't help much. I was referred to a physio, who I saw for about 6-8 weeks. He didn't really listen to me, even in our last session he had forgotten what caused it or how it made me feel. The exercises given didn't really help, though they seemed to improve my tolerance to the pain slightly because they hurt to perform, and he also did some chiropractic manipulations on my spine which haven't helped either (the first made it feel a bit better, the second no effect and the last one seemed to make it worse). He located three verebrae in my upper back (around where a bra strap sits, so between the lower part of my shoulder blades) which hurt a lot when pressed on, where the pain originates from. He referred me back to the doctor, noting "I think it'll go away on its own, take some paracetamol" (which doesn't work at all on this).
The doctor told me he thought I probably had some disease where my verebrae are misshapen (no evidence of this) and stress was causing it. I should take paracetamol. I told him I was less stressed than usual, and he said it must be lack of stress. He reluctantly sent me for an x-ray at the hospital, saying it was probably a waste of time since x-rays are bad at detecting back problems (I know this from reading online). I am waiting on the results of that x-ray.
I am at a loss what to do now, and have no idea what is wrong with my back. If anyone has any story to relate of a similar issue, or knows what I should be doing if that x-ray comes back showing nothing, it would be massively appreciated. I'm only 25 and this is really affecting my day-to-day life.
