well 2 months ive waited for a result from an mri scan on my lower
back - not the news i wanted .
L4/5 degenerative disc protrusion
episodic acute back spasms
walks with a side lumber [ like house without the stick ]
spinal surgery will not help .
so. next time people say , proxygo yeh hes that rude guy,
remember, i maybe rude in nature , but being in pain 24/7
doesn't help either .
Yeah wow that really sucks mate. I speak from experience when I say I have somewhat of an idea of what your talking about when it comes to the overarching effect of chronic back pain. It effects every aspect of your life negatively, it's a bad situation.
I was involved in a car vs. tree in 1998 that left me with fractured verterbrae at L2/L3 and ruptured disk at L5/S1. Had to spinal fusions (very simply: two verterbrae are joined together with bone grafts, metal rods are used to hold spine in place until the graft is strong). I had, from what I've been told, an average recovery: some people almost completely recover, some people are left in excruciating pain for the rest of their lives. I was somewhere in the middle like many people: I live with chronic pain but I had a better recovery than some.
I will try to offer you some advice which you can mull over:
1) First many doctors and specialists including psychiatrists and psychologists are completely ignorant of what chronic pain can do to people (depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, loss of relationships - the list goes on and on and it's complex). At least that's the case in AU: find an occupational physician or similar and a GP that has experience in treating chronic pain.
People have this attitude towards chronic pain that is completely unrealistic: they think you "get used to it", you should "push through it" and so on. It doesn't work that way.
Many other specialists actually gave me harmful advice just because they didn't know - telling me to go back University and a normal work life, blaming me for it not working etc. Friends and family did the same thing. Basically doing these things led to more pain and I looked completely normal so there was no connection they could make which led to them thinking me unreasonable and so on for not taking their advice.
2) I was offered but refused proper (read: opioid based) pain medication for four years which was probably the worst decision I made. My quality of life dropped significantly and I was seeing suicide as ... well, a comforting option to have. I didn't want to die exactly but I could see the blessed relief it would offer. I had everything planned for it, didn't want to go through with it but having the option there was comforting.
I only started making some sort of recovery after a doctor more or less said he can't treat me unless I take adequate pain relief - and in all honesty this was the best treatment I ever recieved. You can't fight your way out of the effects of chronic pain if you have, well, chronic pain. You need to get it under control first.
For me anyhow starting to recieve adequate medication coincided with starting a pain management class which again was the first time I started to make some progress towards living with it rather than being on a never ending spiral downhill - which is what chronic pain causes if left untreated.
I guess ... well, you know, I have no idea of your circumstances but I just want to impress on you that what helped me was strong narcotic medication: and I had my friends, family etc all telling me not to do this because of addiction and drug stigma but in all honesty it was the best treatment I ever got - sometimes you need it. Living with chronic pain for years makes for a life not worth living and you don't have to - the medications are out there.
Sorry to hear about your situation and I hope you can work towards a better life.