Pain clinic

marie48

It has been a while since I last posted. I am coping quite well with generalised esp arthritis of the neck & back. Went to GP yesterday as I had a strange sensation in my throat & sometimes feel light headed. She said everything seems ok but if I get bad pins and needles in my arm and numbness to come back, she will refer me to the pain clinic. I do get pins and needles everyday but not as bad as before when it was almost constant, the exercises I am doing for my neck is helping. She said the pain clinic can give me an injection, it does not always help, it depends on individual. I have a trapped nerve in my neck and my discs are narrow. At the moment besides having arthritis all over my body, I am still mobile and coping with medication, do not know for how long!! Anybody had any experience of pain clinic and neck injection? Told her, I do not want anything done to my neck now as I am coping but will go and see physio as I have an open appointment to see whether they can help with the stiffness of the neck. My neck is restricted, finding uncomfortable to turn head left to right. Can anybody relates to my problems? Thanks

salamander

marie48 wrote:

It has been a while since I last posted. I am coping quite well with generalised esp arthritis of the neck & back. Went to GP yesterday as I had a strange sensation in my throat & sometimes feel light headed. She said everything seems ok but if I get bad pins and needles in my arm and numbness to come back, she will refer me to the pain clinic. I do get pins and needles everyday but not as bad as before when it was almost constant, the exercises I am doing for my neck is helping. She said the pain clinic can give me an injection, it does not always help, it depends on individual. I have a trapped nerve in my neck and my discs are narrow. At the moment besides having arthritis all over my body, I am still mobile and coping with medication, do not know for how long!! Anybody had any experience of pain clinic and neck injection? Told her, I do not want anything done to my neck now as I am coping but will go and see physio as I have an open appointment to see whether they can help with the stiffness of the neck. My neck is restricted, finding uncomfortable to turn head left to right. Can anybody relates to my problems? Thanks

Hi Marie, Yes, I can relate to your problem. Long before I had a diagnosis of seroneg arthur I had problems in my neck. I couldn't turn my head side to side either and I was in a lot of pain. My gp referred me to a very bad pain clinic in the first instance, the consultant was going to inject my neck without even looking at my notes!! He was also patronising and rude so I told him where to get off and made a formal complaint about him!

I then heard about another programme called COPE which I got referred to at another hospital. Basically it is run by physiotherapists, doctors, and psychologists and is a mixture of three things; they teach you to pace yourself; they teach stretching exercises and the psychology is there to help you deal with the stresses that go with it. I was told at the beginning not to expect the pain to go but to manage it. However, the pacing and the stretching - which I did every day religioiusly - did it for me. I got out of pain and no longer have a painful stiff neck. Unfortunately,that is not necessarily the outcome for everyone but they do teach you how to manage your life a lot better.

I have continued the stretches and use them now to get me out of trouble - they have been very helpful with my arthritis now. The pacing is useful for just about anybody. Initially, I didn't like the psychology but it was really helpful if you worked with it. Your pain clinic may have a mixture of injections, pain management. straightforward physio, etc. but I would find out exactly what they are offering. I would ask them if they use any of the COPE strategies in their clinic or whether there is a COPE programme in your area. It may be that you do need the injection too but, even if you do, the other stuff is unbelieably helpful for anyone with arthritis. I am so glad I did it as what I learnt is with me for life.

Good luck!
Sally

countessheather

Also have problems with nerve entrapment in the neck and all that that entails like numbness in my shoulders radiating to my fingers especialy at night when I have been asleep for a short while before the pain wakes me again and again. Honestly I feel like a Robototic Zombie. Not had much constructive help as yet with pain clinic or otherwise. You have my understanding.I did have my Rht shoulder and Rht elbow injected but it dosent last. You may need surgery. :roll: xx

skezier

Hi Marie,

Yep have had a few neck jabs and they have had some chemical de-nerving as well. Mine isn't operable (its too unstable) but I still hope they might. The jabs really have helped me. I got both types of spondy, oa, pa and a lot of narrowing and disc bulges and dehydration in my back and neck.

I can understand you saying your coping but the pain clinic might be able to help better than your gp. I also wonder are you under a consultant at all? I really hope you can get some relief with it all soon and also I wondered what pain relief they have you on? Take care Cris