new to disc degeneration help!

angie50

hello everyone and hope you may be able to give me advice based on your experiences.
I have recently received a diagnosis of 'significant disc degeneration' through the whole of my lumbar spine.
I am a 49yr old nurse with over 31 years wear and tear!
I experience more or less constant back pain these days and an mri scan some 6weeks ago identified the DDD.
I have been told i dont have a trapped nerve yet am experiencing sciatica symptoms in my right leg, cramp and irritable sensations from buttock to toes.
Over the past week though have a new symptom of numbness in my middle to little toes of the right foot, these toes are curling under and when walking i feel like i have a stone under the toes, its very painful.
If sitting i get coccyx pain.
I stuggle with analgesia as i need to continue working and stonger stuff knocks me out.
I cannot take anti inflammatories because of irritable bowel.i tend to use paracetamol or when work finishes cocodamol 8/500 to help me sleep.
Amytriptilline didnt agree with me cos my work pattern is permanent nights and changes weekly so there is no consistant pattern of when to take it.
I have a referral to a pain specialist this week and wonder what to expect?
One of the only comforts is a hot water bottle to my back though this isnt convenient
when working.
I realise this is a lot of info so hope its not too much too soon?
Thanks :P

helpline_team

angie50 wrote:

hello everyone and hope you may be able to give me advice based on your experiences.
I have recently received a diagnosis of 'significant disc degeneration' through the whole of my lumbar spine.
I am a 49yr old nurse with over 31 years wear and tear!
I experience more or less constant back pain these days and an mri scan some 6weeks ago identified the DDD.
I have been told i dont have a trapped nerve yet am experiencing sciatica symptoms in my right leg, cramp and irritable sensations from buttock to toes.
Over the past week though have a new symptom of numbness in my middle to little toes of the right foot, these toes are curling under and when walking i feel like i have a stone under the toes, its very painful.
If sitting i get coccyx pain.
I stuggle with analgesia as i need to continue working and stonger stuff knocks me out.
I cannot take anti inflammatories because of irritable bowel.i tend to use paracetamol or when work finishes cocodamol 8/500 to help me sleep.
Amytriptilline didnt agree with me cos my work pattern is permanent nights and changes weekly so there is no consistant pattern of when to take it.
I have a referral to a pain specialist this week and wonder what to expect?
One of the only comforts is a hot water bottle to my back though this isnt convenient
when working.
I realise this is a lot of info so hope its not too much too soon?
Thanks :P

Hi Angie

Happy New Year!

I am really sorry to hear about your pain. I know it is difficult to juggle pain, work, and meds. The good thing is you have an appointment with a pain specialist. Make sure you explain the above to them. They may be able to offer some injections or nerve pain meds perhaps. Ask them to explain the nerve pain to you as it help to understand exactly what is causing it incase there are certain positions at work that cause it then you can perhaps ask work to make 'reasonable adjustments'. Please see our booklet on Working with Arthritis: http://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/PublicationsandResources/Listedbytype/Booklets/main_content/WorkingbookletJan11.pdf

To discuss things further give us a call on Tuesday and perhaps we can give you some more pointers and/or information.

Best wishes

Simona

angie50

Thanks for your response off to clinic this afternoon, first appt so shall feed back with outcome,
Fingers crossed...but not too tightly

helpline_team

Dear Angie,

I hope it goes ok today. I'm not sure whether we've sent you a pack of our information yet? if not do send us your address by private message if you'd like to. It can be important that you can have follow up contact with the pain clinic as you try out the various strategies they propose and fine tune what works in practice and what doesn't. So much of self management is personal, involves trial and error and can be a bit slow at first.

all the best

Guy

angie50

I got the news from the pain specialist that i have arthritis!
He read through the results of my mri and declared this with a lovely smile which i found a bit disconcerting. I think he was trying to be pleasant but i am quite upset about the diagnosis as my mum has extensive arthritis and now 71 struggles with mobility.
I have been prescribed tramadol 50mg for pain but "if they make me sleepy leave till nights".
I work nights!
Also have been listed for facet joint injections.
I was hoping for effective pain relief to ease my function at work.
I know its not the worst thing in the world but.....:'(
How did others feel when diagnosed?
I am also wondering if there was lots more questions i should have asked but felt the consultation was over very quickly.

valval

angie50 wrote:

I got the news from the pain specialist that i have arthritis!
He read through the results of my mri and declared this with a lovely smile which i found a bit disconcerting. I think he was trying to be pleasant but i am quite upset about the diagnosis as my mum has extensive arthritis and now 71 struggles with mobility.
I have been prescribed tramadol 50mg for pain but "if they make me sleepy leave till nights".
I work nights!
Also have been listed for facet joint injections.
I was hoping for effective pain relief to ease my function at work.
I know its not the worst thing in the world but.....:'(
How did others feel when diagnosed?
I am also wondering if there was lots more questions i should have asked but felt the consultation was over very quickly.

hi it hard you feel glad it not in your head but shocked and worried about what it means for the future how you will be and what is going to happen but to be honest no one can answer these as we all respond differently. write a list and take it to your gp it probably osteo arthritis that they think you have and lots can be done so do not give up val

frogmorton

Hi Angie

l had back surgery when l was 39 so l totally undetsand how you feel and the only reason l had it after 20-odd years of on and off pain was bercause l totally 'lost' the feeling in my right leg.

The facet joint injections if they work for you will provide pain releif very errective too! As for the tramadol and you working nights maybe you could read the 'save for nights' as save for bedtime?? I was on tramadol back then and did find building up to them helped. I started on one only at bedtime and increased. In the end l was on max does and funtioning fine - l was at the tie a single parent to two kids aged 5 and 8.

I no longer take them now - am on bu-trans patches instead. This stops that burst of the drug which made me woozy and keeps it level over the whole week. You can aks for slow release tramadol too which would do similar????

Love

Tonixx

ps helplines l hope you don't mind l just felt l had something to add and with it being a weekend.... :oops:

angie50

Thanks toni
I am pretty bad at taking pills regularly but guess im just gonna have to get used to some changes anyhow.
Its a case of being a nurse but a bad patient ha ha
I know qute a bit about effective pain relief because im a palliative care nurse but alas arthritis is new to me.
I had thought it likely as my mum has had it for years and now got long term difficulties
But there was a part of me hoped it was just a simple problem the docs would be able to treat and i could go back to being "normal" again.
Hoping the date for the injections wont be too long :?:

helpline_team

angie50 wrote:

I got the news from the pain specialist that i have arthritis!
He read through the results of my mri and declared this with a lovely smile which i found a bit disconcerting. I think he was trying to be pleasant but i am quite upset about the diagnosis as my mum has extensive arthritis and now 71 struggles with mobility.
I have been prescribed tramadol 50mg for pain but "if they make me sleepy leave till nights".
I work nights!
Also have been listed for facet joint injections.
I was hoping for effective pain relief to ease my function at work.
I know its not the worst thing in the world but.....:'(
How did others feel when diagnosed?
I am also wondering if there was lots more questions i should have asked but felt the consultation was over very quickly.

Dear Angie50

It can be difficult when you are first diagnosed as you have so much to take in and so many questions. As has already been suggested writing down a list of questions to ask your GP / pain specialist can be helpful. You can always contact us here on the helpline Freephone 0808 800 4050 (weekdays 10am – 4pm) to talk things through and get some further information.

Best Wishes
Dawn

angie50

Hello again, well i had my facet joint injections yesterday, i had 2 in the lumbar spine.
The thing is the specailist said i would not get any pain relief from these, in fact i will always have pain and to take medication!
I can only expect more movement if they work and have been referred forspecialist physio.
Needless to say this is dissappointing as i went with the intention of getting pain relief.
Has anyone else had this and what did you do?
I feel a bit fobbed off even though i have had fast service and all staff have been pleasant.
Should i expect more or are my sights set too high?

elnafinn

Hi Angie

I had sciatica symptoms for over one year and in December 2009 I had a dorsal root ganglion Block x 2 at L4 & L5. The consultant had difficulty in injecting inbetween one of the discs as there was little space and after about half an hour and I could see where he had really tried, there were 15 pinprick marks, he gave me a shot of steroids there instead. He told me that I had a 50/50 chance of it being a success ie no pain and to date it is still ok. I suspect your symptoms and mine are/were not the same but the injections appeared to work for me, so far so good.

I am sorry to read your story and hope that the injections do go some way to making it all more bearable.

Elna x

tanith

I also worked for the NHS and suffered similar symptoms and was equally shocked when told I had DDD in spine and hips. The arthritis in my spine was impinging the sciatic nerve hence the numbness, and pins and needles , after lots of physio and anti-inflammatories I eventually had a laminectomy of L4/5 which did relieve some of the numbness/pain I guess I've learnt to live with the residual pain and numbness in my toes.
Its a shock and sadly it eventually led to my ill-health retirement but there are lots of things they can try, have they offered you physio or acupuncture? They just might help.