New face on the block (severe disc degeneration, lumbar spine)

[CaliContractor]

Hello to all,

I came to this site after tons of reading on the internet about some of the back conditions I am currently struggling with. So far as it seems alot here are in the same boat as me and most are alot worse if my interpitations are right, and i mean worse off in a pain/kinda way not any other way. Hope that came across right. Now onto me.

I'll be 35 on march 6th so 2 weeks or so. I have been doing construction work for 17 years. The last 16 in roofing and the last 11 as a Contractor in California. I'm very physcially fit at 6'2 215 pounds with 10 % body fat. I work out 4 times a week with cardio on the 3 other. I have a very active lifestyle from diving , hunting , hiking, fishing basically anything outdoors. Now we rewind back to June of this year.

I started getting super bad lower back spasms that would litterly drop me to my knees. That not a good thing when your on a roof. Got some muscle relaxers and some Pt from Kaiser. All was well till early October. Then i got hit with pain like none other and suffered for a month as referals worked through and i got in for an MRI. Up to that point i still had to work and some days i had to crawl of my jobs as i was in such pain even with narcotics. mainly Norco 10/325. I missed 2 months of work from November to January. Then i had no pain its was like a miracle or something i thought damn that wasnt to bad. Then i had to go back to work and immediatly 2 days into the job my back was killing me and the pain is different now. Now i have shooting pain from my lower back right side that follows my hip[ around to the front goes into the groin and down the inside of my leg to my knee.

My Mri shows what PC described as severe disk degenration of the entire lumbar spine region. I have no instabilty it appears but i do have arthritis on my facet joints. The back specialist at Kaiser was like ah i dont understand why you have so much pain, and started me on Pt. I also have a bulge of i believe L1, l4-5 disk are closing in on bone to bone contact from what i can see. To get an idea of my pain tolerance i shot a 16 penny nail through my foot , pulled it out and finished my day on the job. Cut of the top of my thumb and taped it back on until the tape wore of and then i couldnt get it to stop bleeding so went to the doc and we stiched it back up. My wife works for a small 3 person Neuro surgeon practice were she manages the staff and the doctors so i got a free 2 and 3rd opionion. They showed me on the mri were my nerve is inpinged and said i have Forminial Spinal stenosis as well as consiberable amount of arthritis for my age. I am probably getting an epidheral steroid injection next week so i hope that works out otherswsie i wont know what to due. I'm sure surgery is in my future just based on the fact that none of this will heal itself and seems to only get worse no matter what. Thanks for your time . Pete

[ajj1001]

hi Pete and welcome. hope that the epidural gives you some relief, guess you are looking at a fusion in the future?

alison x

[Justin]

Hey Pete,

Welcome to the Spine Patient Society.

Thanks for sharing your story. It does sound like your back has been though a lot over the last 17 years. You are ahead of the curve in that you have had multiple opinions from surgeons regarding your situation. Hopefully, the injections will work and buy you some relief.

Feel free to look around the Forum and ask us any questions you may have--there are a lot of well-versed Spine Patients that frequent our Forums.

I wish you the very best and please keep us posted, as you move forward in your next steps.

[Cindylou]

Hi Pete, I also wanted to welcome you to SPS. Although I'm very sorry for the reasons you are finding yourself here. It does sound like your spine has taken a beating from the nature of your work. I hope too the epidural steroid injection will give you some much needed relief. Sometimes, you need a series of them to get the necessary relief, so keep that in mind in case you find yourself not getting relief the first time around. And you are smart to be getting these 2nd and 3rd opinions so promptly. That will serve you well in the unfortunate event that you find yourself possibly needing surgery down the road. Good luck to you. Cindylou

[KBear]

Welcome to the forum (and Happy Early Birthday! I'm the 5th of March). I also hope the injections bring relief, but it also sounds like surgery is probably in your future. I'm still amazed at how many people say their doctors 'just didn't know why they were in so much pain'... like seriously, you do this for a living and don't get it? I had several doctors tell me the same thing before I found one who told me what was really wrong. Best of Luck, Kathy

[Dave]

Hi Pete,

Like you, I have degeneration of most of my discs. I go in every 3 months for epidural, nerve root and facet injections at several levels. I have to tell you they they work wonders for me. A day or so after the injections, I feel "normal". Mine last for 8-10 weeks. Good luck on your journey.

[Gilbert P]

Hi Pete

Welcome. We are here and also a contractor carpenter for the last 35 years active and bad lumbar spine,

Look at my signature. Do what you can to get relief and find the correct solution for your condition to continue life,

P.M. me if you would like to chat

Gil

[CaliContractor]

Thanks for the welcome guys,

I was out fishing this weekend with my uncle who is a union mason for 30 years and he also has some back issues. he got hurt on a job and had to deal with work comp and he is now considered 25% disabled, anyways we were talking about why doctors disqualify or dont understand pain. we came to the conclusion that they have "soft" lives and the worst pain they have to deal with is a stubbed toe. My uncle's work comp guy didnt understand my uncle's pain and wanted more visual discription and my uncle says lay you hand down on a table take a hammer and hit your index finger as hard as you can and then cut it off. the doctor with that visualization finally appreciated what my uncle felt like.

The fishing trip this weekend was my worst ever as i was in pain the entire time as i was out of pain meds and didnt get a refill, i always try and go a few weeks in between refills just so i dont develop dependency issues. My wife thinks im crazy for doing it that way and maybe i am but i need to justify someway that i'm still in control of things. I'll try and link the place my wife works , not sure if the link will work as im illiterate on computers. Spine & Neurosurgery Associates - Medical Group - Roseville, CA.

I have had long talks with all 3 of the doctors there. They are all very down to earth. The one thing that i dont really understand is that nearly every1 advocates putting off surgery as long as possible which i can understand the logic , but as you get older you heal slower and not as well and instead of simple surgery it becomes multilvl and much more complicated. I have always been a pro-active type of person not reactive. Sry if i rant its just alot of info to take in and try and understand. Its even harder since i have always take care of my body. I also forgot to mention that i have never smoked and dont drink, maybe 3-6 beers total in a 6 month time frame.

[KBear]

I have had long talks with all 3 of the doctors there. They are all very down to earth. The one thing that i dont really understand is that nearly every1 advocates putting off surgery as long as possible which i can understand the logic , but as you get older you heal slower and not as well and instead of simple surgery it becomes multilvl and much more complicated. I have always been a pro-active type of person not reactive. Sry if i rant its just alot of info to take in and try and understand. Its even harder since i have always take care of my body. I also forgot to mention that i have never smoked and dont drink, maybe 3-6 beers total in a 6 month time frame.

I think this is a tricky one, because yes, it would be ignorant to jump into surgery without exhausting conservative options first (unless you are in a unique situation where it has to be done asap- which fortunately isn't most of us.) I have seen people go and jump into surgery after 4-6 weeks of pain, which to me is just absurd. I get that pain sucks, been there, done that, but give your body a shot at healing on it's own. The statistics say that 90% of back injuries will resolve with conservative care. So that leaves the other 10% of us that need surgery. In my opinion, once it is obvious you have failed conservative care and you have tried everything to no avail, then it's time to move on to surgery (if that is an option for you.) More damage can occur by doing nothing, and does occur. I also think that the longer you are in pain, the longer it takes to heal from surgery. Doing nothing is still a decision and a gamble too. In my case, the surgeon felt that quicker I could move to surgery, the better. I had small herniations above and below my surgical level and the thought process was by fixing the worst level it would stop further degeneration of the other levels (which so far is working.)

On taking pain medication, I was also worried about getting addicted to them. My doctor told me early on if I only took them when in pain, that this should not be an issue. He explained that if you are taking them and they are allowing you to function normally and participate in life, then that is how they are intended to be used. On the other hand, if you are taking them and they are making it where you can not participate in life and withdrawing you from normalcy, then you probably have a problem. I took pain medication for 4 years continuously and had no issue quitting when the pain was gone (everything from Hydrocodone, Oxycodone to time release Morphine). There were some withdrawal upon stopping, but really not bad and not where I felt I needed them or craved them in any way. It was more like feeling a bit flu like for a few days and that was it. I was really surprised when I went completely off of the last medication that I only had a day or two of uncomfortableness and then I was fine. I actually had more issues getting off of my anti depressant than the 'hard stuff'.

[CaliContractor]

Well nothing happens fast with kaiser. I finally got my referall through and I won't even be able to see the back specialist until March 21. And then I was told it could be days to weeks before the injection depending on her findings and what she orders. I was going to try and hold off on getting more pain meds to see if the injection took, but with a wait like that i have to get a refill. If i work 1 full day im down for 1-2 days.