PSA. I'm home from the doc for my back pain. If you are suffering with pain of unknown cause this info may help you.

[darkstar]

53. I feel for ya Lucky.

I too have gone through some serious back pain myself and it indeed can make your brain go to a darker place terms your options. Ny last experience was my worst yet as the degenerative disc issue not worsens over time.

I was walking around—when I had too—saw me walking around holding on to walls and chairs, both hands when I could as I had the knee buckling you mentioned. They made me go through 6 weeks of physical therapy, with little to no relief, before I could even make an appt with pain doc. So then, another 4 week wait. First meeting, another two weeks later, was merely to schedule when I could get the steroid shots right into the 5 herniated discs in my lower back. Then a two week wait to do it again. The first round helped a bit, but the second round was borderline magical and brought me to happy tears that my 14 week ordeal was over.

Every case is different, off course, but I’m wondering if you have done these shots yourself, perhaps in a past flare up. The shots in and of themselves a pretty painful—“you can squeeze nurse Amber’s hand” and I hope she didn’t need a pain doc or hand specialist afterwards herself—but in my case, worth it. And through it all, I got two ten pill rounds of hydrocodone that instructed me to take three a day. So roughly 6 full days of partial relief across the 3 months.

Yours sounds far worse than mine, what with OxyContin not touching yours, so my heart goes out to you my friend. All I know is our health system is completely fucked to let such pain go largely untreated for so long. The frustration and sense of hopelessness really takes its toll along with the pain.

Best wishes moving forward, Lucky, and I hope you get some relief soon.