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| My lower back and neck pain getting bad |
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Question:
My employment is very physical and is really starting to take it's effect my spine, which took a
pretty good hit in a car accident about 3 years ago. I went to the
chiropracter 3x a week for 6 months getting my back cracked n yanked on
followed by physical therapy followed by electromagnetic therapy on my
neck and lower back. Well ive had a curve in my back and a stiff neck
ever since the accident occured, and the welding really puts the strain
on my neck and back.
What do you think I should do?I cant put up with the pain anymore, it's really affecting my
productivity.
I am definitely going to have to consider getting on something strong
to kill the pain. I've been on hydrocodone but it doesn't seem to
help. My freind gave me some of his dilaudid 4's the other week and
those did a miracle for me but will a doc prescribe them to me?? What
other pain meds will help?
Answer:
Have you had any medical tests to determine what is the cause of your pain?
You might start asking your primary care doctor to have an MRI done, to see if
that would show what the actual problem is.
It doesn't sound like you have had much done in trying to find the actual
"cause" of the pain. It could be something that could be fixed with proper
physical therapy and exercise, or it could be something that would require
surgery to be corrected.
If your primary care doctor cannot find anything wrong, ask him/her to refer
you to an orthopedic surgeon. The ortho may be able to find something that can
be corrected. The ortho may find it necessary to send you to a neurosurgeon
for further testing and possibly surgery.
Opiates are used only as a "last resort", after everything else has been tried
and found ineffective in controlling pain. When all other means have been
tried and failed, then long term opiate therapy may be the only thing that can
help.
When we feel pain like you are describing, it means something is wrong and
needs corrected, if at all possible. It doesn't mean take a pill to get by. I
would give anything if I could have my life back and not have to take the meds
I take, just to exist at a very sedentary level.
No doctor worth his license is going to prescribe narcotics to someone who
stands welding all day and rides broncos at night. It just is not going to
happen.....and it should not happen. Find the cause of your pain and STOP
doing things that are only exacerbating the problem.
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