I can't believe the sort of pain I have been in since I did that 5K walk for charity last week. I was sure that because I had topped myself up with my pain killers just before the walk and took it easy doing the walk, that I would just be a little bit stiff after the walk.

How wrong was I !!!!! I've been laid up ever since and experienced severe lumber pain and also arm and cervical pain. I thought about the arm pain and thought that maybe the walking stick had caused it as I get pain even carrying the dogs lead and when we finished the race I could not lift my arm up. It's not just been stiff its hurt to the point of it waking me up in the middle of the night feeling like someone had stuck a knife in my back.

The frustrating thing is that when I saw the Back Specialist earlier this year he told me not to be frightened of walking as I could not physically hurt myself but could just stir things up - well if this is stirred up, its the last time I do a long walk again.

Still, we raised nearly £400 for the charity in the end so I guess no pain no gain as they say.

I'm so chuffed with myself I walked 5K last night with some friends to raise funds for the 5K Race for Life !!!

We didn't feel alone walking the race for life as 80% of the 2000 ladies participating in the race for life, walked the race !! The atmosphere was amazing and the rain stayed away and although the breeze was a little bit cold we soon warmed up once we started walking.

We came in last but one in the race with the lady behind us doing the whole 5K on crutches (amazing or what). I would not have been able to finish the race had it not been for my friends who kept up (or back in this case) with me and although I used my stick my adrenalin kept me going all the way.

I keep looking at the pink medal which I'm really proud of as I was so useless at sports at school that I never ever won a medal for anything.

I'm sure my pain consultant would have been proud of me after I juggled with my pain drugs for yesterday and rested well before the walk. I can only say to anybody out there who's like me - have a go - its worth the pain and stiffness next day as you feel so terrific when you reach the finish line.

The strangest thing was that the worst pain whilst walking was in my arm and neck and my hip and it wasn't until I stopped walking that the rest came on but I had the best night's sleep last night I think I have had for years and years. I only woke up twice (normally at least 6 or 7 times in a night) and although I was as stiff as a board this morning I still feel very high on energy.

I've got another epidural in my cervical spine soon and then a course of acupuncture which I am ready for as my pain consultant had put me on another nerve drug (Gabapentin) which really didn't suit me at all. I was having difficulty even getting the right words out when I spoke to anyone, it frightened me to death. It was just luck that I was online looking on the pain website that I noticed a lady had written about her experience with Gabapentin. Did anyone else find this

Oh what a glorious day it has been today - enough to lift anyone's spirits.

I've had so many comments since my last post - I'm so chuffed as it must mean my blog is interesting to someone and it makes it so worth the effort of writing it.

I've always found writing very therapeutic and cover the community news in my local paper but I enjoy writing about what I know more and could quite happy gabbling on and on ......

The warmer weather always helps the pain in my case. Strange really as you would think I would like to live somewhere warm but I'm a winter person through and through and just love snuggling under a blanket rather than lying out in the midday sun.

We went to a Classic Motor Show today with the weather being so good and managed a good walk round without to much problem especially as I had left my handbag in the car but was exhausted when we got home after all that fresh air and slept like a baby for a couple of hours this afternoon. It's the constant tiredness that I hate and sometimes find it quite overwhelming to the extent of feeling as though I could just fall asleep on the spot. I presume that must be the pain draining me and all the tablets I take?

I've also got a lot on my mind at the moment which can be quite tiring as my step Mum is in hospital very poorley after a 12 hour operation to remove a tumour on her stomach !! I've also got my son and his partner staying as she was involved in a bad car crash last year which has left her with sight problems and she was so low they decided to stay with me for a week to help her and cheer her up. So, last night I was awake until late working out some Cognitive Therapy for her today as it helped me and I also want to arrange her to go and see my Hypnotherapist to help her relax. At the moment we do not know if the sight will get worse or better as no-one seems to be able to tell us but I have found some sights on the internet in America where this has happened after a head injury and they seem to get a lot better after Vision Therapy so she is going for a second opinion soon with a Neuro-Optomologist in London. Personally, I can't think of anything worse than loosing my sight so I hope I can help her a bit over the next week.

Could anyone tell me how to do spell check for my posts? Thanks

I had a really bad day yesterday !! I'd had a bad nights sleep (just by way of a change) with my arm pain waking me up constantly so I climbed into another bed so that I did not disturb my other half ( kind or what !)

I felt awful when I woke up and the pain in my arm took a while to lift. My day was just like any other which starts off with a nice walk with the dog followed by house stuff then after my afternoon nap its time to surf the net. I cannot honestly think I did anything to stir the dam thing up but by early evening I was feeling really dizzy.

It remained all evening and I was starting to feel quite rough so decided to get myself to bed. I took a while to go to sleep as I still felt dizzy lying down but eventually all the drugs I took sent me off to cuckoo land.

Thankfully, I woke up this morning and the dizziness had gone completely, but the arm pain hadn't. Has anyone out there had that sort of problem like me?

Its going to be a long three years to wait for treatment for my beak type bone spur in my neck so I have to get my head around it.

My book and CD arrived on Hand Reflexology and I have been reading it all day. I really want to learn how to treat myself (and others, I hope) with this treatment. It's handy andy whichever way you go about it !!!!!!

I'm really quite pleased with myself today as I have kept focused and read up on all the different types of Tens Machines you can either buy or hire but I just can't decide which one is the best to choose and I also cannot decide whether to hire it or buy it? Any help from anyone would be nice.

I'm surprised I can concentrate on anything after two consequitive nights of what only seemed like a couple of hours sleep. Isn't it funny how my husbands snores never usually bother me but the last couple of nights I've found myself counting them in the hope it would hypnotise me to sleep, unfortunately it seemed to have the opposite effect.

I think I spoke to soon when I said that the extra morphine was helping me sleep as it's only lasted for about a week and now I'm back to how I was before.

I've also pulled out my home study course to finish my final exam on Antomy & Physiology as I think I should finish that before I embark on a home study for Hand Reflexology. All this thinking has definitely had a placebo effect on me,as even though I feel like shit and totally exhausted I'm still busy on my computer.

Since I was last here my other half pursuaded me it was about time I had a full check on my spinal problems which were just getting worse and worse so I went to see a spianl surgeon and he sent me off for a full body MRI, CT Scan and Nerve Condution Tests. We then went back a week later for the results.

Basically, I have a large beak-like bone spur in my neck resting on the fusion plate trying to fuse itself into my spine and a moderate diffuse protrusion of the annulus, but this does not compress the cord, it does however stend into the left neural foramen producing moderate to severe narrowing and the C3 root could be compressed at this location. This is what is causing all my pain in my arms and between my shoulder blades. I also have four small disc prolapses in my thoracic spine but they are not compressed so not causing any problems at the moment and in my lumber spine there is another disc prolapse which is giving me my low back, leg and heel pain. However he has advised me to steer clear of any surgeons as some may want to fuse the lumber disc but he just feels the ones above it would just cause further troubles later on in life and as far as the bone spur he thinks this will eventually fuse itself into my bone and will then leave me with much less pain and as the previous two neck surgeries look sound he felt it inappropriate to interfere with the fusions to remove the spur.

He was really nice and said he could see I was in a bad way with my pain but recommended me to go back to my pain consultant and start again with a fresh pain management programme and to try lots of alternative therapies especially acupuncture for my neck. So now its definitely back to the Pain Clinic for me.

I soon got my head around it and decided to first try to increase my morphine a little and take it before I went to sleep with all my other medications in the hope I would have a better nights sleep and you will never guess what - it worked, and I had a really good nights sleep - brilliant or what !!!! How long that will last for is another thing. I am also going to try a treatment called The Bowen Technique which should help with my chronic muscle pain. We found that out from my nerve conduction tests that I have chronic partial denervation in the upper and lower limbs. I will be back having acupuncture soon and am planning on buying or hiring (cant decide) on the latest tens machine which I used to use years and years ago and have been told the latest ones are extremely good and far more portable. I am also going to embark on a home study course for hand reflexology and hand therapy so that I can treat myself (I hope).

I'd love to hear from anyone who has similar problems to compare pain relief so do not hesitate to leave me a post. Thanks

It seems a while since I have been here but with chronic back problems as I am sure you know its not something that changes overnight and so the news is always the same, which can be rather boring !!!!!!

I had another visit with the pain management team to discuss having a morphine pump fitted recenlty, but before I decide if I want it or not they insisted that I took more morphine than I am already taking to be positive that the pain has gone completely otherwise it just wont be worth the inconvenience of the pump. He explained how it will need topping up regularly and that you still get most of the side effects but just not as drastic. On my way home from the Hospital I felt quite low as I had pinned my hopes on it being an easy solution and really its not. I increased the morphine over the following weeks as they suggested and apart from the terrible side effects I suffered it still didn't completely get rid of the pain, so I knew this was not for me.

We then went away for a couple of days to Paris on the Euro from St. Pancras which was a present from our son for Christmas and I was sooooooooo excited but unfortunately my back was so bad that I spent most of my time in the bedroom asleep which really spoilt everthing. So after much discussion with my other half and my children we have decided I need an opinion on what is going on with my back at the moment with a view to maybe having further surgery even though I had said never again but as they say never say never.

I researched it big time and found out about a consultant in London who appears to have experience in both cervical and lumber and who also does keyhole surgery so I made an appointment to see my Doctor to sort out a referrel letter. She was amazing as usual and felt it was the best move I could make especially as over the last couple of months I have had a lot more numbness in my leg and hands so my appointment is this Monday.

To be honest with you it has been so bad recently that I would let them do anything they want to help me so I am actually quite excited to see him next week (sad or what)!!!!

I bet your thinking why on earth I have put this in my blog well any weight loss can help your back and as you will see when you read on I have tried everything else to lose it.

I suppose my weight “issue” has been with me since my teenage years, I’ve yo-yoed for goodness knows how long but it has always ended up going back on again. I’ve tried every diet imaginable from the Cabbage Soup Diet to the British Heart Foundation Diet, I even went on a Mars Bar Diet (I was in heaven for a week). I’ve also joined every slimming club you could join, and I’ve been to most health farms and “yes” I’ve lost the weight with them all but slowly its crept back on again. I’m not knocking the slimming club’s successes of which I was one a few years back, but I realised I needed to try something completely different.

My main problem is that I cannot do any exercise, apart from moderate walking (slowly)because of my back problem and it has now reached the stage where I can do very little without it aggravating my back. I became quite despondent and even did a home study course on “Weight Consultancy”, thinking that maybe I could set myself up as a Diet Consultant in order to keep my own weight in tune but although I passed with flying colours I knew I was not fit enough to take it any further.

Some of my medications side effect is weight gain but its easy to use that as an excuse and I have been told in the past that weight gain contributes to back problems however I do feel society is prejudiced against overweight people and as weight is solely inflicted I felt I needed to bite the bullet before it got any worse.

Most days I have to sleep for a couple of hours each afternoon to help recharge my batteries (it helps with the pain) and although I’ve read many an article on how you lose weight when you sleep, it certainly didn’t work for me. Over the last year I had put on another stone and every morning I was going on “another” diet but I just ended up being totally obsessed with food.

Then a miracle happened, I met a qualified Hypnotherapist who specialized in Weight Loss. My friends and family were very supportive of me trying yet another diet ( your not allowed to call it that when you see Margaret) although a few I must admit were quite sceptical as to how it would help me, but they were soon amazed at how much weight I was losing.

For the first time in my life, I have stopped thinking about food and also stopped picking in between meals, if I fancy anything between meals then I grab a piece of fruit instead. My husband said one of the first things that he noticed was that I had stopped picking literally “overnight” and also that I had cut how much I ate at a main meal by half. At first I found it quite hard to leave food on the plate when I felt full, having been brought up to clear my plate at every meal. The best part of this weight loss programme (not a diet) is that I feel in total control of my eating habits. I don’t need to weigh food, see what calories, points or fat units they are as I know what not to eat having been on so many diets before. Now, because I don’t think about food like I used to, I don’t eat it until its meal times and I feel so much fuller afterwards. Don’t get me wrong I am a true chocoholic and if you put a large block of chocolate in front of me now, the chances are I would try and finish it but I know I would feel so full after it that I would not need anything else for some time. My friends know what a chocoholic I am and we only recently went to a dinner party when my friend made me a delicious chocolate bread and butter pudding and I had two portions of it but because she had told me about it before we started the meal I made a point of being careful of what I ate before the pudding came.

My weight is now going slowly but surely at 1 – 2lbs a week which is how they want you to lose it and on some weeks I stay the same but it is the first time “ever” I have gone on holiday for a week and not put any weight on!! I have had no weight “gain” since I had my first hypnosis session. I know Margaret is there for me if I need any more sessions but I am sure I won’t need to go back for any as I enjoy the 4 x CD’s she made up for me and quite often put them on when I go upstairs for a rest in the afternoon.

I personally cannot recommend it enough but you really must want to lose weight with all your heart for this to work and not because someone has told you to lose it. I was so focused when I first went to Margaret that it just sunk in after each session. Unfortunately the most frustrating thing for me is that it hasn’t helped at all with my back pain but I definitely feel a lot better in myself, which has to be the best tonic you can have anyway.

Well my week started off with a trip to my local Hospital for a lumber epidural to help with my back pain. The ward was extremely quiet which was really strange as normally it is really really busy, but apparently the stomach bug which is going round at the moment meant quite a few cancellations from patients and from staff so I was soon in the theatre for my injection.

My pain consultant is soooooooooo sympathetic and kind and puts you at your ease straight away and I had it done on two levels under xray, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it lasts a lot longer than the last one. We had a long chat about my pain in my lumber and thoracic and with all the medication I am taking it was decided my next move would be a referral to a Neurosurgeon at the Hospital to talk about having a Pain Pump or Spinal Stimulator fitted. I am still finding out about these forms of pain relief but I wont know the full details until I have my consultation with the Neurosurgeon. I do know that this is like the final thing they can do to help with the pain but I am so ready for this to help with my thoracic pain which is driving me mad.

I seem to be able to control my lumber pain with the medication and injections and just rest but the thoracic is just constant but I would love to hear from anyone who has a similar problem or anyone who has had a pump fitted to compare notes or to just find out more about that sort of pain relief.

The last lumber epidural put me in bed for two days but this time it only irritated by back for 24 hrs and I had two of my best nights sleep in ages and was very excited about how well it had gone but soon realised I had spoken tooooo sooooon as my last few nights have been the usual bad ones but I am definitely in less pain in the lumber region which is just great.

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I would love to hear from anyone who has any knowledge on myofascial pain, fibromyalgia and failed back surgery as to whether they are all the same thing or seperate chronic illnessess.

Having being diagnosed with each one at separate times under different specialists I just wonder if it is basically the same thing with three different names. My mission this year is to get my pain control under better condition and started searching the Internet for anything new or helpful on pain management but ended up with so many pages to read through that I just didn't know where to start.

I have been keeping a pain diary ready for my next booked epidural in January as my back has been playing me up something awful over Christmas but I know this has something to do with the circumstances so I'm not too worried about it but I do find it very baffling to see so much information to try and read through.

Look forward to hearing from someone with better knowledge than I have on these syndromes (if that is the correct word for them)?

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Posted By BarMc to BarMac's Diary on 1/01/2008 07:24:00 PM