I am a 43 year old male who was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 12 or 13 and had to wear a Milwaukee Brace for about 4-5 years.
I never really had problems as a teen as far as pain was concerned, but now that I am an adult I am dealing with all sorts of back problems due degenerative disc disease and several injuries (one at work and TWO car accidents -- lucky me!)
I've already had a laminectomy and discectomy at L5-S1, but that disc is now re-herniated again after the surgery I had about 3 years ago.
I'm in chronic daily pain and on a LOT of meds daily (6 Norcos a day - one every 3 hours; four skelaxins a day for muscle spasm - they don't seem to do a thing; two timed release pain meds, every 12 hours -- Opana ER; antidepressant (Cymbalta) and anti-anxiety med (Xanax); Fiorinal for the horrible headaches as needed -- more and more lately.
I have just found two surgeons who specialize in Adult Scoliosis from the NSF - they are both in Miami working out of Jackson Memorial Hospital. I plan to consult with them shortly about all of this.
I have four herniated discs presently -- two in the cervical spine from a car accident, and two in the lumbar spine from a fall I took at work. I can't help but to think that the scoliosis is playing a large role in all the pain I'm suffering, although none of the orthopedic doctors I've seen so far has made much mention of the scoliosis as being a factor in any of this (odd, huh?)
I'm just so happy to have finally found a message board that deals specifically with scoliosis and all the issues related to it. I'm pretty overwhelmed at the moment and depressed due to the pain and the side effects of all this medicine. I just had to leave work on disability because it was getting to the point that the pain and the meds were affecting my ability to think and to do my job satisfactorily (MY opinion, not my bosses')
I teach high school English, and I would come home from work every day in excrutiating pain only to curl up in a fetal position and sleep all afternoon, wake up, eat some dinner, and then go back to bed. I couldn't get any work done at home (grading, lesson plans, etc..) Weekends were the time I would use to try to get all my papers graded and lessons planned, but it was becoming SO overwhelming to me that I finally knew I had to take time off from work to deal with this issue before I had a nervous breakdown or something.
I can't help but to feel like a failure at the moment. Maybe this is a male issue. I want to be "Superman" and kept telling myself that I COULD handle this pain and work at the same time -- that I just had to tough it out and make it through each day one day at a time. Finally, after finding a wonderful pain management doctor who actually took the time to talk with me for over an hour (never had a doctor that caring before, EVER) and breaking down in his office in tears because I couldn't handle this anymore, did I make the decision that I needed to stop working and concentrate on my health FIRST.
Money is an issue now, of course. I see a therapist for my depression issues and my feelings of being a "failure" and he is helping me to work through all of that and to see that I am a human and can only do so much.
I don't know what I'm asking here -- I guess just someone who understands what I am going through and can validate my choice to leave work for the time being. I deal with people who cannot understand what my life is like - who look at me and say "well you LOOK ok" and have absolutely no understanding of pain medications and judge me for taking so many pills to just FUNCTION day to day. I keep getting the lectures from friends and family about becoming addicted to pain medicine and that also weighs on my mind and just makes me feel more like a "weak" person who cannot deal with his pain and just move on.
I'm praying that the specialists in scoliosis can help me -- I'm scared of more surgery since my last one was so difficult to recuperate from and it wasn't successful in relieving my pain. I just don't really know where to turn anymore.
Thank you allowing me to vent here -- I hope that someone out there understands and can offer me some support or consolation. Please tell me that there is a way out of this nightmare and that I am not going to spend the rest of my life in PAIN and MISERY.
Kevin
Milwaukee brace (1979-1983)
Laminectomy/discectomy (2002) L5-S1
Herniated discs: L4-L5, L5-S1; C5-C6; C6-C7
CHRONIC pain; headaches; depression; anxiety; DDD; bursitis/tendonitis;
spinal stenosis
I never really had problems as a teen as far as pain was concerned, but now that I am an adult I am dealing with all sorts of back problems due degenerative disc disease and several injuries (one at work and TWO car accidents -- lucky me!)
I've already had a laminectomy and discectomy at L5-S1, but that disc is now re-herniated again after the surgery I had about 3 years ago.
I'm in chronic daily pain and on a LOT of meds daily (6 Norcos a day - one every 3 hours; four skelaxins a day for muscle spasm - they don't seem to do a thing; two timed release pain meds, every 12 hours -- Opana ER; antidepressant (Cymbalta) and anti-anxiety med (Xanax); Fiorinal for the horrible headaches as needed -- more and more lately.
I have just found two surgeons who specialize in Adult Scoliosis from the NSF - they are both in Miami working out of Jackson Memorial Hospital. I plan to consult with them shortly about all of this.
I have four herniated discs presently -- two in the cervical spine from a car accident, and two in the lumbar spine from a fall I took at work. I can't help but to think that the scoliosis is playing a large role in all the pain I'm suffering, although none of the orthopedic doctors I've seen so far has made much mention of the scoliosis as being a factor in any of this (odd, huh?)
I'm just so happy to have finally found a message board that deals specifically with scoliosis and all the issues related to it. I'm pretty overwhelmed at the moment and depressed due to the pain and the side effects of all this medicine. I just had to leave work on disability because it was getting to the point that the pain and the meds were affecting my ability to think and to do my job satisfactorily (MY opinion, not my bosses')
I teach high school English, and I would come home from work every day in excrutiating pain only to curl up in a fetal position and sleep all afternoon, wake up, eat some dinner, and then go back to bed. I couldn't get any work done at home (grading, lesson plans, etc..) Weekends were the time I would use to try to get all my papers graded and lessons planned, but it was becoming SO overwhelming to me that I finally knew I had to take time off from work to deal with this issue before I had a nervous breakdown or something.
I can't help but to feel like a failure at the moment. Maybe this is a male issue. I want to be "Superman" and kept telling myself that I COULD handle this pain and work at the same time -- that I just had to tough it out and make it through each day one day at a time. Finally, after finding a wonderful pain management doctor who actually took the time to talk with me for over an hour (never had a doctor that caring before, EVER) and breaking down in his office in tears because I couldn't handle this anymore, did I make the decision that I needed to stop working and concentrate on my health FIRST.
Money is an issue now, of course. I see a therapist for my depression issues and my feelings of being a "failure" and he is helping me to work through all of that and to see that I am a human and can only do so much.
I don't know what I'm asking here -- I guess just someone who understands what I am going through and can validate my choice to leave work for the time being. I deal with people who cannot understand what my life is like - who look at me and say "well you LOOK ok" and have absolutely no understanding of pain medications and judge me for taking so many pills to just FUNCTION day to day. I keep getting the lectures from friends and family about becoming addicted to pain medicine and that also weighs on my mind and just makes me feel more like a "weak" person who cannot deal with his pain and just move on.
I'm praying that the specialists in scoliosis can help me -- I'm scared of more surgery since my last one was so difficult to recuperate from and it wasn't successful in relieving my pain. I just don't really know where to turn anymore.
Thank you allowing me to vent here -- I hope that someone out there understands and can offer me some support or consolation. Please tell me that there is a way out of this nightmare and that I am not going to spend the rest of my life in PAIN and MISERY.
Kevin
Milwaukee brace (1979-1983)
Laminectomy/discectomy (2002) L5-S1
Herniated discs: L4-L5, L5-S1; C5-C6; C6-C7
CHRONIC pain; headaches; depression; anxiety; DDD; bursitis/tendonitis;
spinal stenosis
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