Pain Management

[cogito]

I was not symptomatic until 2 years ago and my pain has been getting progressively worse. I am now 41.

I've been on 200mg Ultram ER and 10mg hydrocodone for breakthrough.

Over the past year, I've been to chiropractors, physical therapists, and a few doctors. I've also bought a weight system to begin strengthening my back muscles. I just went to another physical therapist and I physically can not move as he was showing me. On the x-ray it looks like there is no disk space at the T2-T3, but he was trying to teach me how to learn to bend my neck from the upper thoracic vs. cervical.

The pain is constant now, and is interfering with such basic activities as sitting through a meal.

Feeling defeated by the medical incompetence around me, I would like to get a picture of future treatment and my general fate.

Do many people with scoliosis get to a point where there is little that can be done interventionally and just live with the pain for the rest of their lives?

I do not want to move up to stronger opioids like oxycodone and I've tried neurontin and lyrica -- neither helped.

What other options, meds and otherwise do people have (aside from surgery)?

ARG!

[Karen Ocker]

Visit a scoliosis specialist with expertise treating adults. The best way to eliminate pain is to remove the source. In my case my curve, where it transitioned from right curve(thoracic) to left (lumbar), was crushing the spinal nerves coming out between the involved vertebrae.
After surgery I am totally pain free and my back was a mess.

[PNUTTRO]

It sounds like you have officially failed all other non-surgical options.

[rainbow2010]

I have disc problems above my fusion in an area where they don't like to operate for discs. The discs are deterating and pinching the nerves. Pain medicine does not always work for my pain. I have had nerve ablations done and they help with the pain. It is an out patient procedure (done in my doctor's office) where they put a needle in to the nerve and then burn the nerve. It has really helped me with the pain around my rib cage. My pain got so bad, that I couldn't take a deep breath and ended up with pneumonia.

[jrnyc]

sent you a PM..i too had nerve ablation & other pain management procedures...if you can get a referral to pain management doctor, you can find out if they can help you..

best of luck
jess

[Writer]

There is one non-surgical option that you do not mention, unless a Schroth physical therapist was among those you consulted. In my observation (of other cases) and my own personal experience, as well as my consultation of the published literature, treatment by a specialist in the Schroth method solves or significantly reduces the patient's pain problems in the majority of cases. Relatively minor postural corrections, consciously adopted by the patient, can make an enormous difference. There is of course no guarantee of success for this method (nor is there for surgery), particularly if part of your pain stems from non-postural sources. But it will do nothing irreversible.

In one large study at the main Schroth clinic in Bad Sobernheim, Germany, 80 percent of patients reduced or eliminated their pain during the treatment program. This study (citation below) has no PubMed abstract. I will send a PDF of the whole article to anyone who wishes to read it (PM me and give your email address). LATER: I found it's easier for everybody if I upload it.

See: http://www.mediafire.com/?njqi2ojdogk

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Study summary: 80 percent of 311 inpatients reduced or eliminated their pain in a Schroth program, whereas before treatment 60 percent of them had pain that ranged from intense to scarcely bearable. The article is also interesting in that it classifies the sources of scoliosis-related pain. There were 20 different pain localizations, the most frequent being lumbar angular facets (34.1% of the cases), paravertebral muscles on the lumbar convex side (30.5%), and shoulder and neck region (27.3%). Many patients had more than one type of pain. That was true for my case.

Weiss HR, "Scoliosis-related pain in adults: Treatment influences," European Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 3/3 (1993): 91-94.

To find a Schroth therapist, see the list on Christa Lehnert-Schroth's website: www.schroth-scoliosis-treatment.com

Good luck!

[dothead]

Pain management

I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I have been through many physical therapies, postural orthopedics, nerve blcoks, nerves burned etc, and nothing has worked consistently for the pain. However I agree with two of the repsondants, first you must get a real pain managment doctor as pain has to be handled by someone who really knows what he/she is doing and not a PCP trying a different pill here and there. I love my PCP by the way! Also seeing someone who is a scoliosis specialist can give you a more realistic view of the future. For me I am going to do the surgery because I cannot take the pain, the being awake every night, and my lifestyle changing any more that it has, any longer. That's the only reason, I 've taken this step. I was told that if I did not do it soon the integrity of the bones changes and you are not a good candidate for surgery, I'm 60 now. I was also told I could end up in a wheelchair because of the pain, not the scoliosis itself, the pain it caused though. I don't want that either. I'm not a wimp either as I've had cancer and numerous surgeries and complications etc from that. I became a triathlete after the cancer but now I cannot run anymore and it seems I never will even with the surgery. SO I would say get some experts on your side, ask questions, be your advocate, and make the medical people you come in contact with listen to you and answer your questions!! I work with cancer patients now every day and that's what I tell them! You are in my thoughts and prayers, pain can be so depressing but I think you might have figured that out.