Back Pain Community

Hello anon. I'm always sorry to see someone so young having such back problems. It's hard enough to be a mom when you are feeling good! Lol.
Have you seen anyone other than your reg. doc for your problems? If not, please find an orthopedic spine specialist or a neurosurgeon. They are much more equipped to help you in ways that don't include heavy drugs, altho there is nothing wrong with that if other methods don't work. Pain as bad as you describe needs to be thoroughly looked into, including an MRI.
If you have already seen a specialist, then it might be time to find someone new who will listen to your concerns about drugs. A good pain management specialist has many ways to try to relieve your pain, but usually it takes a referral to see these specialists.
Please do continue to post and let us know how you are doing....feel free to ask questions; this is a pretty knowledgeable group, and some of us have dealt with pain for many years.
Best of luck.

Carol

hi Anon_40703 welcome to the board

From what you have stated it really doesn't seem that the pains you are describing are coming just from your scoliosis. It does sound like you have a pinched nerve causing the pains in your leg.

I would suggest that you go to your primary care physician and discuss this with him/her. See if you can have an X-ray done and a MRI - this will show exactly what is going on with your back.

then I would as for a referral to a Pain Management Specialist(they can do EPI injections; facet joint injections, etc. to help try to reduce the pains) and also try again Physical Therapy - normally PT and PM go hand-n-hand but I've had several PM doc's that didn't have me do this.

in the meantime you can try gentle massages on your hip (lay on your side - legs slightly bent) - also you can try heat and ice treatments.

There are a couple of medications that you can take - Neurontin or Lyrica - both are great for nerve root pains - it takes a couple of weeks to get used to the meds as they will make you sleepy - but once that is over and the correct dosage is given it should help control the pains.

The sooner you can get to your PCP doc and get the X-ray/MRI and the referrals the sooner you will start to feel better (hopefully - the injections help some while others-like me did not have any relief).

Also - as with pain pills, yes they are addictive, but if you take them as prescribed then there shouldn't be any concern for getting addictive to them. If NOT taken as directed then the addiction become more prominent. there is the physical addiction and mental addiction and they are different - it's all in how you use or abuse pain meds.

I hope this helps - please let us know how things are going and the results of your films - take care - Joy~~

Anon

I would agree with some of the suggestions that you have already received from exchange members. It is unusual for scoliosis to cause such severe back pain, especially in someone so young. As such, the scoliosis alone may not be the whole story. I would suggest that you discuss your problem and request a referral to a an orthopaedic spine specialist that has an interest in adult scoliosis. I would suggest that you not purue any x-rays or other tests until you see that physician. They will be better able to determine what type of x-rays or other tests are most appropriate to assess your particular problem. If your primary does not know of such a physician, you can locate a scoliosis specialist in your area by searching the Scoliosis Research Society website at www.srs.org

Good luck and I hope this was helpfu.

JTM