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More opinions
In March 1998 I was sent to see a “multi-disciplinary panel” which turned out to be a total waste of time, once again they paid no attention to the letters from my GP or my physiotherapist and they recommended exercises I had already been doing for years. The only good thing I got from visiting the pain clinic was that in the waiting room I met people who had been experiencing the exact same ignorance as I had been and one of them suggested I go see Dr Christopher Cain.
It seems if doctors (not all) can not clearly see broken bones on an x-ray or the cause of the pain, they have been trained to blame the patient, and trained to believe its all in the patients brain e.g. if the patient stopped thinking they were in pain, the pain would stop. I believe it was doctors with this attitude which led to me being depressed. Of course there may be 1 or 2% of people that this apply’s to, but the majority do have some type of injury which causes the pain, unfortunately medical science is unable to diagnose the cause of back pain yet in almost 50% of cases, and its no better for neck pain sufferers.
I was also amazed at the ignorance shown to me by doctors at the pain unit, they had never asked about my employment history and it was very obvious they thought I was a dole bludger. There was also a very noticeable difference in the way they treated me and other people with simular complaints as compared to the patients with broken necks or backs.
Please don't take this to mean I think people who are stuck in wheelchairs are better off than me, I just think severe back pain sufferers like me should be treated with equal respect.
Never once did they offer different pain medication which I would have thought would be the first thing they would try. Even though my local physiotherapist had written a report to them detailing my exercise or rehab program, they chose to ignore it and at the same time would instruct me on different types of exercises which I was already doing.
At last a doctor willing to help
On the 1st of April 1998 I went to see Dr Cain who was an Orthopaedic surgeon who specialised in spinal surgery. He tried facet joint blocks which didn't help then sent me for a discography ( a procedure where they use very long needles to inject the discs to find the cause of pain). When they injected L5-S1 the pain travelled straight up and out at L3/L4, my back went into a massive cramp , exactly as I had been experiencing. I remember being extremely happy that night in hospital for the first time they had found the cause of my pain.
In August of 1998 my second daughter was born, my wife and I decided two children were enough even if I did fully recover.
Dr Cain performed an anterior/posterior lumbar fusion on the 14th of September 1998 (despite opposition from the insurance doctors), this is an operation where the disc is removed from between the vertebrae and replaced with a metal disc and screws are used to fix the vertebrae in position. While waiting in the hospital I had read an information leaflet they had given me on the operation and it had stated it was normal to experience the same pain after the operation, but not to worry as this was normal and it should stop within 1 to 3 months.
I remember when I sat up 2 to 3 hours after the operation feeling my old pain but I remembered the brochure so I was not worried, and I made up my mind no matter what I felt I would tell myself it was ok and it would go away. I was also amazed that my pain immediately after the operation was no greater than the pain I already had been experiencing.
I spent the next 12 months doing rehab pushing myself every day to keep up the exercises despite the fact that they increased my pain.
Around this time Dr Cain referred me to a GP who specialised in rehabilitation and he suggested I should go on a high dose of slow release morphine tablets, I had been strongly opposed to taking “hard drugs” and had still been using panadeine forte, but as I had been surviving day to day for 4 years and the pain was so great I agreed to try. At first the side effects were bad but after a couple of weeks it did calm the pain down substantially. In.
fact I now consider this medication to have saved my life.
I should say I was lucky my local GP supported (and still supports) me taking the morphine, as it was from him I would have to get the scripts every month.
I kept up the rehab exercises for another year but it was now two years since the back operation and my pain level was still the same, Dr Cain had told me I should get all the improvement I could get within 12 months of the operation . I had come to realise that my injuries were indeed permanent.
I changed my focus from rehab to living. Ironically because I was no longer pushing myself through all the exercises every day that calmed my pain down as well.
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