lower back pain, facet joint arthritis

[heapsreal]

hi,
Has anyone with lower back pain been diagnosed with facet joint problems? My lower right lumber facet joints are very arthritic(L3/4 and L4/5), Im on tramal daily for this which helps but without it im a cripple, im still able to work and lift as long as i have the tramal on board but pay for it the next day as the inflammation has built up nicely causing alot of pain and those wonderful muscle spasms, i seem to have more sick days from my back then my cfs and im sure the pain tires me out alot quicker because of cfs.

I have had several facet joint injections with cortisone and a local anaesthetic which is great straight afterwards with the local anaesthetic and good for a couple of weeks but then back to normal, so this treatment is also diagnostic and proves that the pain is in the facet joint. Im going to have an ablation on the nerve to the facet joints involved, which is burning the nerve. I do understand that in some cases the nerve can grow back after 12 months but can still be pain free and also maybe not .

Has anyone else had this procedure done? and has it helped alot long term and been able to get off pain medications?

cheers!!!!

 

[August59]

I have facet joint disease in my cervical and lumbar area. Have had steroid injection and radio frequency abilation done on C4/C5 thru C7/T1 and L4/L5 thru L5/S1. I had microdiscetomy at L5/S1 (left side) with very good results. The doctors biggest concern is the diameter of my AP cervical canal has dropped to 6-7mm with genetically short pedicules. My physically biggest concern is that my SI joints feel like they are wanting to fuse.

The ablation is definitely worth a try. I had 4 levels done and I had some pain return, but nothing compared to prior to the treatments. The only recomendations that I received from friends or references was to use the "pulse" type abalation instead of the "constant"(?) type.

Wishing you the best!!

 

[heapsreal]

i saw my gp today for my back pain and explained to him that i think im getting a tolerance to tramal and im on a total of 300mg slow release and im having side effects of urinary retention, insomnia and still having back pain and spam attacks twice a week and asked him for something else i can take and still work and drive etc, i know the next step was narcotic type stuff and explained im weary of addiction and withdrawal problems so if on something like this i would use for a short period of a few days while then alternate with tramal and hopefully the tolerance to tramal has reduced and i will get good pain relief again. I do like to be in control of my medications and descion making in my own health.

My gp was very good and understanding and is a high profile sports med doctor with a few professioinal sports teams. he said to trial kapanol which is like ms-contin(slow release morphine) for which he said to try on days when not working to see how it effects you and he also knows of my possible facet joint nerve ablastion in the future which could be months away yet.Kapanol gives 12 hours pain relief which will be good for getting through work and the mounting chores i have at home. I must admitt i was abit scared to think i could be on narcotics with all there potential of addiction and such but its at a point where my lively hood depends on my back being pain free. The night before i had no sleep as i took a night time tramal and i got a total of 2 hrs sleep, i do find tramal energizing and cant understand people able to fall asleep on the stuff. so after seeing the doc and getting my prescription filled i took my first dose, i was asleep in 1 hour and stayed there for a good 2 hours sleep but i think this is from last nights insomnia, when i woke i felt ok, just a little spacey but not drunk falling all over the place or anything like that, just quite relaxed and with no pain at all, the same level im at after local anaesthetic is injected into my facet joints. I dont have any europhia at all, a touch spacey but pain free atlast, same thing when first on tramal, just pain relief and abit more energy at first. I don t think addiction will be a probably as i am weary of it and plan to alternate the tramal with it and avoid tolerance to both drugs and hopefull in a few months time be pain free and no meds needed, i think the horror stories are there to put the wind up us, just have to mange regular breaks etc. I not as worried if my back procedure fails as i have an alternative to cope with and keep me working and earning the dough.

cheers!!!

so now with the back sorted for awhile i can get into some exercise and other prohealth activities and work abit more, put some extra cash away to go towards my valcyte treatment, i can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

cheers!!!

 

[heapsreal]

Update on my back, mmm i dont like this slow release morphine as it causes terrible constipation and feel bloated, i dont know how people can get addicted, its not a nice feeling but its tolerable and helps with my back pain. I have been alternating it with tramal and this break from the tramal has helped with tolerence and loss of pain relief effects from it. I recently had a medial branch block done which is a diagnostic procedure where they inject a local anaethestic into the nerves that control the facet joints where we think the pain is. I got good pain relief from this for a couple of days and didnt need any pain meds so its very likely that the facet joints are my source of pain and now i can book in for a nerve ablation where the nerve is burnt and stops pain signal coming from the injured facet joints, this is a more permanent procedure which lasts a minimum of 12 months to several years or more, it depends on if the nerve grows back or not and i hope the little bugger doesnt grow back. Im looking forward to being pain free but also doing a normal crap, lol and not being reliant on pain meds, pain is exhausting and more so with cfs. If someone has chronic back pain its worth investigating further to find out if its the facet joints causing the pain as the procedure to fix this is quite simple and easy to recover from as its day surgery and walking straight afterwards.

cheers!!!