rossman
New member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2014
- Messages
- 2
- Reason
- Undiagnosed
- Diagnosis
- 09/2013
- Country
- US
- State
- nj
I all
I just found this site. I am 40 years old, and have pain in my mid back area which sometimes occurs during the day but mostly and almost exclusively when sleeping. Getting to sleep isn't usually a problem, but after roughly 5/6 hours, I am up and in really bad pain. The pain is on either side of the spine, mid back vertebral area -- so like maybe T4/T5ish area.
The pain I can not easily explain......it feels muscular at first, but based on my treatments over the last 10 years as outlined below, it isn't muscular. Basically, the pain is more "visceral and deep". Like "bone". I am replicate the sensation usually by bending to the left and right sides and then the pain is replicated, so i know "where" it is on my spine. i really hope this makes sense.....
Sometimes, I put a heating pad on my bed and lay with it on my back on the affected area and it will feel better, although my sleep is still horrible. 5 good hours is it, then I am tossing and turning like a nut. Constant. And, I have gone with EVEWRY type of bed imaginable. The current is the craftmtic type of bed, Sleepy's brand. It's awesome since I can watch TV in a good position, and alter my positions during the night. It's great.
I have been recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, after basically spending about 10 years going through EVERY sort of treatment available.
Before being diagnosed, I went through basically ALL muscle relaxer medications, nothing helped.
I went to get trigger point injections, also didn't help.
Chriopractic -- didn't help either.
I even went on some sort of pain patch. It was a HUGE sticky patch that I stuck to my back before bed, and that didn't help at all either.
Oh, and I also went to a orthopedist years ago, several, and they did physical therapy. Also didn't help.
So, all of these things not helping lef me to go to a rheumatologist who si really a very nice doctor (that helps because of the "down to earth" style that I wanted since I am just at my wits' end)
He did a HUGE amount of bloodwork and surmised that we're going with "fibromyalgia". I think really it's just because everything else has just been an utter failure.
Concurrently with the Rheumatologist, I am going to another (better than my years ago ones) orthopedist who is also excellent. He is giving me these injections (just had the third one yesterday) that are SUPER painful when he does them, but they are done in a surgical center and it's basically "Facet Injections" in the facets of my thoracic vertebrae at the locations of the pain I am having. I bend the mimic the pain to point a location to it for him and he marks it with a marker, then does the procedure on either side of my spine. The first time I had the injections, they helped after a month or so of having it. Just like I had read, one day I was like "hmm.....wow i'm sure sleeping better" and then it hit me that it was the injections that helped. It was awesome. I would sleep for like 8-9 hours (!) and then my pain was becuase I was sleeping a long time rather than pain that woke me up!
Then the pain returned after about 3 months, and he did another round of injections. Those totally didn't help at all. So then yesterday I went for the third round. We'll see.......I am very hopeful and praying.....and I'm not a religious person!
He said that if this doesn't work out, he will do "something more permanent" such as nerve ablation.....basically something similar to the procedure i had for these facet injections except that he will deaden the nerve that carries the apin signal, so if i am having pain, i won't know it bc the pain will not be transmitted. Sounds great, but still, I am skeptical bc of thsi pain i have had for such a long time!
So as I said, concurrently I have been to the rheumatologist as well, and he started me on Amitriptylene roughly the same time as those first injections by my orthopedist. He said that the drug is used for depression but the side effects have been shown to help those suffering with fibromyalgia. It worked out well, but again I don't know if it was the facet injections or the amitriptylene that worked.......
So, as I also said, the second round of injections didn't help, and also (maybe related maybe not) the amitriptylene has also stopped working (also as I said......maybe it never did work and the injections DID, but the reality is neither are working any longer), so in addition to the third round of facet injections I went through yesterday (which, like I said and read, can take up to 4 weeks to start to work), I also went back to the rheumatologist last week and told him the amitriptylene stopped working and he has now put me on Cymbalta. Again, becuase this mood drug has shown to also treat FM. So, we will see. currently 30mg/day, one pill in the AM. The first pill was this morning.
I wanted to see who can identify with my pain, and what you have to say.....
Thanks so much, I look forward to hearing (seeing) what you say.
Thanks!
Ross
I just found this site. I am 40 years old, and have pain in my mid back area which sometimes occurs during the day but mostly and almost exclusively when sleeping. Getting to sleep isn't usually a problem, but after roughly 5/6 hours, I am up and in really bad pain. The pain is on either side of the spine, mid back vertebral area -- so like maybe T4/T5ish area.
The pain I can not easily explain......it feels muscular at first, but based on my treatments over the last 10 years as outlined below, it isn't muscular. Basically, the pain is more "visceral and deep". Like "bone". I am replicate the sensation usually by bending to the left and right sides and then the pain is replicated, so i know "where" it is on my spine. i really hope this makes sense.....
Sometimes, I put a heating pad on my bed and lay with it on my back on the affected area and it will feel better, although my sleep is still horrible. 5 good hours is it, then I am tossing and turning like a nut. Constant. And, I have gone with EVEWRY type of bed imaginable. The current is the craftmtic type of bed, Sleepy's brand. It's awesome since I can watch TV in a good position, and alter my positions during the night. It's great.
I have been recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, after basically spending about 10 years going through EVERY sort of treatment available.
Before being diagnosed, I went through basically ALL muscle relaxer medications, nothing helped.
I went to get trigger point injections, also didn't help.
Chriopractic -- didn't help either.
I even went on some sort of pain patch. It was a HUGE sticky patch that I stuck to my back before bed, and that didn't help at all either.
Oh, and I also went to a orthopedist years ago, several, and they did physical therapy. Also didn't help.
So, all of these things not helping lef me to go to a rheumatologist who si really a very nice doctor (that helps because of the "down to earth" style that I wanted since I am just at my wits' end)
He did a HUGE amount of bloodwork and surmised that we're going with "fibromyalgia". I think really it's just because everything else has just been an utter failure.
Concurrently with the Rheumatologist, I am going to another (better than my years ago ones) orthopedist who is also excellent. He is giving me these injections (just had the third one yesterday) that are SUPER painful when he does them, but they are done in a surgical center and it's basically "Facet Injections" in the facets of my thoracic vertebrae at the locations of the pain I am having. I bend the mimic the pain to point a location to it for him and he marks it with a marker, then does the procedure on either side of my spine. The first time I had the injections, they helped after a month or so of having it. Just like I had read, one day I was like "hmm.....wow i'm sure sleeping better" and then it hit me that it was the injections that helped. It was awesome. I would sleep for like 8-9 hours (!) and then my pain was becuase I was sleeping a long time rather than pain that woke me up!
Then the pain returned after about 3 months, and he did another round of injections. Those totally didn't help at all. So then yesterday I went for the third round. We'll see.......I am very hopeful and praying.....and I'm not a religious person!
He said that if this doesn't work out, he will do "something more permanent" such as nerve ablation.....basically something similar to the procedure i had for these facet injections except that he will deaden the nerve that carries the apin signal, so if i am having pain, i won't know it bc the pain will not be transmitted. Sounds great, but still, I am skeptical bc of thsi pain i have had for such a long time!
So as I said, concurrently I have been to the rheumatologist as well, and he started me on Amitriptylene roughly the same time as those first injections by my orthopedist. He said that the drug is used for depression but the side effects have been shown to help those suffering with fibromyalgia. It worked out well, but again I don't know if it was the facet injections or the amitriptylene that worked.......
So, as I also said, the second round of injections didn't help, and also (maybe related maybe not) the amitriptylene has also stopped working (also as I said......maybe it never did work and the injections DID, but the reality is neither are working any longer), so in addition to the third round of facet injections I went through yesterday (which, like I said and read, can take up to 4 weeks to start to work), I also went back to the rheumatologist last week and told him the amitriptylene stopped working and he has now put me on Cymbalta. Again, becuase this mood drug has shown to also treat FM. So, we will see. currently 30mg/day, one pill in the AM. The first pill was this morning.
I wanted to see who can identify with my pain, and what you have to say.....
Thanks so much, I look forward to hearing (seeing) what you say.
Thanks!
Ross