[runner]

Paul,

Your problem does sound similar. I don't know how big my bulge is on the MRI, but I am sure it is fairly small. When do they start measuring bulges??

Have you had current ESIs or were you referring to ESIs before the ADR? I have never had an ESI work miracoulously like they are supposed to work. I have just had little improvements which are enough to do more than one. I have spoken to people that got great relief from an ESI. This last one, I did not have any backpain for a short time (from the pain medication mixed in with the cortisone). That felt pretty good and different. You get so used to back pain that when it is gone it feels quite wonderful and then you realize how much it was bothering you.

I am keeping my sitting to a minimum and like today when i need to sit (like in church), I do end up needing pain medication to be able to sit. I do get discouraged because I feel if there was a big smoking gun to point to, this whole process would be easier. I don't have that but I am sure there is something. I just get this awful sciatica which is like a knife in my glutes or hamstrings. Then there is the numbness and the increasing backpain.

I don't have my surgeon appt until beginning of April so at this point, I can just kick back until it is time to see him again. After this last ESI, the pain doc told me to come back in three weeks (end of March). I am sure i will know more about the next course of action when I see the pain doc. I generally get the idea that the pain doc and my surgeon are working in concert like they should be.
My pain doc was nice enough to increase the dose of Percocet for me. The 5 mg was really low and not doing much. He upped it to 10 mg. That dose helps.

I just feel like I want to shout from the rooftops that I have pain and I need to get it fixed. I do not want to live with pain. I have taken my Percocet tonight and my night pills (muscle relaxant and gabapentin) and am still in pain. Right now, it is mainly the sciatica which is hurting on both legs). I want to throw the sciatica over the gangplank of this boat and get on with other things.

I have insomnia tonight (and several other nights) and just remembered that my doc had told me that Percocet can upset the sleep cycle. No wonder. It can also do a number on your memory. Oh, what was I starting to say?

Paul, if you wouldn't mind, i would like you to mention my case to your doc and tell him that my MRI only shows small bulges.
Now, that is if you have time when you speak to your surgeon. Besides the MRI, the relevant information is that I "hurt" myself in PT (felt sharp pain in lower back at least three times, two different occassions at approximately 5 1/2 month mark), then two weeks later, I woke up with sciatica (much stronger than before) and slight increase of backpain. Back pain has been increasing in intensity since then. One facet injection and 3 ESIs. I have also been told I have DJD at L5/S1.
That is it in a nutshell. My hope is that maybe since our cases are similar that we can glean some information from each other that will be helpful in our treatment course. Of course, I realize that your doc may not want to discuss that info.

Some docs like to talk and others don't. My pain doc wouldn't even discuss what he meant when he said if the ESIs don't work, he would do more invasive tests. My former pain doc told me at our first appt about the discogram. I remember thinkiing that there was no way I would do that test. Hee, hee.

I was wondering why your doctor didn't go ahead and do a myleogram since you were having a CT? I know myleograms aren't done routinely, but just wonder about the reasoning behind that.
You also have to remember that the docs don't seem to want to do much of anything before one-year anniversary of ADR surgery.

OKay finally sleepy,

keep me updated please.


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