Newbie in Az, looking for help and advice

[Miss.J]

Hi Everybody!
I need some help from y'all. My boyfriend has been in severe back pain for over a year now. He has a herniated disc in his lower back at the L5 I believe. He hurt it last year working at his private shop (so no workmans comp claim there) At first he thought the pain was from a kidney stone, so he continued working. When it became to much to bear he went to the doctor in Janurary of 2012. He did three months of physical therapy with no result. After that, he did the injections into his back to block the pain. The first appointment was a disaster. To figure out where to put the blockers, he was injected 16 times in one sitting and asked to rate his pain scale each time. He was one of 19 patients in a three hour window, and the doctor was not available to answer any of his questions before or after the procedure. My boyfriend is a very well educated hands on person and the doctor treated him like he was too dumb to bother explaining how the treatment was supposed to help him. After this, a nurse at the hospital saw how upset and frustrated we were and suggested sonoran pain management. We had no idea what pain management was so decided to give it a go. The doctor seemed upbeat and positive at first. He promptly wrote a perscription for percoset and then scheduled an appointment for steriod injections. We didn't see any result from any of the injections, beside weight gain. After three injections my boyfriend asked the doctor what the next step was. The doctor got aggressive and basically said that the injections and a daily dose of narcotics were the only choices before he had spinal fusion surgery. We stopped going immedietly after that encounter. My boyfriend doesn't even take the percosets that were perscribed because they make him too foggy to function. That was in October of 2012. Since then, we haven't been back to a doctor, but the pain is getting far worse, and we don't know where to turn. Everything looks like a scam, and frankly we don't even have any money to scam away. He is on medicare and isn't able to work much, and I work in a restaurant. His pain is radiating down his leg, and causing some numbness. He can barely walk. Does anybody know of any doctors local to AZ that we might be able to talk to. Or any good surgeons in the US that might be able to work with our insurances? I wish that going abroad was an option, I have been googling my little fingers off researching all kinds of treatments and surgerys. Now I'm just looking for any help or advice from people who have gone through this. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
-Joy

[fuzzy]

Do you have a regular doctor? A doctor should schedule him for an MRI. After these courses of PT and unsucessful injections and worsening pain after 1 year. it is time to see what is going on inside the spine. Generally it is agreed that if after 6 month of unsucessful conservative treatments there is no improvement it is time to look more for the cause. Find a doctor you can work with, any Dr should do if you can show them the history what has been done so far. Its good to always have your records. If not request them asap for your personal file.

[Stingerlee]

Speaking from experience I can tell you that most doctors in the US are incompetent, arrogant, lazy and ignorant and only care about money. It's a real battle getting any sort of help. It is not in the best financial interest of the medical industry to get people out of pain by fixing their problem.

The good news is that a lot of the time these resolve themselves but he has to get off his feet and rest for a few weeks but the bad news is a lot of the times they don't.

American doctors are especially ignorant when it comes to the spine and all they will do is recommend dangerous drugs. Drug side effects are also big money makers too.

I would recommend bed rest, natural anti inflammatories like tumeric, willow bark, ginger and beets. Get an MRI and take it to a reputable chiropractor and they will explain the findings in detail.

[fuzzy]

The MRI needs to be ordered by a doctor

I was ignored that way also and it took several years before I got help and a couple more before I was operated on. After that much time it was obvious that something was wrong.

What I can highly recommend is to have copies of your records of everything you go through as that can be immensly helpful down the road.

AND BTW, my first MRI was ordered by a Chiropractor ... but I ended up having to go to the regular docs afterall .