flutterby
Fly away!
I have bursitis pretty much everywhere - both shoulders, hips, SI joints, etc. Tendonitis and tenosynovitis, too. But my lower back is really a big problem. Not just at the SI joints, but horizontally along my entire lower back and then my legs get weak - feel as if they are going to buckle, and have at times - and I get shooting pains.
I've had lower back issues as long as I can remember - even as a child. I always knew I couldn't have a job where I had to stand for long periods of time. When I would be standing, I would either lean against something or rock back and forth like you do when holding a baby. Before 6 or 7 years ago, it was bothersome and annoying, but not incapacitating. It's been incapacitating for a while now - at times worse than others. It burns and hurts immensely. It hurts at a level 3-5 doing nothing, and if I try to do something - like dishes, or laundry, or standing for more than a couple of minutes, or literally anything - I can barely stand it. Vicodin doesn't touch it at all. Within 2 minutes, I'm sweating from the pain. Within 5, I can barely stand it. But, things need to be done. The carpets don't clean themselves, you know.
I've had x-rays and a lumbar MRI - negative. I've been tested for Ankylosing Spondylitis (negative). But no one can tell me what causes this pain, and no one knows what to do for it.
I *had* to clean the carpet tonight - puppy, house training, lots of accidents. I was sweating, leaning against the walls or tables, swearing, trying to breathe through it, and in excruciating pain - definite 10 on the pain scale. Just loading the dishwasher does it, but of course cleaning the carpet is worse - it takes a lot longer and there is a lot more back and forth movement. After resting, the pain does lessen, but it takes days for it to go back to my normal 3-5 doing nothing after doing anything - even grocery shopping.
I'm pretty sick of it. I'm also annoyed. I find it hard to believe that they can't figure out what is causing this kind of pain. I can't tell if it's muscle or nerve or skeletal or what. Obviously, it's not skeletal as the x-rays and MRI didn't pick anything up. I've been leery of going to a chiropractor because no one knows what the cause is and I'm afraid of doing more damage, but since no one is doing anything about it I don't feel like I have any other options left. I've been to a spine specialist, too....2009 or 2010, maybe. He didn't have any ideas either. I've seen rheumatologists and I see a neuro. EMG showed no nerve damage in that area. Steroid injections in my SI joints no longer work. The first one took that pain completely away. Subsequent ones, not so much and now, not at all.
I know the inflammation is amped up all over my body right now, and my back is at its more intense phase (it always hurts, but it isn't always this bad). I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what it could be or who I should see. 'Cause it's really gotten old, ya know? (I also take Celebrex 200mg every day and I only take Vicodin when I absolutely have to. Before I started on the carpet, I took a Vicodin 30 minutes in advance and a second half way into it. It could have been a sugar pill for all it did.)
I've had lower back issues as long as I can remember - even as a child. I always knew I couldn't have a job where I had to stand for long periods of time. When I would be standing, I would either lean against something or rock back and forth like you do when holding a baby. Before 6 or 7 years ago, it was bothersome and annoying, but not incapacitating. It's been incapacitating for a while now - at times worse than others. It burns and hurts immensely. It hurts at a level 3-5 doing nothing, and if I try to do something - like dishes, or laundry, or standing for more than a couple of minutes, or literally anything - I can barely stand it. Vicodin doesn't touch it at all. Within 2 minutes, I'm sweating from the pain. Within 5, I can barely stand it. But, things need to be done. The carpets don't clean themselves, you know.
I've had x-rays and a lumbar MRI - negative. I've been tested for Ankylosing Spondylitis (negative). But no one can tell me what causes this pain, and no one knows what to do for it.
I *had* to clean the carpet tonight - puppy, house training, lots of accidents. I was sweating, leaning against the walls or tables, swearing, trying to breathe through it, and in excruciating pain - definite 10 on the pain scale. Just loading the dishwasher does it, but of course cleaning the carpet is worse - it takes a lot longer and there is a lot more back and forth movement. After resting, the pain does lessen, but it takes days for it to go back to my normal 3-5 doing nothing after doing anything - even grocery shopping.
I'm pretty sick of it. I'm also annoyed. I find it hard to believe that they can't figure out what is causing this kind of pain. I can't tell if it's muscle or nerve or skeletal or what. Obviously, it's not skeletal as the x-rays and MRI didn't pick anything up. I've been leery of going to a chiropractor because no one knows what the cause is and I'm afraid of doing more damage, but since no one is doing anything about it I don't feel like I have any other options left. I've been to a spine specialist, too....2009 or 2010, maybe. He didn't have any ideas either. I've seen rheumatologists and I see a neuro. EMG showed no nerve damage in that area. Steroid injections in my SI joints no longer work. The first one took that pain completely away. Subsequent ones, not so much and now, not at all.
I know the inflammation is amped up all over my body right now, and my back is at its more intense phase (it always hurts, but it isn't always this bad). I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what it could be or who I should see. 'Cause it's really gotten old, ya know? (I also take Celebrex 200mg every day and I only take Vicodin when I absolutely have to. Before I started on the carpet, I took a Vicodin 30 minutes in advance and a second half way into it. It could have been a sugar pill for all it did.)
