Uhm; sorry... I need to mention that I have pain again in the same area. It starts like pressure in the area of the sacrum along with a feeling like my flesh is being shredded to bits when I shift hips while driving. After it has settled down for a while, the maximus glutiamous (probably not the real spelling of 'butt' in Latin, but there you go...) on the left side will start aching. And cramps in the left thigh start if I hold off on pain medication for too long.
Back to where I started in the title; Dr S remarked that the MRIs do show clear degeneration of my spinal discs and also of the vertebral structures. It is fair to project that the pain is coming from good old fashioned bumping and grinding of spine against the nerves down there. I asked Dr D if he saw enough in the MRI images to support that idea. He did. And he suggested that we use an advanced nerve tracing diagnostic procedure known as EMG to correlate my pain with a nerve we would find by process of elimination -- poke around until we found the one that was just like the pain I already have... That should be fun.
Dr D said that a beneficial effect could be gained by simply treating the pain like a bad back pain. Ask a pain management specialist to inject steroids and high tech anesthetics into the area and see if we can stimulate healing / shut down the pain signals in a short period of time.
If the injections don't work; go for the EMG and/or the open biopsy of the sacrum to root out the cause if it is still unresolved.
Is any of this blather making sense?
Next week I'll get the injections -- Dr L will be in charge.
I think I would go to an open biopsy of the area first... if something else is going on, the cover-up meds will only mask it for awhile. That's a scary step, but then you really know what you are dealing with... prayers going out to you tonight.
ReplyDeleteHi, I just stumbled across your blog and as I was reading back aways, I see you mention HUMC
ReplyDeleteand a Dr. S. My hubby is a 46 yr. old MM patient
of a Dr. S. in Hackensack. We live just 9 miles from there. Tim was dx'ed in '07. I blog about MM and other spoutings at www.timswifesblog.blogspot.com. Just figured I'd stop in and say "HI" to another Jersey boy. Tim just got over a major back issue too. Had the PET scan and all that. You know you're in trouble when percocet, muscle relaxers, and advil taken all at once don't touch the pain and you still can't walk. Yikes!
Stay well! Denise