Drug addict or invalid?

[wdfifteen]

Seems like those are my choices.

The pain in my hip has gotten much worse over the last 10 days. I can't do anything but sit on the sofa unless I take pain meds - 50mg Meloxicam and 50mg Tramadol in the morning gets me through until about 2 PM. Tramadol is a synthetic opiod and is addictive. I skip a day when I'm not going to be active for whatever reason. After about a month of the 50 50 regimen, I now get symptoms on the days I skip.

Per the May Clinic web site:
"You can expect to feel flu-ish and sick to your stomach during tramadol withdrawal. You may sweat and have chills. You might have trouble sleeping and feel much more irritated and aggravated than usual. You might also experience varying degrees of anxiety and depression."

Yeah, I get them in varying degrees on my days off. Especially the irritated and aggravated part.

If I don't take the drugs I can drive, but that's about the limit of my activity. Walking is kind of dangerous because my leg gives out when I get a hard jolt of the pain.

It'll be a month or two before the Doc can give me an epidural, and I don't know what the result of that will be.

Getting old sucks. It really, really sucks.

[flatbutt]

I hear ya wd. My right hip is the same. Sadly, I'm not a candidate for hip replacement. I use oxy on the really bad days but only 10 mg. I can safely function on 10 mgs and it's enough to just take the edge off.

I take 20/30 mgs of edible THC at night to help me sleep but believe it or not the THC makes me less functional than the oxy so no daytime use for me.

[herr_oberst]

Patrick, is this an arthritic hip? Is there a replacement on the horizon?

I'm sorry this is happening to you, and I hope you feel better soon.

Like you said it sucks to get old.

[wdfifteen]

^^
No Mike, the X-rays make it pretty plain my hip joint is only mildly arthritic, and the pain is in the wrong place for that.
For two years I've been treating it like a piriformis muscle problem with lots of stretching and exercises that actually helped lower back pain a lot, but didn't help my hip.

My doc referred me to a spine specialist a month ago and he says I have a bulging disc that is pressing on a nerve and that is causing the pain. He'd going to try an epidural to "kill" the nerve, but he says back surgery may be in my future. But it will be one to two months before he can do the epidural.

[Noah930]

Why do you have to wait so long for the epidural? It's not right to be taking the Tramadol regularly. (And I hope you mean 15 mg of Mobic, not 50.)

Best of luck.

[Zeke]

Are you taking an anti acid with the Meloxicam? NSAiD's are hard on you stomach. My do had me taking an Omeprazole 30 min before the Mobic.

Back surgery today is nothing like 20 years ago. But an idiot can mess it up whereas the best will have you feeling good in a short time. Neurosurgeons are the best bet for this. I know.

[Arizona_928]

2 months to get an epidural is an insane amount of time.

For myself, it took that amount of time to get on the schedule for a good surgeon for a revision surgery.


A lot of surgeons I've seen have dragged their feet for one way or another and i recommend ditching them in that case.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Why do you have to wait so long for the epidural? It's not right to be taking the Tramadol regularly. (And I hope you mean 15 mg of Mobic, not 50.)

Best of luck.

Thanks.

Yes, it's 15 mg of Meloxicam (Mobic).
(I wonder how many people get sick or die because every drug has multiple names. Seems like a bunch of disasters waiting to happen.)

The 1 to 2 months is a feature of our compartmentalized medical system. There are 3 different entities involved, each with its own scheduling.
My family doc
The spine doc
The imaging company

It took 2 weeks from the time of the referral from my family doc to get to the spine doc. The spine doc needs an MRI is to help him guide the needle to the right spot. So 18 days from the spine doc visit to get the MRI, then schedule back with the spine doc for the shots. The spine doc wants the MRI in hand before scheduling the shot.

[zakthor]

I'm so sorry. Living with pain will make you crazy.

Have you tried any alternative medicines? Rolfing? Acupuncture?

A few times in my life the medical system was letting me down I was lucky to find relief with massage, ice and stim, and some kookoo allergy treatment.

Remember the placebo effect is real.

[pwd72s]

Amen on old age sucks. Wishing you the best...

"Compartmentalized"...damned good way to describe the system...another thing that sucks.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I have a bulging disc that is pressing on a nerve and that is causing the pain. He'd going to try an epidural to "kill" the nerve, but he says back surgery may be in my future.

The hip problem may be caused by the spine twisting everything to support itself. I might have the same thing.

Spinal fusion should be a last resort imo. If the vertebra is not square and cupped it will try to continuously push the disk to the side. Basic mechanics.
No amount of painkiller or nerve block will fix that permanently...Don't put on bigger bandaids.

Mom had this done. Like new the next day.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/vertebroplasty
Vertebroplasty is a procedure in which a special cement is injected into a fractured vertebra — with the goal of relieving your spinal pain and restoring ...

Recovery is days-weeks. Nothing is cut in half. The muscles are split lengthwise with small incision.
https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/artificial-disk-replacement
Artificial Disk Replacement Surgery · A surgery that replaces damaged spinal discs with manufactured discs ·

[sugarwood]

How long have you been dealing with hip pain?

[Seahawk]

I just got back from a visit to the Doc that will replace my right hip...he did my left 7 years ago. Johns Hopkins guy, as easy to talk to as any Dr. I have ever met.

I went to see him because this weekend I could hear my hip bones pop after a lot of tractor hours. I was concerned about the integrity of the joint. He said that all joints, the spine as well, are like rubbing two ice cubes together when all is well: Cheese graters when they in peril.

He is world class and asked me about pain, pain management specifically since the new THR (total hip replacement) has been rescheduled for September.

THR are much less intrusive than ANYTHNG to do with the back or spine...the thought of anything other than pain management of your problem would scare me.

We talked about topical lotions, prescription medications, etc.: I told him I do 5mg of THC gummies at night, that is it. Nothing else. I have two friends that went down the oxy rabbit hole and it is hard crawling back out. I am not interested.

The days suck but I can get to sleep at night. I really recommend you give them a try. Every Dr. I interact with, my Primary Guy, the GI guy and the hip bubba were completely supportive: Better for the liver and kidneys and you do not get "high", at least at the dose I take.

PM if you'd like, Patrick. It may not work for you but the gummies have kept me sane, at least at night

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by john70t

The hip problem may be caused by the spine twisting everything to support itself. I might have the same thing.

Spinal fusion should be a last resort imo. If the vertebra is not square and cupped it will try to continuously push the disk to the side. Basic mechanics.
No amount of painkiller or nerve block will fix that permanently...Don't put on bigger bandaids.

Mom had this done. Like new the next day.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/vertebroplasty
Vertebroplasty is a procedure in which a special cement is injected into a fractured vertebra — with the goal of relieving your spinal pain and restoring ...

Recovery is days-weeks. Nothing is cut in half. The muscles are split lengthwise with small incision.
https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/artificial-disk-replacement
Artificial Disk Replacement Surgery · A surgery that replaces damaged spinal discs with manufactured discs ·

I had the same procedure done 16 months ago. Into the Orthopedic Center at 9am and walked out at 11am. Amazing difference.
The cement was used for me on two compressed fractured vertebrae. They open it up with air into a balloon and then inject the cement.

A bulging disc would prob require something different...but they do everything.
Ask lots of questions...best of luck to you.

[RobFrost]

Docs can be wrong. Could it be gout? If so it would come on at night, hit peak pain intensity in the first 24 hours and decline over a week.

Usually follows immediately after dehydration or increased consumption of beef, lamb, sucrose, beer.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

[speeder]

If you have a herniated or ruptured disc that is pressing on a nerve, the pain can be excruciating and no amount of stretching/acupuncture/chanting/witchcraft will fix it. It’s either have it repaired or be an opioid addict, I’ve been there.

Getting old does indeed suck but this has nothing to do with that. I had a micro discectomy at age 42 to repair a bulging disc that was causing 9-10 level pain. I was literally in tears beforehand, not a crybaby but they were involuntarily leaking from my eyes. It was intense. Major levels of Oxy could not put the fire out.

I’ve said it before but there are definite advantages to living in a large city and having good insurance. At the time, I did and I got a referral to the best neurosurgeon in town, (for this type of surgery), at Cedars-Sanai right away. They sent me for an MRI before the appointment but it all happened in one day.

I got to the appointment, he took one look at my scan and said something like, “holy schit, you need surgery. Can you be at the hospital at 6am tomorrow?”

“I’ll be there with bells on.” I would have let them do it with no anesthesia if it would have relieved the pain…it was otherworldly. He yelled out to his office staff to make sure that his schedule was clear and it was on like Donkey Kong. He did the surgery, (tiny scar…all done while looking at a screen), I woke up with no pain a few hours later and it’s been good for 21 years now.

I hope like hell that you can get it handled by someone good quickly, it will seem like a miracle. Good luck.

[wdfifteen]

Sugarwood:

My memory isn't real clear on it, but my record shows I got spine and hip X-rays in early 2019, so it started in 2018 or 2019. I started getting treatment for lower back pain and pain in my hip. The hip pain was not nearly as serious as the back pain. A year of physical therapy pretty much wiped out the back pain.

In 2021 my doc sent me to a sports medicine physical therapy place for the hip pain because it was getting worse. They decided it was a problem with my piriformis muscle. I did daily stretches and exercises for the piriformis for 22 months without any change. Then about 2 months ago the pain ramped up alarmingly.
I've done physical therapy, cortisone injections, and acupuncture, but the pain seems to be getting worse by the day.

Paul:
We have medical THC here in Ohio. I didn't think about that one. My wife got a medical card and tried it for something she had. After one or two doses she didn't like it at all and gave the rest away. I'll call my doctor and see if I can get a card. It would be great to get off of narcotics.

Speeder:
WOW! You have been through hell. I'm lucky that the pain mostly goes away when I sit and is gone completely when I lie down.

[sugarwood]

Speeder, what exactly did the surgeon do for your procedure?

[sugarwood]

wdfifteen, at this point all you've been told is that your back is causing hip pain, and they aren't gonna fix it, but just give you a shot ?

[Bugsinrugs]

I’m sorry you are in so much pain. Seems like all of us have suffered from excruciating pain at one time or another. Bottom line is .. the human body just wasn’t designed for us to live this long. Modern medicine is truly amazing.