With my bad feet, knees, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, TMJ, peripheral neuropathy, etc., I was struggling. Recently I saw my regular doc, and my TMJ doc, and then my GYN doc to rule out some of the problems. I found a new rheumatologist and made an appointment for this Thursday (which has been cancelled). About 6 weeks ago, my upper left thigh started aching. I sort of ignored it, because both thighs have ached off and on for many years. Finally, the left one got so bad, I went to my regular doc. He always goes to "It's just your fibro" spiel. He did very reluctantly order me a small supply of Tramadol (opioid). The first couple of weeks, I took one every other day and it worked very well. Then it stopped working much. My doc seemed pretty frustrated with me. The thigh pain overwhelmed me and I went to the ER. They did a CT scan and nothing showed, as did my labs. I guess him seeing that I went to the ER made him think a little harder, and he ordered more Tramadol and also a Medrol dose pak (steroids). They began to help a bit.
Fortunately, my DH is a doc and ordered a couple back MRIs. I have a herniated lumbar disc that is pushing on a nerve root that goes all down my left side. Pain has been a huge challenge, even with the steroids. But to have this in the middle of this Covid19 disaster is almost too much to bear. I called a back surgeon whose PA I had seen last year for a different back problem. Then are not even making any appointments for 2 weeks.
This is so frightening to me.......to have so much pain, and no one can help. I'll do a search of what kind of exercises to do, but it's a bit worrisome to do exercises on my own, since I could make it worse.
Damn.....my back has always been the only thing that didn't hurt. Now this, at the worst possible time in this country/world.
Any suggestions? I use a heating pad a lot. It's comfortable but doesn't help the pain that much. I use pain cream and patches.
It's just so weird that my thigh hurts much more than my back. And the tingling is everywhere.
Maybe I just need to be more pushy with the back surgeon's office (it's a big place), but I know everyone is in a similar, horrible situation.
Any suggestions for pain for a ruptured disc with nerve impingement? And this is all happening with my DH trying to keep his small medical business afloat. This is a nightmare..........
I appreciate any and all suggestions!