My mother is in excruciating pain in her lower back and leg region. She has been to her GP, a neurosurgeon and a pain management doctor. She has tried everything and the medications they have prescribed have not worked. They say there is nothing they can do but she is in such pain she can barely walk which is compromising her quality of life. How do I find a doctor to help her? Should I have her brought to the hospital by ambulance? What will it take for them to give her pain medication that works? I am trying to understand this backward, chaotic system. Help.
What you are describing sounds like it could be sciatica or periformis syndrome. It’s very painful if that’s what it is. Look it up. The sciatica is a nerve and the periformis is a muscle that aggravates the nerve and the pain can be lower back and down one or both legs.
I have had that. Again, it is so painful if that is what your mom has. Look it up and see if her symptoms seem to match.
The first few times I had it, I took OTC pain meds and went to bed. I had to be very still and let the inflammation settle down. I tried ice packs and/or heating pads. If I lay in a certain position long enough I could get it to go away. It took hours, sometimes days.
It usually came on when I over exerted like cooking holiday meals. But just to get up from the bed to go to the bathroom was excruciating. I also had some success with a mild muscle relaxer. I went to an urgent care for the muscle relaxer. I’m very sensitive to meds so I would have to sleep off the muscle relaxer but if I was lucky I would wake up without the pain.
Chiropractic treatment worked well once I was able to even get in a car to get to the chiropractor. The muscles would be so tense the chiropractor couldn’t adjust me but they worked on relaxing the muscles and that helped but honestly the thing that has finally resolved my back pain is CBD oil. It’s been like a miracle.
I had gotten to the point that I was afraid to pick up anything very heavy or to work in the kitchen for very long. The repetitive chopping or spending hours in the kitchen was sure to bring it on. The movement of getting in and out of the car had to be thought out and I had to move slowly to try to keep my back from going into a spasm. I was basically sitting all the time to try to keep the pain from starting up. As long as I didn’t do anything, it didn’t hurt. I have a vivid memory of my daughter lecturing me at my bedside. Telling me that I couldn’t have any more parties because every time I made a big meal, by the time it was served, I had to go to bed. Also when traveling, just pulling my roller bag through the airport would have me hurting by the time I would get to the rental car. I would consider the trip a success if I didn’t have to spend a good part of it in the bed. Not much fun to be around me. I’ve been pain free for almost four months now since I started the oil. My anxiety has decreased as well. This past weekend I cooked a big meal and while I was extremely tired, I didn’t have to go to bed and I didn’t have back pain.
I hope your mom finds relief soon.
After trying meds, rehab, etc. the only thing that worked for me was traction. I know when someone says "traction" one think of the days of lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a pulley with weights.
Now a days traction can be done on an out-patient basis at a rehab center. For me, it took only two 20 minute session on the traction machine. That was over 20 years ago, rarely do I have any problems, except I also have to limit my standing time in the kitchen :P
Sounds like your Mother's general doctor hasn't been much help. Does your Mother still have a GYN that she goes to? See if that doctor can help, order films to be taken to see where the pain is coming from.
Tonight have Mom sleep on her side with a pillow between her knees... surprisingly that can help in some cases.