The Journey

This has been one of the most difficult journeys of my life. I have had surgeries and sprained ankles and torn ligaments and torn knees as well as gall bladder removal and back surgery. Nothing I have experienced up to this point prepared me for chronic pain. My back has basically hurt since February of 2005. Since then I have seen a chiropractor, a masseuse, a accupuncturist, a physiatrist, my family doctor, an internal surgeon, a anathesiologist working with back pain people, a pain clinic for chronic pain and a neurosurgeon. Since this started I have been manipulated by the chiropractor as well as the physiatrist, I have had three separate places work with me on physical therapy, I have had a back brace, my gall bladder has been removed, I have had stim on me so many times I can't count any more, I have had needles poked in me, I have been massaged by six different people, I have worked closely with three nurse practitioners on my medicine needs to combat the pain, I have had spinal fusion with T8-9-10 fused together, I have had an MRI, I have had five separate procedures to test which levels are having pain by injecting lidocaine into the vetebral spaces under fluroscope with no anesthesia, I have had a procedure referred to as RF lesioning where they basically microwave the nerve to cause it to turn off for a while with no anesthesia, I have had phenol injected to burn the nerve and turn it off for a little while twice with no anesthesia, I have had six x-rays and now I am looking forward to a mylogram. For pain I have taken Lyrica, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Acetaminophine, Lortab, Percocet, morphine, fentanyl, a 10-day course of a strong anti-inflammatory and been injected with cortisone.

PHEW!


This has been a tough time for me. Over the course of the last three months, the nerve pain has kicked back on and come on in force to me. It has caused me to evaluate what is important and worry about only those things while other stuff was put on hold. My family is where I've tried to spend my time, but they also have seen some of the worst times for me as well. I had to take a long time off work at the farm, at my Novell job and at church. I have been loved by a ton of people who are praying for me, and others that are helping out with things that need done at my place. I have found that I am an extremely blessed man, and I have suffered seeing many things that I need to do and being unable to get them done. I am still on this journey too. I am not up to a therapeutic dose on my medications yet, so we are still tweaking them to get to a useful level. I still have some tests to do in order to find out what in the world is going on with my back. Fortunately, we are getting somewhere. I can finally feel human most of the time now and can start interacting with people again. My blogging will again start to pick up as I continue to get better and I appreciate the prayers of everyone who has prayed for me and my family. Thanks.