I have my EMG test tomorrow
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive February 2004:
I have my EMG test tomorrow
I am a bit scared. I hear it can be painful.
I am just so sick of this sciatic pain.
I do not understand how or why I have this. I have had it since Oct. It is to the point now that every step I take is painful. Here comes srping and summer and I can hardly walk.
My 1 year old understands but how do you tell a 2 year old that mommy can't play or take you for a walk anymore? Well so sorry to moan. It really is starting to bring me down. If anyone else has had this test done or have had sciatic pain for a long time and did something to make it stop please tell me. I have been doing the exercises they tell you to do and its not working one bit!
(((Trisa))) I'll be praying for you.
Can I say something, and I don't mean to cross any lines and you may have already done this.
Get a 2nd opinion, go to a different dr. My mom should have switched drs. way back when (it would not have effected the outcome but she would have understood what was going on instead of them telling her it was in her head). You may have already done this. I feel so bad for you.
You are NOT crossing any lines.
I in fact am going to a new doctor. He is very nice and last week he spent a full hour with me!
Unheard of these days! Thanks for your prayers!
I just want to feel normal again.
Trisa, I'm sorry to tell you the EMG is painful. I've had a couple. It is, essentially, running an electric current between one end and the other end of a nerve. If it hurts, the nerve is OK, which is the only consolation. Nerves which are injured or dead don't hurt as much or at all.
I am also sorry to tell you that I had sciatic pain for many months before I woke up one morning with a ruptured disk in the lumbar/sacral area. NOT ONE OF MY BEST DAYS!
However, treatment of backs and disks has improved tremendously since my disk went (1980).
I will say that general thinking these days - no matter what your doctor says - is against any surgery for disk/back problems. I am told by the doctor/lawyer in our office that there was a recent editorial in the New England Joural of Medicine to that effect. I can also tell you that my disk healed with time and without surgery, and I have very little trouble with my back.
Now, in the interim. Try sleeping on your back with a pillow under your knees. When you sit, put a thick phone book or foot stool under first one foot and then the other, switching every half hour. If you are standing (at the sink, for example) do the same thing.
Don't lift anything you don't have to lift. Get someone else to lift it for you. Don't bend - squat if you can. If you can't squat without pain, get someone else to bend for you or leave it lie until someone else can pick it up, whatever it is.
Losing weight helps because it reduces the strain on the back. Your doctor may already have prescribed muscle relaxants or anti-inflammatory medication, and you should take the medication as prescribed. And if it says take after a meal, they don't mean a cup of coffee and one piece of toast. For some of these kinds of meds you need some real cushioning in your stomach if you don't want a bellyache on top of the backache.
I REALLY SYMPATHIZE, BECAUSE I REALLY HAVE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, AND KNOW JUST WHAT YOU MEAN.
Didn't even know what EMG was until Ginny's post. Good luck to you tomorrow. I hope you find answers that will relieve your pains.
Thanks. I do have a herniated disc in my neck but not my back. All the docs told me a neck disc
problem would NOT cause sciatic pain.
No Doc will give me muscle relaxers. They al say that they will make me to sleepy and not be able to take care of my kids plus they are very addictive. I am about at the end of my rope!!
My neck does feel better these days. I only have that tingly feeling if I sit to long or work to hard. My leg, butt and feet hurt ALL the time.
Its weird because the last couple of weeks my feet are not only numb but they also feel like something heavy was dropped on them. Well My 2 year old is screaming because my son is TRYING to do homework and she wants to play!!
Calgon..............
Trisa,
Have you called any Chiropractors in your area? My husband had low back pain for almost 2 years and finally decided that the "general doctors" just wanted to prescribe meds for the pain but not correct the problem. He has gone two times to the Chiroprator and he is feeling 98% better. I have been truly amazed. He can actually stand straight and the pain is nearly gone. Just a thought.
Trisa, ditto Ginny. And as for feeling down, chronic pain WILL cause depression. It's only natural, when you are in that much pain 24/7, you get depressed. I have the back/disk issues as well as other joint pain issues I live with and I have a meltdown every 2-3 months, I cry for a couple of hours, and then I'm good to go for another couple months, as far as dealing with constant pain goes.
The *good* thing that will come out of having that EMG is it will show nerve involvement/damage and hopefully you will find a solution from there. And another thing you can do if it becomes necessary is to talk to your doctor about putting you on something for depression, even if it's just until you get these physical problems resolved.
{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}
Funny you should say that.
I just read on the net that they are
starting to give people med like zoloft for sciatic pain. Weird huh? Hey maybe its like killing 2 birds with one stone! Karen did you even take muscle relaxers and did they make you feel so sleppy that you could not do day to day things? Thanks for your help. I am thinking my insurance wont cover a chiropractor. I have really thought about seeing one. My mom scared me out of it. She said someone she works with went to one and it made it 10 times worse. Its so hard to know the right thing to do!
I typed a whole lot and then something froze and it's gone. I'll try again.
Trisa, you have classic sciatic nerve symptoms. The nerve starts in the lumbar/sacral area (lower spine), runs down the mid to outer buttock and down the back of the leg to the foot. The tingling and other feelings in your foot/feet are not good signs.
Is your doctor an orthopedist? Is he board certified? These are very important matters.
I understand about the muscle relaxants. How about anti-inflammatory meds? I can't take Motrin because it upsets my stomach, but my orthopedic doc prescribes Relafen, which is an anti-inflammatory and doesn't upset my stomach. And for several months, back in 1980, I took Ascriptin AD, an aspirin with lots of buffers for people with chronic pain (arthritis, for example) where an anti-inflammatory med was appropriate. I took 3-4 at a time, 3-4 times a day, making sure to take them after a meal, and they didn't bother my stomach. Sometimes I got an aspirin overdose, which you can tell because your ears start ringing, and then I'd cut back.
Chronic pain is a bitch! I don't know any other way to describe it. It causes depression, anger, and a lot of frustration. I know when I was going through my pain I was not a nice person at all. I developed a lot more understanding of people with chronic pain, and was always amazed at my dear mother, who was in one kind of pain or another for at least 15 years before she died and almost never complained.
I would stay away from chiropractors unless your doctor orders it and gives specific instructions. With the best will in the world, there are situations where a chiropractor can do more harm than good.
And although there are a lot of good exercises for back problems, again, I'd stay away from them until/unless your doctor orders them. My orthopedic doc ordered physical therapy for me when I had arthritis based cervical (neck) pain and lower back pain. It was really helpful. And while I'm not good about doing the exercises when I am pain free, when I start to hurt I start to do them and get relief in just a couple of days.
Please, take care of yourself. And please, keep us posted.
Oh, and try a lumbar roll. Just fold a bath towel in thirds the long way and roll it up, fastening it with rubber bands. Try putting this behind your back a bit below your waist, sort of where that hollow is below your waist, when you are sitting in a chair or in the car. It will help keep your spine in the proper curve. So many cars these days have bucket-type seats, which are the worst kind of seats for people with back problems. I got seat covers for the front seats just so I could put a couple of back support type things under the seat covers. Reclining chairs are also not great for backs, as most of them sort of hollow out, causing your spine to curve out rather than in the sort of "s" shape it should have. If you sit in a recliner, try putting a skinny cushion or a pillow behind your back and see if it helps.
For all of the things I have suggested, the first rule is - if it hurts, don't do it. These are things that my doctor has suggested for me and they work for me, but you are not me. So if you try something and it makes things hurt more, stop immediately.
Oh, and if you are somewhat overweight, talk to your doctor about a diet. I know when my mom lost about 30 pounds it helped her arthritic back a lot. And one of the attorneys in our office ruptured a disk when moving a heavy piece of evidence. He had a lot of pain, but now that he has lost about 80 of the 130 pounds he needs to lose, he has very few pain episodes.
Just re-reading - Trisa, the exercises you are doing - did your doctor tell you to do them? If not, stop. Talk to your doctor about them before continuing. Yes, there are a lot of good exercises for back problems, but at this point you should not do anything without talking to your doctor.
Trisa, I take muscle relaxers daily. They used to make me sleepy but now they don't. However, I haven't been able to sleep at night since my first back surgery, so I take a different muscle relaxer at night so I can sleep.
As for a chiropractor, I wouldn't even consider that until you know exactly what you're dealing with.
Trisa you will be in my prayers.I`ll be thinking of you tomorrow.Keep us posted.
Ginny has great suggestions. I have sciatic nerve damage due to a car accident I had when I was 17 years old that was only made worse about 5 years ago after a second accident. I had an EMG done and was told that it would heal up on its own for the most part and the rest I would have to live with. I have been living with this for 15 years now. It has gotten better with time. But I still have really bad flare ups. I self medicate with over the counter medications for the most part. I have found that the PMS pain relievers work best for me (Tylenol PMS and Midol PMS). But I have gone in to the Dr and gotten muscle relaxers and anti inflamatories to get me over really bad spells. But I have doctored with the same doctor for 10 years so he knows that I need the medication or I wouldn't ask. Last time I was on muscle relaxers was last November. I can usually tell when I am going to have a flare up because I start getting tightening and pulling in the back of my thigh or twangs of pain in my back. And I generally have my major issues when the weather changes really quickly or if it is really damp out. I have been having issues the last couple of days with the constant up and down of our weather. But because I have learned about my body and have learned my triggers for flare ups I seem to be able to stay ahead of most of them.
And Ginny's point about eating a meal before every meal is very true. With cronic pain you will be on medication for a while and you are only hurting your stomach by not making sure you have a buffer in it for the pills.
Not a meal before every meal. I meant to say, eating a meal before taking the pills is very true.
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