Degenerative Disc Disease anyone ?

What medicine do you take for pain? Have you had steroid injections? Do they help?

History:
I've been having low back pain since a month out from surgery. My PCP and Osteopathic Dr thought my hips were rotating out of place due to the weight loss which was causing my pain.

After PT not helping, manipulations by Osteo. and some pain medication (which doesn't do much good) she sent me to a Rhumatologist. I was diagnosed with Juvinille RA when I was 19 but had been symptom free since becoming pregnant a few years ago.  She thought maybe that was acting up.  Anyway, he ordered an MRI which shows disc degeneration L5 and other stuff I don't understand .   He referred me back to my PCP to get a referral to go see a spine specialist.

Saw PCP today  and she is going to have me see a Dr in the same clinic who is sports medicine Dr on Monday.  She mentioned he may suggest a steroid shot and that might really help.  I guess if that's what he wants to do I'll have to check w/ WLS office to see if it's ok , right? Because even if I get an injection of an anti-inflam, it can still hurt my stomach lining? UGH!

The shot will be a STEROID.  The pills that cause stomach problems are NSAIDS or NON-STEROIDAL anitinflammatory drugs.  Steroids can cause some weight gain (it will go away) and if you have diabetes mess up your blood sugars. 

 Dear Kristy, 

I am so sorry that you're going through this pain. I have degenerative disc disease from L3-s1.  I've had 2 surgeries, and I'm getting a spinal fusion when I heal from my RNY.  

If your doctor is talking about steroid injections, I bet she's talking about steroid epidural.  If this is the case, they can be very helpful.  I have had 7 over the past 12 months.  They can help almost automatically, or they can take up to a week to kick in.... 

They inject the steroid straight into where your nerves are in the spine.  They use an x-ray machine while they inject, so they get it right into the inflammation.

Believe me, it sounds A LOT scarier than it is.  They make your back so numb that you can't even feel the needle go in. 

If you want to Private Message me about this, feel free.  Like WLS, "disc" pain is the kind of thing that people don't understand unless they've "been there".... 

Take care, 
Lauren

I'll PM you, thanks!

I completely understand back pain.  I had a spinal fusion in 2005.  I had immediate relief .  However, I now have a lot of scar tissue that causes a great deal of pain on the opposite hip now.  I do go to pain management occasionally, since RNY my pain has been reduced a great deal.  I do not get steroid injections anymore because they do cause weight gain.  I take pain meds and use lidocain patches when I need to.

When the neurosurgeon preformed the spinal fusion he fused the  disc with some of my hip bone.  I will tell you this....the recovery from a spinal fusion takes quite some time. 

Good luck with your surgery.

 Thank you, Patti. My surgeon is going to use bone marrow and collect bone fragments from drilling the holes in my vertebrae- i don't have to get a piece of bone out of my hip! yay! i was so happy when i learned this.  my mom had fusion in '79 and her hip stilllll hurts her sometimes from where they took the bone :(

I know someone that the surgeon used a cadavar bone, his body rejected the bone.   My dr. never even considered it.

Your surgery sounds painful too.  I also have some screws they look awesome.  You know that your back will forever be stiff.  I think mine was L4 it was very low, so therefore being stiff lower isn't so bad.

 Yeah, mine will be L4, L5 & S1.  A fusion and the RNY are the things that will help me live a normal life, get pregnant and support the pregnancy, etc. I have now been in non-stop pain since 2006.I, too, have a ton of scar tissue from spinal stenosis removal & lamenectomy in '98, and lamenectomy in '06. My L4- S1 are herniated now, but the S1 herniation is so gigantic that I can't feel my left foot or move my toes on my left foot.
Ready to get this weight off, and get those discs fixed.  

I know the fusion is going to completely suck, but I am only 27 years old, a newlywed, and shouldn't be living like a 95 year old! 

I understand.....I'm 47 and have only been married 6 years.  Good Luck you are awfully young to have had soooo many problems.

 I've had DDD now for well over 10 years. I've had a couple shots but because you can only have them so often, I gave up on them. Yes, the shots worked but not for long for me. I've know others who had two rounds of shots and were symptom free for years.

I just live with the pain, but I have a lot of other things that cause me pain. I'm either allergic to most pain meds, can't handle the zombie-ism they cause, or they just don't do anything for me.