Post by Artist35 on Aug 15, 2016 18:55:13 GMT -6
I'm a 35 year old elementary teacher. I had been suffering from sciatica and lower back pain for several years, but the pain got much more intense when I was pregnant with my son who is now 4 years old. After his birth, I tried steroid shots, chiropractic, and yoga. The pain would subside for a few weeks/months but always returned. I started seeing a Reumatologist and an internist and was put on tramadol and muscle relaxers and diagnosed with fibromyalgia. After a very painful day, I showed up at my appointment with my Ruematologist in tears and asked him why this pain would not go away and his response was that it was caused by muscle spasms. He started giving me nerve block shots. The first 2 worked but the third made the pain much worse. After 3 years with no improvement, I requested an MRI. My internist ordered X-rays (which I had already had done my chiropractor, but he did not have my records from them). I didn't get the X-rays done but instead made an appointment with an orthopedic. I had been to this same facility 3 years ago when the pain first started and had been told I was young and MRI's were expensive, so to try chiropractic care, but decided to demand an MRI this time. I saw a different dr this time. She finally listened to me and ordered an MRI. They called me a few days later and said they had found a lesion on my spine and wanted to do another MRI with contrast. I saw one of their nuerosurgeons the following week and was told I had an ependymoma that was outside my spinal cord (actually in the canal next to the spinal cord). He said it was slow growing but that I had had it for many years and that it needed to be removed before it started causing me even more problems. He said I'd be in bed for a week and would have lifting restrictions for 6 weeks but would be able to return to work at that time. On July 14th I had the surgery. It took the nurses several hours to get my pain under control and finally ended up with a dilaudid pump after morphine didn't touch the pain. I think my tolerance was effected due to me haven taken the tramadol for almost a year prior to surgery. Because the tumor was attached to nerves that controlled my bowels and left leg, part of the tumor was left. Now I have been referred to have 28 radiation treatments (low strength to reduce side effects). I am almost 6 weeks post op and still in a moderate amount of pain. I am able to sleep through the night, and the shooting pains in my tailbone that I had when I first came home have subsided. However, if I sit or stand fur more than 15-20 minutes, I have burning throbbing pain on the left side of my tailbone area (where tumor was). I'm taking Percoset 10 mg every 6 hours. I am supposed to start radiation next week and supposed to return to work the following week. I have been trying to keep my head up, but I'm getting very depressed about all of this. The pain meds are barely controlling my pain now, and I don't know how I will function getting up at 5:30, working until 4:00 and then caring for my very active 4 year old the way I feel now. I can't take any more time off work. My husband is starting his own business and not quite off the ground yet so we need my income. Adding the fatigue from radiation, I'm just very anxious about it. I also really thought I would be feeling better by now. I have moments where I feel encouraged and other times I just burst into tears. My husband and family have been very supportive doing almost all the housework ect. I just want things to get back to normal.
