Sorry this may be long but I really do need some advice, or some thoughts/explanations on this.

I am 26 years old, have a 2 year old boy, and a husband.

About 8 years ago I was involved in a car crash, but was really unwise about it and did not seek medical evaluations about it. (I was in shock and did not feel any pain at the time)

Since then I have maintained a chronic pain in my left neck/shoulder area. The pain alters forms from time to time: dull aches, sharp pains, burning, tingling, numbness, weakness, concentrated nerve pain deep in my muscles, shooting pains all the way down to my pinkie.

This pain strangely enough fluctuates in levels ranging from about a 4-5 on EXCELLENT days.. some days–stretches of time it can be up to a 9. When its 9 its excruciating. I do not have to be doing anything for my pain to be effecting me. Just sitting down hurts. Needless to say it makes it difficult to be productive around the house or be active with my child.

4 years ago I went to the doctor, and she took an xray and said that she saw evidence of arthritis in my spine. Shortly after that I lost the insurance, and since then could not afford to go back to her.

I went through this discount program clinic place, and have tried to get help through them. For some reason no doctors in this program will say that I have arthritis or will even acknowledge my pain as anything other than psychological. This is increasingly frustrating as I am unable to afford any other kinds of health programs right now, and cannot seek other opinions out side this system.

I have seen more than 5 doctors, taken countless xrays, mris, cat scans, even an EMG test.
(that EMG test was really questionable though as during the beginning of the test, they said that it seemed i was “borderline arthritic” but refused to accept this as they moved the probes around untill they got a normal reading)

Is it likely that programs like these (available to low income people) are unwilling to treat people with chronic- non life threatening conditions?

I am sick and tired of being treated like I am crazy for my pain.

These doctors say that I am “too young” to be experiencing this.

anyways, after weeks and weeks of unsuccessful PT, I tried a Chiropractor. He insisted that I get another Xray, and he said that he saw something wrong with my C6-C7 disc.

How can the Chiropractor and the previous doctor see something that these doctors do not?

The Chiropractor only helps short term, no actual healing going on there, just short term relief.

I am constantly stretching, obtaining therapeutic messages, use heating pads/patches, ice, menthol cream, sleep on a good bed, stay active, work on my posture, try to eat right, exercise, taking Tylenol/aspirin/neproxin does nothing for me. Nothing takes my pain away.

I am fearful that I am flagged as some sort of drug seeker or something, but medication is the last thing I want. If I could do some surgery, burn nerve endings, do some sort of numbing shot, some sort of localized specific nerve blocker, RATHER than a life long regimine of opoid medication, and take the problem away once and for all i would in a heartbeat.

Are any of the above treatments viable as a true long term relief?

Please thoughtful answers only
and thank you for reading all of this..
Please help!

Sorry this may be long but I really do need some advice, or some thoughts/explanations on this.

I am 26 years old, have a 2 year old boy, and a husband.

About 8 years ago I was involved in a car crash, but was really unwise about it and did not seek medical evaluations about it. (I was in shock and did not feel any pain at the time)

Since then I have maintained a chronic pain in my left neck/shoulder area. The pain alters forms from time to time: dull aches, sharp pains, burning, tingling, numbness, weakness, concentrated nerve pain deep in my muscles, shooting pains all the way down to my pinkie.

This pain strangely enough fluctuates in levels ranging from about a 4-5 on EXCELLENT days.. some days–stretches of time it can be up to a 9. When its 9 its excruciating. I do not have to be doing anything for my pain to be effecting me. Just sitting down hurts. Needless to say it makes it difficult to be productive around the house or be active with my child.

4 years ago I went to the doctor, and she took an xray and said that she saw evidence of arthritis in my spine. Shortly after that I lost the insurance, and since then could not afford to go back to her.

I went through this discount program clinic place, and have tried to get help through them. For some reason no doctors in this program will say that I have arthritis or will even acknowledge my pain as anything other than psychological. This is increasingly frustrating as I am unable to afford any other kinds of health programs right now, and cannot seek other opinions out side this system.

I have seen more than 5 doctors, taken countless xrays, mris, cat scans, even an EMG test.
(that EMG test was really questionable though as during the beginning of the test, they said that it seemed i was “borderline arthritic” but refused to accept this as they moved the probes around untill they got a normal reading)

Is it likely that programs like these (available to low income people) are unwilling to treat people with chronic- non life threatening conditions?

I am sick and tired of being treated like I am crazy for my pain.

These doctors say that I am “too young” to be experiencing this.

anyways, after weeks and weeks of unsuccessful PT, I tried a Chiropractor. He insisted that I get another Xray, and he said that he saw something wrong with my C6-C7 disc.

How can the Chiropractor and the previous doctor see something that these doctors do not?

The Chiropractor only helps short term, no actual healing going on there, just short term relief.

I am constantly stretching, obtaining therapeutic messages, use heating pads/patches, ice, menthol cream, sleep on a good bed, stay active, work on my posture, try to eat right, exercise, taking Tylenol/aspirin/neproxin does nothing for me. Nothing takes my pain away.

I am fearful that I am flagged as some sort of drug seeker or something, but medication is the last thing I want. If I could do some surgery, burn nerve endings, do some sort of numbing shot, some sort of localized specific nerve blocker, RATHER than a life long regimine of opoid medication, and take the problem away once and for all i would in a heartbeat.

Are any of the above treatments viable as a true long term relief?

Please thoughtful answers only
and thank you for reading all of this..
Please help!

I would like some people who live in countries with Universal Healthcare to answer this question. I do not want some conservatives or liberals from America to answer this. By the way, I am a conservative and love the free market system and feel that we have the best healthcare in the nworld because it is free market so don’t rant on me.

If you live i a country that offers “free” healthcare to its citizens, do they ration it? Let me give you a scenario:
I knew a 19 year old girl who was having pain in her hip. The doctor said she probably needed some rest and tha it was probably no big deal. The pain wouuld not go away. She went back to the doctor. He did an X-Ray. Nothing. He said it was probably arthritis or something similar and that she should get a cortisone shot. She didn’t believe him. The pain increased and would not go away. She went back to the doctor who sent her to an orthopedic surgeon. He did an MRI. There was a tumor. It was malignant. Did she want to go to Boston or Worcester for her treatments? She went to Boston. They determined it was Ewings Sarcoma and she needed to begin treatments immediately. She did that. She lived cancer free for 4 more years. She married and adopted a child from foster care. Then the pain came back. She had an MRI and it was determined that the cancer had returned. Chemo, radiation and surgery were given. Remission was the prognosis. Three months later, the cancer came back and this time it was in multiple places. On January 6, 2004, my wife passed away from that cancer.

My question is: Would a doctor have wasted the governments money on her by doing an MRI or would they have said that because she was only 19 and the likelihood of her having something seriously wron with her at that age was so slim that she had to go to the back of the line and wait for 6 months or so for the MRI? I would never have married her, she would never have adopted our son, and I would be a totally different person today.

Ths is the dilemna thatI face with a universal healthcare system. How would things be ifferent in this situation?

After suffering from severe pain for 25 years, I lost quite a bit of faith in the MD’s that I saw…One told me that my x-rays showed no arthritis, and then gave me arthritis meds, HHMMMM!
Other docs put me on pain meds, which my body adjusted to, making it necessary to continually increase the dosages.
After many years and countless doctors, a friend introduced me to a Chiropractor…with regular visits, at a minimal cost ($10-$20 per visit) I have successfully reduced the pain by about 80%!!!
What other “Alternative” have you found to the family doctor, medication, and traditional treatments?
HAHA Pillpushers! The Chiropractor said “MD stands for More Drugs” LOL!

hello, 2yr ago i sought medical help for extreme backpain, an mri revealed 2 herniated discs L5/S1. the pain was bad, and intermittently extreme. i was given percocet 10mgs x 4 daily, and attended pain mgt where i had 5 epideral injections a year, chiropractic care, physical therapy, dmx 5000 table treatments etc. i completed all therapies, and nothing seemd to work, in fact, the more i stayed inactive, the worse it got. now i started exercising, lost weight as the doc told me it would help my injury etc. well, i started having extreme pain when waking up, stiffness in hands, arms, and back, and even shooting pain in my arms, hands radiating from my neck down. i when the pain mgt. doctor who hears whiney people that say thier in pain all day, ( hes 83yrs old, tells me this) and i advised him that i have new symptoms, ie. shooting pain in arms, hands, extreme stiffness when waking up. the pain meds i was barely work, but im not complaining as everyone in his office wants pain meds etc. i asked the dude if he could figure out why i have these crazy symptoms, he speculated cervical herniations, and he was right! 3 cervical herniations, 2 Thoracic herniations, 2 lumbar, and a new diagnosis of extreme arthritis, im only in my 30s! im like what the hell happened in the last 18 mos to 2yrs from when i had 2 herniated discs to a handful now? las month/prior to the new mri findings, i asked for some different meds or an increase as im on 15mgs of oxycodone 6x daily. this stuff is not too be confused with oxycontin ER, oxycodone is just percocet with no tylenol, they do not score oxycontin tabs in 15mgs anyway. but im really having major pain issues, and he just recieved my mri yesterday, does anyone have experience in pain management or back injuries, pain meds, breakthrough pain. Im wondering how i should approach this new diagnosis where i went from 2 herniations too 7 herniations! and a new diagnosis of arthritis. i want to ask for an increase in meds, and a referral for accupuncture. ive thought about going to a hormone optimization clinic where growth hormone/testosterone can be utilized too increase synovial fluid in the joints and strengthen the joints.

i have to see the doc soon, what kind of meds should i try? hes offered methadone, morphine, fentanyl patches, oxycontin, im wondering if theres anyway around the pain meds? or if i do have to continue on them, what do i say? im sure the new mri’s tell the story, i shouldnt have too say anything? if 7 herniated discs a really serious situation? along with the diagnosis of degeneratvie disc disorder, but how did this happen in 2yrs? 2 discs to 7 herniated!t thanks guys!!!

Ok so my mom is in her late 40’s. She is in good health, besides her slight high blood pressure and seasonal allergies. Out of nowhere she started getting really bad joint pain in her knees.

She describes it as a pulling and sometimes a little cracking sensation in her knees, the pain travels up and down the back of her leg. Today a wierd symptom emerged, she had joint pain in her toes and feet.

She is pretty active normally, I can’t think of anything that could have caused this that was in her control.

Does anyone have ideas of diseases or links to this type of pain? I read something about Crohns disease…idk she thinks it might be early arthritis, but I argued that it wouldn’t feel like how she describes because my grandmother has osteo arthritis.

She is currently changing her primary care doctor after a terrible experience with her current one. Until then can someone tell me some common treatments that can be done at home for the pain in her legs?

Thanks!

My 14 yr. old cat has a tumor on her back leg and up into her thigh. The vet says she’d suffer with radiation or chemo because of her age, plus we can’t really afford those treatments. We have two other options–amputation if the tumor hasn’t spread or euthanasia. She has arthritis in her hips, and she’s a big cat. Amputation would cause her to put all her weight on the one hip to walk, and that’s going to be painful for her. My vet is leaning towards euthanasia, and it looks like my only choice is to put her down. How do I decide when, though? She’s eating, drinking, interacting with us, etc. She probably feels some discomfort in the swollen leg, but she’s still walking around, jumping on the couch to sleep–as much as she jumped in the past, anyway, given the arthritis. Do I keep her around until she shows more signs of suffering, or what? This is so hard!
Thanks everyone for your sympathy and understanding. You’ve all been so kind in your responses and so helpful. I have a lot to think about, but I wanted to pass along my appreciation for all your support and kindness.

I’ve asked this before and have never received an answer. Does anyone know why this happens?

Not only has my hair become curly, it’s texture has completely changed –it’s now thick and coarse rather than baby-fine.

I love this side-effect, I’ve always wished for curly hair.

I’ve taken chemo for three years and, unless my doctor changes my treatments, I can expect to be on it for life (I have rheumatoid arthritis) Can I also expect my hair to remain this way?

I realize this sounds rather vain, with all the problems others face. I’ve just always wondered about this and haven’t found a suitable answer anywhere.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

((((((((((((((Lady)))))))))

I hope everything is fine for you now, and that you are healthy.
((((((((((((((Moon))))))))))))) Aww, give your mom a hug for me, sweetie.

Had my SSI Court Appeal back in November, received my denial of benefits last week (filed another appeal), and when going over the documents that she sent back, nothing was accurate and she didn’t include hardly anything I said during my appearance. She failed to mention that I have severe scoliosis which will require surgery to fix, and wrote it off as “back pain”. She lied about what I can and can’t do, and it just seems as if she totally didn’t listen to a word I said, and didn’t mention anything in the documents. I am very upset, I have a disabling genetic bone disease (that I’ve had since birth and all my drs have said I can’t work), have severe asthma/allergies, scoliosis, degenerative arthritis as well as rhemetoid arthritis, I am not giong to get better. Will only get worse, no matter what “treatments” I am given. Have already had several surgeries and am going back on May 28th for another.

Can anything be done? Except file another appeal and get a good lawyer?
Thanks for the responses. I have filed my case with Binder and Binder.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692973435303415.html

Do you know what the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE, in the UK is? Like the governmental committee to make ‘recommendations’ on care and best practices in Obamacare, NICE was originally set up just to advise on best practices, but mutated.

“What NICE has become in practice is a rationing board. As health costs have exploded in Britain as in most developed countries, NICE has become the heavy that reduces spending by limiting the treatments that 61 million citizens are allowed to receive through the NHS. For example:

In March, NICE ruled against the use of two drugs, Lapatinib and Sutent, that prolong the life of those with certain forms of breast and stomach cancer. This followed on a 2008 ruling against drugs — including Sutent, which costs about $50,000 — that would help terminally ill kidney-cancer patients. After last year’s ruling, Peter Littlejohns, NICE’s clinical and public health director, noted that “there is a limited pot of money,” that the drugs were of “marginal benefit at quite often an extreme cost,” and the money might be better spent elsewhere.

In 2007, the board restricted access to two drugs for macular degeneration, a cause of blindness. The drug Macugen was blocked outright. The other, Lucentis, was limited to a particular category of individuals with the disease, restricting it to about one in five sufferers. Even then, the drug was only approved for use in one eye, meaning those lucky enough to get it would still go blind in the other. As Andrew Dillon, the chief executive of NICE, explained at the time: “When treatments are very expensive, we have to use them where they give the most benefit to patients.”

NICE has limited the use of Alzheimer’s drugs, including Aricept, for patients in the early stages of the disease. Doctors in the U.K. argued vociferously that the most effective way to slow the progress of the disease is to give drugs at the first sign of dementia. NICE ruled the drugs were not “cost effective” in early stages.

Other NICE rulings include the rejection of Kineret, a drug for rheumatoid arthritis; Avonex, which reduces the relapse rate in patients with multiple sclerosis; and lenalidomide, which fights multiple myeloma. Private U.S. insurers often cover all, or at least portions, of the cost of many of these NICE-denied drugs.

NICE has also produced guidance that restrains certain surgical operations and treatments. NICE has restrictions on fertility treatments, as well as on procedures for back pain, including surgeries and steroid injections. The U.K. has recently been absorbed by the cases of several young women who developed cervical cancer after being denied pap smears by a related health authority, the Cervical Screening Programme, which in order to reduce government health-care spending has refused the screens to women under age 25.
Sound good to you?

Doesn’t sound good to me.
Sunshine he said 2/3 not 1/3 and since he is ADDING huge committee and oversight structures and keeping insurance involved as well, there is no savings. That is the problem the CBO had with it. It doesn’t cut costs. So to take the money from medicare means cutting service.