Is degenerative disc disease the same as Spinal Stenosis or was the nurse taking my vicodin??
I had a full back x-rays done and they have referred me for PT, because I have "degenerative bone disease" (her words), but she said the doctor said it is not because of the arthritis???
I am more confused than ever, can someone help??
I just found out that I have a degenerative disc in my back and my Rheumatologist said that I needed to see a primary physician because it wasn't a part of my PA. I need to do that, but it is only one and I now know why I hurt there so bad at time. The only thing I don't understand is that I am stiff in that area after I get up for about an hour to an hour and a half if I miss my morning pill. I am curious to the diffence as well.I understand because mine follows my PA too. If I am having a bad joint day, my lower back is affected. Now, my upper back in between my shoulders is affected as well. I honestly think it is a part.
Letta, do you too??
My primary tells me that PA is like having RA and Fybromyalgia in one. Not only do you hurt in your joints, but you also have pain in you tendons, ligaments and muscles. Before I was diagnosed 5 yrs ago and up until I got on my current medication, Diflunisal (NSAID)(2 yrs) and Requip (2 mos), I had terrific pain in my achilles tendons each night and morning. Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom was very painful and agonizing. Getting up from working at my desk for about 1 hr during the middle of the day, would end in me falling into a door or wall when I would try to get up and walk. I have several things that seem to follow PA, some have disappeared due to my hysterectomy, some by finding the right medication and other I have just learned to deal with somewhere along the way. I am in pain at least 1/2 of my day on good days and sometimes most of the night. I have siatic pain down my left leg most every night for quite sometime until I started with the requip which also helps with the RLS that I have had for most of the time I have had PA which is about 9 yrs since the onset of the majority of symptoms. I don't mean to go on and on, but as you will find, a lot of the symptoms you haven't found yet, will eventually rear their ugly head!
I am glad to have talked with you tonight, thanks and I hope you have a wonderful tomorrow,
Gosh, reading your post makes a lot of sense. I know that the ligaments and tendons are affected, but never had it explained like this. It explains a lot of the referred pain in muscles and such. I thought I was just overcompensating. My joints in my hips hurt, but then it seems that all of the attachment hurts too. I have had sciatica since I was 16, so I know what that is all about. Thank you for your help. Anything that helps with the muscle/tendon aches?? Are you changing nutrition?
I have to work today and am already completely exhausted and hurting. I have five more days until I have a day off. I hope I can make it work.
Once I got on the right medication, it seemed that my achilles pain reduced and the nodules that were forming have gone down. I tried about 6 NSAIDS, and the doc says I only have two to go until I have to go to the worse meds. I am really trying to stay off of the other drugs. I take a combo of Diflunisal and Requip right now. When I do too much, I take a muscle relaxer and/or Oxazepam. I have pain pills for the bad stuff, but I really try not to overdo my activities and pace myself. The dr had me on amitryptaline, 10 mg for a while, and it was letting me sleep through the pain at night, but the requip has helped the night pain, (and a pillow under my butt cheek!)
It is hard when there is so much to do, so I have had to find peace and serenity in my life today. I have to give a lot up to my higher power and that has been my saving grace.
Well, I have a retirement party to go to, so I will catch up with you tomorrow. Keep your chin up! Focus on this moment, tomorrow will take care of itself...
Letta, you are so very lucky to be able to take NSAIDS. I am allergic to them, so I guess I just deal with the pain during the day, and I still have to take vicodin at night. I don't like taking it, and am frustrated that with all the meds out there I cannot find one to help me through the day.
I am in a lot of pain today, the kind of pain that will not let you concentrate very well, and it is so frustrating. I think my faith has been shaken because of this whole thing and the frustration of it all. I am still trying to find my peace with the disease and the fact that this may be as good as it gets for me.
Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time to process it all and not a lot of time to let the meds help too. I was dx in early March and started MTX then.
Thank you for your understanding and help.
Shellie,
I have had PA and RLS for about 9 yrs now. That was the first time I could not play basketball with my kids, fix a whole Turkey Day dinner, and many other things that a 37 yr old should be able to do. About 12 yrs ago I had strep throat that went undetected for 6 wks+. Oh, I went to the dr, but of all the 4 times I went during that 6 wks, no one caught the strep because the rapid strep test during the first 3 days was negative. At the end of the 6 wks, they couldn't kill the strep and along with erythema nodosum, I was developing Rheumatic fever. Hence, I now live with high blood pressure, PA, RLS, and all the other issues that follow with all of that. I was on penicillin for 5 yrs, but the drs didn't tell me the I would end up with an auto-imune/debilitating disease that insurance companies would turn me down for disability, that I would be in pain every day of my life, that would cost me thousands of dollars for treatment, that I would have to work the rest of my life regardless of my pain and disabilities...and I suppose the list could go on and on, most of which on a daily basis, I choose to move past them. I was diagnosis 5 yrs ago w/the HBP and PA. I was just crying in the drs office or should I say, the PA's office. May God bless George for "listening" that one day. Since, I've spent the better part of 3 yrs trying NSAIDS, and quite frankly, living a miserable existence. My saving grace has been that I was in a Alanon, learning to live in an more serene atmosphere. The process has been slow, but I just keep trying to focus on today, not yesterday and not tomorrow. It is hard, sometimes it is so hard, minute to minute, but I have made a lot of progress so I believe there is hope in that. The social part of the disease seems to have been the hardest part for me. Realizing that I couldn't do what others my age could do. My sister is 2.5 yrs older than me and I just can't keep up with her, though I try sometimes and pay for it! What a dummy I can be.
I am allergic to Codeine, so I have been on Tramadol and I think that I am becoming allergic to it as well. The meds take a while to make a difference, especially if you are well advance in the disease. I am lucky enough for George to have heard my cries and have gotten treatment much earlier that most people. I think that we get lumped in with the "depressed" because for 1, we are, and for 2, no dr wants to really admit that we are ill. Stress has been such a treatment stopper! No one listens anymore, but I do have hope...
In saying that, I am trying to listen more, do some things that make me happy without physically affecting me, meditating to forgive the past, meditating to concentrate on the "moment", read self-help books that make my heart feel full and alive. It just takes time, but you only have to do it one minute at a time...this is not the time to take on the rest of your life!
You are in my prayers and blessings today! Thank you, this is helping me, too. Have a good eveing,
Letta, thank you very much for prayers. I really believe they do work, even though they have not worked for me yet.
I had psoriasis starting at age 12, about the time I was adopted from my natural family. I then had my first real sciatica attack at 16, and my first real bout with pluralsy. When I was 31, I decided that I did not like taking Paxil(antidepressant) and should just get ahold of my emotions. This led to a drug like withdrawl and a Psychiatrist telling me with my family history and my reaction to tapering off, I would never be able to live without this pill. This spawned a whole lot of things. My first swelling happened then in my hands, and the psoriasis went crazy. I was also dx with HBP that year. All related, I think so, but doctors do not like to talk about that kind of stuff. This is also the year that I had one major infection after another, and reacted to many antibiotics.
I guess I need to get to the place where I am thankful for this disease to some degree and complain a lot less about how I wish I was not this way or my life is not this way. I know what you are saying about making the whole Thanksgiving dinner. I can barely manage if I break it up into two days, and then after dinner is over I sleep for about four hours.
I am just praying for some sort of understanding for my husband. He does not understand why a forty hour a week job where I stand constantly, and have to be "professional" would be hard. I am a teacher, but I do not have a contract and I guess that is MY fault, even though I have applied for every job in our county. The county beside us would not renew my contract, because I got no support from the principal and had a class of kids that NO ONE wanted to teach. I took on an extra job, and am still looking, and praying to find something that will help me instead of add more pressure. I may end up working seven days a week with this job and a lesser paying job in a school. I am scared because I am already in untold pain. I just had knee surgery in June and now I am in more pain than when the surgery was just over. I just pray for understanding for my hubby before I die.
We just found out late tonight that my father in law passed away. Now I have to get everything ready for a car trip to Washington State.
I guess I just need help and support and maybe it is my own fault that I feel this badly. I don't know. Sorry for the rambling on and on.
Shelly,
Oh my gosh! First, I am so sorry to hear about your dad. Losing a parent is very hard. I have lost 3 step-parents who were very active in my life. That was very hard and they weren't even my birth parents. I give thanks for the grief couseling I have been through!
Second, I understand your pain in the husband thing! My husband kept accusing me of having an affair, purposely forgetting to tell him things, destroying our lives, not loving him...the list goes on and on and most of it was my reaction to my disease, not understanding the social aspects of the disease and the first steps I took in Alanon. The long of it is that he is an alcholic, hence I started alanon. The short of it is that we are separated and I am waiting for him to file for the divorce. (please don't think that this is how everyone's life ends up) Life just happens! There is a saying in the twelve-step programs, "Life on Life's Terms". The basics of the twelve-step programs are a basis for a spiritual life that I have choosen to live by. I am not in control of anything or anybody but myself and that is limited, as well. I can't do anything about the past and I can't do anything about the future, so the only thing I can do is live EACH MOMENT as it comes. (I capped those words, because I am a work in progress! I don't always live that way, but I am working on that each day, each moment, one moment at a time.) These basics can be found in other literature, in fact, as I read spiritual lit from other authors who are writing from their experiences, I find that the same thing that works in the twelve-step programs are the same thing that authors like Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Barrrie Dolnick's words have said to me. I don't know if you read or not? I didn't use to read, but now I try to read every night before bed. It calms me so I sleep (well, emotionally anyway!). I have learned so much. After I read a couple of books that the family counselor suggested, I just started going on to Amazon.com and when I am ready for a new book, i choose one that appears on the search list that appeals to me. Talk about the power of prayer! The right book seems to be there or I catch a show on OPB, Deepak & Wayne Dyer and order their book if my heart strikes me. Let me know if you want a list of books that I have read and that have helped me through all of this.
Today I am living my life one day at a time, blessed and grateful for everything, even the "bad" things that have happened to me, spiritually aware and knowing that I have "Choices"!, last, but certainly, not least, I don't blame anything or anybody, including myself any more (well, most of the time). I feel that it is a waste of my time. Mind you, all of this does not come today, it takes time to change the way you feel about things, react to things, work things out, etc. Time is what I have today because I am living and enjoying right now, writing this to you...
Be strong in accepting who you are, where you want to go and who you want to be! Work one day at a time just for today. I hope we keep writing, because I know that you are helping me and today and that is what I need to live today.
Prayers and blessings for you and yours and let me know when you are home. Your friend, Letta
Hi Ladies,
I am 76 years old and was diagnosed with PA about 2 years ago. It took about 3 years and several docs, before a rheumy finally said I had PA, because the other docs blamed my problems on a broken neck that happened in 1964 and lower back problems I have had since my early 20's in the U.S. Army. Long story short; I went from walking with a cane, unbearable joint, muscle, and tendon pain, ect., to now being able to enjoy life nearly the same as it was before the PA hit me. My mobility wasn't completely normal before because of the earlier neck fracture and lower back disc problems, but I was not in constant pain then. I started getting better when the rheumy doc put me on Metotrexate and a while later Prednizone. As soon as I started on the Prednizone(15 mgs.) my symptoms started to recede some and now I have tapered off of it and am on a real low maintenence dose(3 mgs.) and may eventually get completely off of the Prednizone. There have been flareups where I would increase it but then start the tapering off soon after. I guess my question is, have either of you tried any cortisteroids like Prednizone? It has done wonders for me and is not at all expensive.
BTW, I have had Psoriasis for many years, a little on my elbows, more noticible patches on both knees, and only some small red spots here and there on my torso. I pray that you both will find some relief soon! And Shelly, your husband needs to talk with your rheumy doc so he can be made to understand the severity of the pain and what you are going through! I also have problems when standing still and need to keep moving about.
Best wishes to you both,
Lorrin
Hi Lorrin and welcome to the forum. Like you I have found relief from MXT and Remicade infusions. The only pain I have now is from damaged joints and I can deal with that pain. My PA and RA are 75% better now. I have my life back. I was one of the 20% who didn't have skin plaques. I never developed plaques until a year after I was diagnosed. I only have one and it's on my leg and I'm working at getting it cleared up. How do you treat the plaques?
I've been on Prednisone for over 3 years because of a RA flare from hell that wouldn't go away. I've been on a roller coaster of tapering and having to increase. I'm now tapering and hope to be down to 7.5 mg. by October. I have to stay at about 7.5 mg because my adrenals are lazy due to Pred. use. I can live with 7.5 mg. I flared recently because I'm 5 weeks post op total knee replacement and had to come off MXT for a month. Started back on MXT and am back to normal. Take care and keep us posted on how your progressing. Lindy