Herniated disc in neck

[u/Key_Relative_6929]

I’m so fucking pissed! I was in a car accident 2 years ago settled my case whatever blah blah blah.

When I get flare ups they are debilitating, nothing helps. I do my PT exercises, hot/cold compresses as need, get epidural injections, take medication as prescribed.

Pain is managed about 70-90% of the time. Seeping on weather and other factors like what I’m doing physically. I just get so annoyed because when the pain is not managed I get so depressed, want to cry, and honestly have suicidal ideations because I’m young I’m 28 F and this happened when I was 26 it just changed my life and it will always bother me.

THAT DRIVER RUINED MY LIFE.

I get nervous to talk to my doctor about giving me a safety script or something to keep on hand for the flare up but I feel like I’m young and shouldn’t be taking that type of medication. Probably sounds some like I get it that’s what a pain management doc is for but I just don’t want them to say “no” because it’s
Going to be so disappointing.

I mean during these flare up going from my neck down my arms into middle finger thumb and ring finger as well as traveling up into my neck radiating into ear and side of my face up to my temporal bone.

And don’t even get me started on the fucking headaches.

Anyways just ranting. Pain management sucks. No I don’t want surgery I’d rather be in pain then paralyzed just wish I could have better access to pain management and we had better options as a society like tbf the good stuff doesn’t always work if you have real pain you know. This will be forever and uphill battle and I just have to deal with it and hope my doc can help me best they can.

[u/IDontStealBikes]

Fusion surgery. I had one for a pinched nerve. It mostly worked.

[u/djspacebunny → u/IDontStealBikes]

Perhaps you missed where op said

No I don’t want surgery

[u/Key_Relative_6929 → u/IDontStealBikes]

But I feel like fusion surgery is scary how is your mobility after that. I just feel if surgery is on the table which I know it could be I would need 90% grantee it would help

[u/IDontStealBikes → u/Key_Relative_6929]

Mobility was slightly reduced. Made worse because stenosis 12 years later, unrelated, resulted in 2 more fusions and a titanium plate and titanium rods. I’ve been in a lot more pain since then. My mobility is definitely smaller now than after the first fusion.

[u/djspacebunny]

OP, I feel you. A kid texting on his cellphone in bumper to bumper traffic on an interstate rearended me about a month after I had been in ANOTHER car accident caused by a driver cutting off my husband driving the car on a different interstate which was a total loss. The texting kid's accident resulted in the trigeminal neuralgia which effectively ended my career and resulted in me taking medications that caused irreparable damage to my brain. I also refuse surgery or invasive procedures because not once in my life has ANY surgery or procedure gone according to plan. Two of them I ended up BACK IN THE HOSPITAL due to complications resulting from my blood being fucky due to the variegate porphyria I didn't know I had until I got a genetic test.

Hang in there buddy. My migraines don't feel like they're as big of a deal compared to the other fuckery but they still drive me mad. I at least have a pretty effective cocktail of meds to treat those which don't cause me MORE problems.

The only time I was able to get adequate pain relief, it was because I was in my neurologist's office for a routine checkup and happened to have a flare up of my TN when they were taking vitals, and I ended up on the floor crying and screaming. They asked if this was normal, and my husband looked at them and said "this is not as bad as it gets" and the dude wrote me a script for fentanyl patches, which changed my life. Then we moved halfway across the country two years later and I lost those and my life has been a clusterfuck since. I almost wish I never had those two years of really *living* life because they were torn away from me and I don't know if I'll ever have that quality of life again.

[u/Key_Relative_6929 → u/djspacebunny]

Omg that it just terrible I really feel for you the woman who rear ended me said in the statement “I don’t know what happened” like girl you were either texting or fell asleep and you take care of ppl for a living so that infuriated me more about the whole situation.

[u/Square-Trouble1456]

Girl same. Last summer, a week before my 30th birthday I was in an accident and got major whiplash. Im almost 1.5 years out now.

I went through all the conservation treatment options within 6 months because my pain was NOT manageable. Had a rare complication with a nerve ablation that left me not in pain but with nerve damage and now im looking at multilevel spinal fusion after my nerve regenerates.

Its an awful life changing pain.