Hypoxia and Medicine

What medical condition could I have?

I'm a young adult and I've had severe chronic back pain along the thoracic and lumbar region of my spine and the surrounding muscles. All of my MRI, CT scans, ultrasounds, x-rays, and blood work appear clean. I've seen 14 doctors, since May of 2008, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, general doctors, specialists, and many others. This pain is stabbing, throbbing, burning, aching pain that doesn't for one second alleviate or get better. I have trouble sleeping all the time, and not until recently I've had lapse of memory, my head hurts, I can't see well sometimes, I mishear things, and generally feel sick. I have been told that I shouldn't be working, going to school, and working out, but doing nothing make me crazy. It doesn't make me any worse if I do something rather than nothing; unless I get hurt. I am down to the last straw and I feel like I'm dying from all of the pain. I'd give almost anything for a diagnosis. No one in my family has this type of back pain. I'm skinny, lean, have muscle, do Taekwondo, and am healthy, until last year. I don't have fibromyalgia or anything like that, because my fiance's father's a doctor and he doesn't know. I really need help. Thanks. I'm 5'7" and drugs have no effect on me at all. My feet don't hurt and nothing else does either. I've already seen a pain management specialist too, and when SOMA and oxycodone didn't help, he wouldn't prescribe me anything more because of my age.

Public Comments

1. Maybe it's as simple as arthritis. Early arthritis is not unusual. If all the blood work came back perfectly normal and no slipped discs are viewable, I'd go with arthritus.
2. Crazy question but in answering them you may have a answer, Do your feet tend to turn in especially while you walk, how tall are you, have you lost function of bladder, and or bowel, does the pain radiate to your legs, when you lay down does your headache get better even go away, do you have a family history of Spinal bifida if any of these are correct, consult a neuros surgeond ask them to test for a rare condition called "tethered syndrome" its a rare form of spinal bifida also ask for a spinal bifida test I was diagnosed when I was 15 and have not been the same since, I really hope this helps,
3. You should see a pain management specialist. He/she can find out what's going on and give you injections, medications, or other treatment. You may have RSD/CRPS because of the burning pain. Has your pain management dr. done any other test or injection to see if it will help with the burning? Usually with RSD/CRPS the patient may respond to ganglion block. It helped me for a week and I felt terrific but unfortunately the burning came back and I got a second injection only to have it come back over the summer. I want to send you a response I said earlier and see if you have done anything I have. I was in severe pain for over six years before I finally found something that worked. I'm surprised that you are able to go to school work, and do Taekwondo. I wasn't even able to take some classes because I was so miserable I was in bed most of the time. I would take my kids to and from school and sleep most of the day because while asleep that's the only time I didn't have to think about the pain. I would be very careful about how you work out as it may cause you to be in further discomfort. Here's what I said to a previous post. You can also look at www.tamethepain.com. First however you said, "I don't have fibromyalgia or anything like that, because my fiance's father's a doctor and he doesn't know. I really need help. Thanks." Did you mean he does know? Be careful with the number of dr's you see because more may give you different opinions and unless you see the same dr. several times the dr's you see may only be able to give you their opinion and not look any deeper unless you continue to respond to therapy or don't respond to it. At one time I was on about 17 medications and now am on a few one for acid reflux and another for spasms. Is he seeing a pain management doctor? Is he taking any pain meds and/or muscle relaxers? If not that should help now but some aren't able to take pain meds. If that's the case read on to see what I did and the things may be something else he can try. Pain can be treated with injections and medication. Sometimes injections can relieve pain caused by nerve root irritation. I had many and if he's already been there and can't have anymore injections I'd try other routes. I ruptured a disc in my neck seven years ago, had over 5 epidurals in a year, had trigger point injections, facet injections, acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, physical therapy six times, surgery to remove the disc that the dr. found the disc was ruptured. A previous dr. that I went for an opinion for told me I was to young for surgery and the nerve test were normal but I later found out it wasn't normal. I also tried creams, prescription pain killers including the Duragesic patch, Lidocaine patches, Botox injections to relieve spasm I was still miserable. After seeing another orthopedic dr. after six years since the injury, my first pain management dr thought I could benefit from more surgery it turned out the orthopedic dr. couldn't find anything on the CT scan that indicated compressed nerves. I hadn't had a myelogram (CT with contrast involving a spinal lumbar puncture where a dye is injected and the patient is tilted on a table to force the dye to move towards the neck) before I had the disc removed even though three MRI's said bulging disc. The fluid had to have been leaking since I first injured it as I only got worse and some idiot physical therapist took my head and twisted it in ways that made me scream and told me that I was addicted to vicodin after she found out I took only two per day. The myelogram I had didn't tell the orthopedic dr. anything about why I was having the constand burning and pressure pain. The pain management dr. suspected I had RSD/CRPS which can happen after an injury and he did a specific type of injection to treat that pain. He said it could last a little time, few months, forever, or not at all. It lasted a week for me, I had a second injection done, and then over that summer the burning pain came back. I still had constant spasms in the muscles which caused the majority of the pain and muscle relaxers didn't help without the pain meds. I did find a new pain management dr. after inquiring about a spinal cord stimulator. I had heard about it from my aunt and one had been put in Jerry Lewis after he suffered for years of back pain from injuries. It took some searching and a couple of dr's to see before I found the one who could put on in my neck area. Most dr's only put them in the back for lower back and leg pain. I did get a second stimulator put in after the first one didn't cover both arms from my neck to my shoulders and have been pain free since. My dr. also gave me Flector patches and said they have an anti-inflammatory in them. They worked a lot better than the lidocaine patches I previously had. Look at www.tamethepain.com for other ideas in treating pain and the site also talks about spinal cord stimulators. In most cases the spinal cord stimulator