The Next Step

At my first appointment with the pain doctor, he told me flat out that I was too young to get the implant and that we had so many other options to explore first.
So begins my experience with pain management prescriptions.
We started with one that I have blocked from memory. It was no help at all. Then on to amitriptyline. Wow...what a great thing. It took most of my pain away. We decided to try Lyrica for the remaining pain. I noticed a slight decrease in the remaining pain, but was experiencing weight gain. We decided that if the benefit was not that great, that it was not worth it. However, the pain increased when I stopped taking it.
I went back to the PM doc and decided that if I knew that Lyrica worked against my self control around chocolate, that I would be fine. I was aware enough to resist. But... No benefit from restarting the Lyrica. So it was time to try the next one. Cymbalta. I would never recommend this to anyone. The side effects I had were more than I care to mention. Plus, now, the amitriptylene is not working.
Next step, stay on the amitriptylene and add hydrocodone. No good. Stop hydrocodone and start with percocet. No help but at least I can sleep.
The final decision, to implant a neurostimulator in my cervical spine. I have been working on this for the last couple of weeks and am scheduled to have the procedure in just over two weeks.
I am ready to quit the meds and hope that the implant gives me enough relief that I can bear it.
The one thing I can say is, the information the doctors give regarding the implant it only about half of what you hear when you visit with the neurosurgeon.
Now that I have the background information out there, I can begin a true blog about the process and what it is like to live with Chronic Pain that is unresolved with decompression surgery.