You are right Frank they should give you a full anistetic before leaving you with thei Bills!!!
Or rather nothing fixed nothing to pay....
Please see private message.
Bill and Dawn

They certainly need how to charge, and I would expect to pay if there was anything to pay for, he did not tell me anything new, nothing that I did not know before.
Please see private message.

Bill and Dawn
CF Bedford
Whippy's Retreat

I know your pain - been there, done that!

The good news is that you don't have to brace yourself for further surgery and an unknown future. To start with this feels very sad, but there are positives in that now you know that you don't have to save up to pay to see surgeons again, and you don't have to make time for a hospital stay and uncertain recovery time.

Some alternatives to drugs that I have found useful, and others seem to find useful too:

Flexall - a menthol based lotion - can be applied several times a day and when rubbed in to the aching area gives almost instant cool relief for many people.

Hoteeze - patches that stick on to close fitting clothing - work for around 18 hours for me. Gives an area the size of sanitary pad (sorry fellas) with warmth that only I can feel. Don't stick it on skin, just on clothes. I tend to use double layers of clothing anyway to save the lumbar area getting chilled, so a layer between the clothing with the patch and my skin allows reduction in sweating and exzema.

TENS unit is fantastic - got mine through the physio, battery operated, but too distracting when driving!

Hydrotherapy - get exercises from the physio (preferably one who specialises in aquatic physiotherapy) and practice under supervision. Then buy the equipment you need (for me its just a pool noodle and plastic kickboard) to take around with you when travelling - most CPs have a pool, otherwise ask at the towns visitor centres for local pool info, asking specially about teaching pools for kids (generally warmer than swimming pools) and hydrotherapy pools as well as public pools.

Exercise - the expression "move it or lose it" was created for those of us with dodgy backs. I exercise and stretch 20 minutes twice a day in my PJs, and walk at least half an hour straight each day. Do as much walking as often as I can during the day (take a 5 minute break from the computer each hour at work to walk and stretch). I got Pilates exercises from the physio which help with Core Stability (ie using tummy for strength rather than back -- body needs to be reminded daily how to use the tummy muscles, sadly), which I do with equipment when available, or exercises without all the equipment if the local gym when travelling doesn't have everything I need.

For all those who don't have back problems, when they say to bend your knees and keep your back straight when lifting, there is a reason for it!!! If only I knew back then what I know now, I wouldn't be in this mess!!! Ah, the joys of 20:20 hindsight...........

Good luck, and remember that if this is as good as life is going to get, make the most of it

It could be worse......

Anita

Thank you for your response, Most Surgeons are all right and pretty fair, but their is always the odd one who is not.
I have tried nearly everything but the one that gives ME the best relief are the Durogesic Patches, they will keep it at ease in most cases for the 3 days they state on the box. The GP has to get and authority from Melbourne to prescribe them and it tells you to replace them every third day and that it is ilegal to be in possesion of the drug without the proper authority, for me to get them when we are on the road is to have my daughter in law go to my GP and he will get the authority over the phone straight away, she gets them dispensed straight away as you can not have a doctor from another state dispence it in another state and it is also (illegal) to put Drugs of dependence to be mailed into anopther state, so I will claim ignorance for them in the Yellow parcel pack from Aust. post in Traralgon, Latrobe Valley, Gippsland Vic. before 5pm and they are sent express post to Hervey Bay Qld, and I receive them by 10am next day. You can only get a 30 day (10 patches) supply of them so then the Daughter in Law will go through the whole process again, thank God for family who will go out of their way to be helpful.... We originally were told to start the Qld, or warmer climates trips during the cold Victorian winters due to my better halve's health, again helped along the way by miss diognosed Ilness and due to it being diagnosed as the normal phemonia and only after finding out the it was a very different strain causing fluid on the lungs to the extend that it had to be operated on twice to drain the fluid around the back of the lungs and hence she is now very prone to any infection whatso ever, so of to warmer climates we go every year for around three months. The specialists words to me were ,
"If you want to keep her a bit longer get her out of the winter climates" so keep your fingers crossed.
Bill and Dawn
"Whippy's Retreat"
CF Bedford

Anita,
I realy glad those steps work for you but unfortunately for some, who have tried all those steps and more, the only way to go is "chemical" pain relief, drugs, Brenda has had chronic pain for 10 years now, and you're right "bend you knees" Brenda did her back in lifting a mop and bucket, she had a laminectomy and then, a fusion, the fusion did work and allowed her to not just move but get out of bed, where she had been for 6 months before the op, unfortunately it left her with scar tissue on the sciatic nerve, which is the cause of the chronic pain. Brenda too is on durogesic patches (we told Bill about them) but as soon as I recover from my shoulder repair op, she will be trying the Ketamine treatment, (if you GOOGLE ketamine for pain management, you will see lots of info) our Niece has just had the treatment and is now on panadol for pain management instead of Morphine, that's got to be good.
Frank

Bill and Dawn, Frank and Brenda, I truly do understand where you are coming from - I have also gone optimistically into "last resort" spinal surgery - after trying conservative treatment for over a year without success apart from reducing the weight of the wallet. Although it made a huge difference (the leg pain is very much muted so it no longer feels like being cut by barbed wire when clothes touch the leg) there is still a lot of pain in the back even though I worked really hard with the rehab to get the best possible recovery. Surgery doesn't come cheap does it -- it seems to be that they can set their prices however high they fancy because its not like we can "shop around" for someone else. Even the discounted rate for those on a Health Care Card leaves a massive gap to pay, and we don't get to the point where we are looking at surgery until our earning potential has been seriously reduced, do we. Surgery does have its other drawbacks too, with scarring pressing on the nerves being such a risk, so apart from the financial side it really is a last resort thing.

I put up the list of non-drug suggestions because some forum readers (not everyone posts) suffering acute or chronic pain may have forgotten some of the other things that we can do to better manage our condition. I, like those of you who are posting on this thread, use the really strong restricted drugs, but like you, that was another of my last rather than first resorts.

Now, lets be careful that we don't end up with a comparing ourselves to see who is worst -- we are all struggling in one way or another, and it truly is just rotten for each of us that we don't have the lifestyle we deserve, through no fault of our own.

The reason we are working towards getting a van is so we can travel again. I live to travel, so it has been miserable for the last 3+ years since my injury when we had to stop. Spending the night in unpredictable beds (the higher the stars in the accommodation, the harder the bed seems to be!) has been disastrous and extremely painful for days afterwards for both of us (he has arthritis which isn't getting any better with age either!). Heading to warmer climates along with the other Grey Nomads during winter is very attractive - it might just reduce the amount of NSAIDS that rot the stomach!

It was very enlightening to hear how you manage to make things work to get your patches as you travel -- its a real shame that there isn't an easier way, isn't it. I really think that there's a lot of double handling of responsibilities where the doctor needs an authority from the State government to issue the script AND an authority from Medicare/PBS or whoever it is as well for the same thing. While on my soap box, I would like to grumble about those stupid people who use the pain treatments the rest of us need, but for what is described as "recreational" purposes -- if it wasn't for them, we would be able to access adequate pain relief without "jumping through hoops" (jumping is another thing we can't do too!).

Here's to days of stable warm weather, because I'm sick of being the "human barometer" in our family!

Anita
PS - I will google Ketamine later on, after work today, and would be interested to hear how it works for Brenda. If it can get people to just panadol instead of morphine it sounds like its a miracle drug.

i'm really sorry for the pain you're suffering, and i can see many kind guys leaving some useful links.
hope they can help you, and good luck to you!

I think a lot of us experience pain that at times becomes unbearable. We too have been told that there is nothing they can do. Pain management was also not an option as all pain relief offered did not work.(using medical pain relief introduces all sorts of problebs including addiction) As before mentioned the T.E.N.S. machine offers great relief and is not addictive. We take ours everywhere with us and use it even when driving. It's worth a try. Good luck.........Daphne