AIBU to think that going to GP waste of time?

[lolaflores]

Have ongoing back problems (Sciatica, herniated disc, bits not where should be), it has taken a mightly long while to get it all diagnosed. We went private for MRI following GP's opinion that it was a waste of time, why not have physio first. Following MRI, sciatic nerve being messed around with by bulge, advise from GP, sit up straight, no bending over, not even to wash my face. see you.

This week has been direct from hell. 2 mornings this week I have not been able to walk my daughter to school. Sleeping is erratic. I have been crying since 7 this morning, dh has taken dd to school, i feel useless. the house is a mess, i cannot do anything. feel like I am losing everything and do not expect much sense out of the GP. surgery is apparently unsatisfactory cortisol injections do not have an outcome for all.

by the way have a smokers cough like a docker cos smoking is my new best friend. i feel beyond unhappy. i can;t even help myself.

i'd ask for an orthopaedic referral to a consultant.

Definetly ask for a referral.

I have bulging discs and am in pain however mine don't touch my nerve. My consultant said if they had been touching the nerve then they'd operate after giving it a big of time to see if the disc shrank back on its own.

this has been going on since november. i just don't want to go to the gp and sit like a big wet lump and accept any old thing. i will ask for referral. i did the physio and try and keep moving but i feel like everything is just collapsing round me.

Going to the GP saved my life so YABU... BUT... it sounds like yours is being a bit crap. Can you ask to see another one?

Also, coughing will have made things temporarily worse, although I know it's hard to cut down on smoking :(

Go back and see another GP and keep pushing for a referral. Move to a differet practice if you need to. I have chronic back pain myself so sort of understand it is really depressing and can feel impossble to deal with but you have to keep pushing on this. Plus ask for something to help you work on giving up the smoking too - I can understand why you feel desperate and unhappy but that is not the answer and will make you feel worse longer term. Also think about whether you can access counselling or talk this through with someone. Are there Expert Patients courses near you? I have done one and it really helped me to talk to other people with chronic conditions.

Try to get a referral to a spinal surgeon rather than a general orthopaedic surgeon.

I am sorry you are going through this, but if I were you I'd go to the GP to get some stronger painkillers, you shouldn't have to put up with it.

Good luck.

thanks all. it just feels like being a walking wreck has got to me today. sodapops I will get to a spinal person (nearly said man there). gp has been a bit crap all told. sometimes do not have the energy to have to pester and persuade, still think that they should know. I will also find out about expert patient courses, that sounds really useful. seeing things from this side of the fence. just having a colossaly shit day with it.

I would second asking for a referral to a specialist spinal surgeon. They are often neurosurgeons. Do you have a Neuro unit near you?
The other thing to watch out for is bladder/bowel problems. If you have any problems peeing or holding it you should go to A/E right away as it can be a sign that the nerves are bring affected by your disc.
You have my sympathy, back pain is really awful

Sending you loads of sympathy. I slipped 2 disks when giving birth and had a nightmare trying to get the issue resolved. I kept being fobbed off with ?its usual to have some sciatica after giving birth?. I couldn?t sit down ffs! I think I saw every GP at the surgery until I saw a training GP who was lovely and referred me for a MRI. The physiotherapist saw the scans and said there was nothing that she could do as one of the disks was on the nerve.

The GP?s I saw were all crap, all they would do was give me pain relief (one even offered me liquid morphine, I had a newborn so had to politely decline). I had to push and push to try and get a surgeon to see me, in the end DH said we should take out a £4,000 loan to be done privately. I saw a private surgeon who was so appalled by my treatment that he offered to do the surgery for free through some scheme that I can?t remember now off the top of my head (sorry!) I was in agony for 9 months before I got it fixed.

Don?t be fobbed off, be a pain, keep going back and seeing different doctors if needs be, let them know how it is affecting your life and mental state. You have scans that show that you have a problem.

Also, even though it is agony, do try to move as much as you can. By staying still you start to 'seize up'. I know that it is agony, but the more you move, the better it is. I went to the seaside for a few days and walked for miles with DH and DD and had the best nights sleep I had in ages afterwards!

OP I can completely sympathise - because I'm going through exactly the same.

My back "went" about 4 months ago and I've been in agony since. My doctors have been fantastic but it's still taking ages to get it sorted.

The first GP I saw was a locum, it was an emergency appointment. She signed me off for a week and gave me strong painkillers, told me to phone up if it got worse, but thought that something had been knocked out of place and that it would be ok after a day or two.

The second GP I saw realised it wasn't going away and so referred me to a physio and for an x-ray to check there was nothing going on. From then on, each time I've been signed off for a month.

I went for the x-ray (waited 2 hours and was crying in pain by the end of it) which showed nothing, and went for physio who gave me small exercises but couldn't do a lot as every time she touched my back it hurt like hell.

By sheer coincidence saw a different GP again just before Christmas, she's the main GP of the surgery and she's fab. She upped my meds again and wrote it down for me so I knew the maximum doses I could take of everything. She's referred me to a spinal specialist (my appointment is next week) so they can assess me for an MRI. She's said she will push for anything I need as she's also my neighbour and is aware of just how much strain this is putting on myself and DP. I have a six month old DD that I can't pick up, it's bloody heartbreaking.

Keep at it - I know that you can self refer for physio if you need it, and you can insist on a back specialist. Or go to the GP and put your foot down, you NEED help, check on NHS direct for usual treatments for back pain and demand that they refer you on. It's been 3 months for you and it's not good enough.

I hope you feel better soon.

saw the usual genius. insists that the loction of the nerve to disc is not anything that a surgeon would touch. i suggested that this was an opinion and not a fact...he did not take too kindly to it. however, has given me gabbapentin which should calm the nerve down. grudgingly gave me ortho referal. possibly would have imploded at the suggestion of a spinal specialist. my dh came too and when i got too upset (ie when he kept telling me about posture and exercises) I think he was able to be a bit calmer than me. when I regained my composure, i said I just wanted to let him know the impact this was having on all our lives, that I ahve been reduced to no quality of life. we left as friends but I gave him quite an upset. hey all you other cripples out there. no one understands simply how boring and frustrating it is and that the pain in and of itself is enough to drive you round teh fucking twist without some jobsworth telling you to sit up straight.
Yeah?

Lola at your GP's attitude but look at the positive - you now have an ortho referral and a new prescription. So there is a gain there. Fingers crossed that helps. If you need to explore other avenues I would seriously consider moving to another surgery - how much worse could it be?

paralysed? there are other gp's in the practise, will see one of them next time. it got a bit scrappy and I lost my dignity as per usual. gabbapentin seems to be making a difference, thanks be to the gods. just a kick off here this morning as I am not happy about my crippledom and when asked DH to help eldest DD to do shopping before return to uni, there was a yes, but with conditions. a simple yes or no would suffice. this is the shitty end of the stick and it gets to me. i was single parent before with eldest DD. smacks of the old days, feeling fragile.

I have had back problems for 25 years. I found the only thing that worked for me was analgesic painkillers, which relieve the pain and help relax the muscle groups around the inflamed area - tabs such as diclofenac (Arthrotec), taken for about three days max, would do the trick and allow me to get back to normal. It was the only thing that worked for me, I had already tried osteopathy, physio etc.

I was a long-term smoker, had my first at around 12 years old so it was difficult to give up. Your smoking will be aggravating your condition, that's for sure. I remember having a bad back with a chesty virus/cough on top, and it's a miserable place to be.

I got to the point where I would be reluctant to go the GP however poorly I was feeling, thanks to the fact they blamed everything on the smoking - so I know how annoying this can be. However a year ago my chest got so bad I gave up, finally, and the difference in attitude from the GP, triage nurses etc has been amazing. They can't do enough for me! It has also made an enormous difference to my general health.

The truth is that if you don't smoke, clinicians are forced to look at other causes. Perhaps it shouldn't be like that, but that's certainly how it was for me. And there's no doubt smoking does cause a number of problems as you get older, the main one being its effect on your circulation which impairs so many processes - such as recovery!

Do try to give up smoking, it helps in so many ways. Talk to the GP about it,

olagaga. thank you, so much for your insights. the fags and i have to go our seperate ways. i see it as a support, which is the addiction talking. as everything else receeds in the tide of this, they become my best friends. and i do agree that most of the issue is the smoking impairing my own body to repair effectively. i will give it the best shot i have. i have stopped before so I know I can do it. i just need to return to the zone that can help me and stop sounding like a docker after a heavy night. thank you for understanding. i am so touched

lola you brought a tear to my eye. It is so difficult, I won't lie to you. I don't know how long you've been smoking - it's not easy that's for sure, however long you've smoked. But if you've been smoking heavily for a long time, and you have started to despise it, then planning your escape from the addiction is a good idea.

It is an addiction, yes, but for those who find it difficult to give up, and for whom it is a support, it's not just an addiction, which makes it harder. There's usually a reason for that. Undiagnosed depression is a fairly typical cause. It does rather sound as though you might be in that situation, as I was.

There are other ways you can replace that support, I used patches initially but here's the thing - I had just tried to go on to lower level patches (after three whole months rather than 6 weeks) and was feeling so low, then out of the blue the triage nurse at the practice actually rang me to check on my progress and see how I was! Such consideration - it was unheard of in my experience!

But the thing is, they do really want you to give up. Yes it's a tick-box targets thing, but you'll find as I did that if you are completely honest with them and want to make the effort, they will want to help you. She made an appointment for me to see a sympathetic doctor and I ended up with a course of anti-depressants to get me over the worst. And I have to say, they really have helped. They're not addictive, they're not tranquilisers, they're called SSRIs (google it, and google depression, and see what you think). If you are severely depressed, as opposed to a bit down in the dumps, they really do help.

When you are feeling better, and stronger, go to your GP. Tell them, look, I've had it with smoking, I know it's killing me, but I'm severely addicted and have tried and tried and can't give up. I feel worried about my future and for my kids' future. I get incredibly down and can't sustain it, I can't do smoking cessation "therapy" because of my childcare issues, I feel like giving up but instead I feel I'm giving in...I feel like everyone around me would be better off without me...

Does this strike a chord with you? If so, I think they'll sit up and take notice.

Right now, you need your bad back to get better. So give yourself a bit of time, and think about the day you will rid your house of every last bit of tobacco and paraphernalia. No more skulking, no more feeling guilty, no more going out in the cold and rain, etc. No more money wasted, no more breathlessness and chest problems.

Be strong. Go and have a cig, you'll need it after reading through all this (didn't mean it to be an essay, sorry). Pour yourself a nice glass of wine (painkillers or no painkillers!), rest and get better, but at the back of your mind, let yourself plan for the day you go smoke-free. You're worth it!

Hi, I really feel for you with your pain. Re the smoking thing my DP ( a heavy roll up smoker) has been smoke free since november with e-cigarettes. They look/taste like real fags but only contain nicotene and a vapour (Like from a smoke machine) The difference to his chest/general health has been amazing and he has had no ill effects. He can now run for 3 miles and has lost his smokers cough.

I don't want to spam here with where he got them from, but google 'steamlite' they really are good, and in your situation with chronic pain etc it could be the bridge to you giving up the smokes.

I feel for you! This is exactly what my DP had and it caused him many years of agony (and I am afraid I am not as sympathetic as I should have been!).
I passed your post over just to check it was the same thing, and he confirmed. He had a discectomy on his - in hospital for 3 days and a couple of weeks recuperating and taking it easy (it should have been longer but he was starting a new job requiring him to do quite a bot of lofting so silly boy didn't rest for long enough).
Ever since his op he has felt brilliant - no pain at all (it's been 2 years now) and he can live a normal life not even really having to be too wary - although I think he should be much more careful!).
It's been a godsend - we've got an 8 month old DD and without the op he wouldn't have been able to do much with her at all, except for on particularly good days, or else through gritted teeth.
He had years of being referred to masseurs and hot stones and cortisone injections, it went on and on. The orthoepedic surgeon (apparently neorological ones can also do it) said he could have the op as a last resort, and he has never looked back.
If you're in the South East or London let me know and we can tell you the name of the specialist - he was brilliant!
Definitely push to get what you need.

Excuse typos please! On my phone!

I forgot to mention this, and I second alistron1. I get mine from a site which you'll find if you google jac vapour. I've tried 3 different types in the last 11 months, and these are the best for battery life. I think they've saved my life!

Hope you're feeling better soon lola.