a couple of months ago i slipped and fell at work and herniated 5 lumbar discs and tore 2 of them. any one have any personal experience with this? if so what was the course of treatment? did it work? what am i faced with? any advice or stories would be appreciated. thanks. all i know now is it is extremely painful and i cant sleep.

 

What does your doctor say? Are you in any physical theropy? It will take a long time to heal, and you might always have pain. I have two bulging discs that cause pain down my leg. The only cure that works well for me is to use a device called true back. Look it up on ebay. I paid $45 for mine and haven't been to the chiropractor for almost a year now. It stretches your spine and puts pressure points on the muscles to help them relax. A lot of your pain is the muscles being to tight and pulling. Relaxing the muscles gives great releif. Hope you get better soon! Back problems are no fun.

 

i was on phys therapy for a while and my back hurt worse the day of and the day after pt. got an epidural shot a few weeks ago and set up for another next week. the one i got gave some temporary relief. i have the lower back pain as well as pain in the upper and lower legs. if i sit my back hurts. if i stand my legs hurt. the legs hurt less so i spend alot of time standing. at night i cant sleep cause staying in one position for more than 10 minutes starts hurting. the mri shows 5 bulging and 2 torn. doctors dont say much. i dont think they want to commit or they dont know since each injury is so different. i will look on ebay for the item you mentioned.

thanks.

 

Find a more aggressive Doctor.
I screwed around with doctors for too long. If a Doctor does not give you a direct answer to your question, you need a new Dr.
Most of the time Workers Comp stands in the way of getting proper treatment. Go to the best Doctor you can find at your own expense, then take the findings back to the workers comp group.
When you make an appointment with another Doctor, take your records with you. if he orders the same tests over. You still don't have the right Doctor.
Doctors that are good in their field don't need to sell you extra tests.

Anti inflammatories can work, though you may have to try different ones, to find the one that is right for you.
Pain killers[opioid] are the best, but that is a very dangerous situation. You have to be able to control them, and that is not easy. The way I found to do this is by getting my daily dosage out and not going back to get more during the day. When my dosage is gone. I quit working.
I have recently been given Flector patches, They help, but don't absorb to the deepest areas, but they do help.


These are my opinions, based on personal experience.

 

i am involved with workers comp. i started thinking i might have been better saying that i fell at home. every procedure that the dr wants has to be approved. what i have received in 4 months probably would have come to me in a matter of a couple weeks if not for workers comp. my plan after the epidural next week is exactly what you said in the quote

 

Mine wasn't workers comp related, but I do know people that have that problem.
Please pay close attention to what I said about opioids. When you are in pain they are like candy to a sweet tooth. If/when you get them. Regulate them with care. It took me a lot of misery just to get that into a balancing act. But I wouldn't be here now, if it weren't for having them.

 

i got ultracet or the generic tramadol for the pain which i believe is an opioid. i had to sign a statement that i would not hold them accountable for addicition. i only take for sleeping when i dont have to go to work the next day. they leave me way to fogged out and i cant afford to make an error at work. thats really the only nights i get a half way good sleep. its tough dealing with the pain but it would be even tougher to get fired for going into work spaced out. i am hoping this shot next week gives some longer lasting relief.

has anyone had back surgery for this condition? what do they actually do, whats it like, whats the recovery time and did it work.

 

In school my best friends father, who was on patrol responded to a major wreck on a big highway here in town. As he got out of his patrol car, a tractor trailer rear ended another car pushing it into him and the door. Broke his entire back, I remember seeing xrays and stuff after the wreck and the surgerys. Looked like the doctors welded an eiffel tower right in his back. It took a while he wore a body suit for almost 2 years, then slowly start doing things but man. And I share this because it goes to show what you can do, he loved life man he loved outdoors. I tell ya I seen the dude come so close to loosing it during the process but he fought so hard, now he rides quads again. Goes camping and horseback riding, I mean who knows he might be in so much pain but you can't tell it. And if you ever want proof of whats in him just ask for xrays lol. I honestly think backs are the most horrid injury to get, I mean you go the lighter surgery just like millions u gonna be right back up in the OR. If you go the heavy surgery well then your in the shoes of my friends dad. If you got hurt at work, id let them take the burden get the surgerys and try to enjoy life man its going to get tough I wish you well.!

 

How well is your employer interacting with WC? As the employer, I have an active roll in our WC cases & can push them when I know the employee is truly hurting & I want him back at full duty. Talk to HR tell them what going on, get them to make the call. Your company is the one who is supposed to be in charge, it is their money the WC company is spending.

Has the insurance company assigned a nurse to your case? They can be a real ally in setting up a treatment plan.

If no one is co-operating, talk to an atty. (yeah, I know, I hate them too, but they can facilitate the process.) This is the measure of last resort, because it WILL change the relationship you have with your employer.

 

i got put on light duty which most of the time is 80% of my job. there are only 5 of us in our dept and we are very removed from the main company ops. i dont complain and so far i have not missed any days critical to the job for pain or treatment or drs visits. when i was doing the pt i scheduled so as to not interfere with work. even though it was not my nor my companies fault that i got hurt i dont want to draw any attention to it. the job market is not that good. ive got a great job and i dont want to compromise it. maybe its the wrong decision but i just suck it up at work and do what i have to.

 

I Had a bone fusion in my neck in September 2007, I now have a disc in my theoretic spine leaking. Surgery is kind of dangerous for it. So the Doctor and I have been debating the right way to go. But it looks like sometime in the future I'll have to have the surgery, it just depends on when I can't stand it any longer.

 

Get hold of the insurance company rep and/or nurse. INSIST on a treatment plan with a schedule attached. It is your right. How are they handling meds? Are you paying or have they set up an account at your pharmacy?

Does not matter that it wasn't anyone's fault. It happened at work. FTR, if you haven't missed any time is good for the employer as far as future WC rates are concerned. If you miss time & the insurance co. pays you, it effects the future insurance rates big time. It will stay on their record for three years after the year of the injury.

 

here is a link to a device that may help some. works for me anyways. I know about 5 people who have it and they all swear by it.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories

 

its not like they are refusing treatment. it just does not happen he close to as fast as what it would be non workers comp. when i got hurt i went to the wc dr and he xrayed the back. then put in for pt. did that for 3 weeks and he decided i needed an mri. a couple weeks later wc gave approval for that. then some more pt while waiting for an emg test. then i go to see the pain mgt dr in the same group who says i need an epidural. couple weeks for approval and then a couple weeks for scheduling. that worked for a few days. back to the pain dr who says i need another. a week to get approval and then 3 weeks to wait for the scheduled date. so in about 4 months i got an mri, emg and an epidural.

has anyone had sucess with the epidurals?

 

If you take one thing from this thread, remember this: Workers Comp IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. Their job is to limit liability and costs to your employer. They will use any information you give against you at a later point. My father just recently resolved a workers comp case and it was absolutely rediculous for 7 years.

Be careful if the workers comp nurses start going to your Dr's appts. They will try to twist the Dr's reports and words to get you back to work so they can sign off. Be very very careful.