Hi!
Sorry to hear you’re in this situation, I’ve totally been there.
They are probably hesitant to prescribe pain meds because they think there’s a chance you will need them long term. Opioids are no longer recommended to treat chronic pain, only acute. A pain management physician is better equipped to medically manage patients on long term opiates in order to reduce the risk of addiction. Doesn’t help much in the short term though, I know.
As far as the discs go, are they recommending any kind of treatment?
I also have herniatons at the same levels as you. L2-3 through L5-S1. I’m 47 now and was first diagnosed when I was about your age. It was the mid nineties and opioids weren’t considered a problem so I pretty much had an constant scrip for Vicodin. I started noticing that it wasn’t working as well as it had been and that other parts of my body were staring to hurt. Pretty much decided on my own that I shouldn’t be taking it that often and weaned myself off.
The pain subsided, but then I would have occasional flares that would have me practically bedridden and crawling to the bathroom. I would still use Vicodin to get through the worst part, but luckily the pain would gradually go away.
These cycles continued, and after a few in a row really close together I decided I had enough and went for a surgical consult.
The surgeon (to whom I’m now grateful), told me I was not a surgical candidate because my condition was degenerative (I had also been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis and arthritis with my last MRI). He said if he did the surgery, it would all eventually degenerate again and we’d be right back where we started. He then told me that everyone in life has a cross to bear and mine was my back. I was furious!
I decided against going for additional surgical consults because as mad as I was, I knew deep down that he was right.
I continued having episodes where my back would “go out”, but they were less frequent.
Fast forward to 36 years old and I woke up with pain like I had never had before. Unbearable doesn’t begin to describe it. I knew something was wrong and got right in to see the doctor. New MRI showed that one of the herniated discs had actually ruptured and there was disc material leaking in my spinal canal and pieces of disc that had broken off. I had a microdiscectomy, everything went well and I healed up fine. Four years later, same thing happens. Same disc, same surgery. Recovery went well.
Where it gets interesting is that the second time the pain was in my hip so they initially diagnosed it as hip bursitis. I decided to watch some YouTube videos on the topic and saw I guy in a white coat doing a manual, massage-like treatment on this guys hip in a classroom setting. I was facinated, as I didn’t realize there was such a medical component to that kind of work. I enrolled in massage school which I started 4 months after my surgery. I went on to get advanced training in clincal manual therapy, pain science and cupping.
I now have a clinic where I treat people with all kinds of painful conditions using a combination of cupping therapy and pain restructuring therapy. It’s great because I’m my own guinea pig!
My back may not 100%, but it’s pretty damn good! I can’t believe how far it’s come with the cupping therapy and pain restructuring therapy! I did roller derby for a few years and now I’m amateur boxer. I have much to be grateful for, I’m always reminded of that when I hear someone’s story.
Good luck and definitely reach out with any questions!