Monday, August 16, 2010
No pain, no gain.....right?
Don has had back pain since he was a teenager, so when he came home a couple of weeks ago from a softball game with back pain, this was nothing new. Being uninsured, we let it go for awhile, treating it with ice, heat, and ibuprofen. When nothing changed and he was in horrible pain, we finally sent him to the chiropractor. After a few days and a few visits, his back was feeling better, but the pain had moved down into his hip and leg. His sciatic nerve is being pinched. We just kept doing all we could do and kept up the trips to the chiropractor. That was fine until yesterday. Don woke up with a charley horse in his thigh. When it finally went away, he only had a few minutes until he had another one. This went on all day long, with only 20 minutes at most between each one. I seriously felt like I was timing his contractions. It was horrible. Finally at about 9:30 at night I realized that neither of us was going to get any sleep like this. We've hesitated going to the doctor because since we don't have insurance, if we got a diagnosis it could affect getting coverage in the future, or make it so it's a pre-existing condition. Not to mention the cost. Anyway, it was time. So, he went to InstaCare, which was closed. So, on to the ER. He got lots of pain meds and some muscle relaxers. He's feeling better now, until the muscle relaxers wear off that is. The charley horses come back immediately when the meds wear off. It's also hard for him to work when the meds make him want to sleep, but at least he's not cringing in pain. Apparently, prolonged stress to nerves can cause charley horses. Who knew?
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4 comments:
If I take Don as a second husband, do you think we can put him on Mason's insurance????? I don't particularly want to marry your husband, but we do need to get him some coverage!!!!!!!!!
It is pretty crummy that there aren't any affordable insurance options. If something doesn't change, people may resort to that! :)
So sorry to hear that Don is in pain like that! I know exactly how he feels. My sciatic nerve was being pinched in my lower back several years back. I let it go and dealt with the pain until it was so bad that I couldn't stand for more than 5 minutes without horrific pain. After I finally went in to the Dr., we tried shots 3 times, never worked, tried physical therapy, never worked and finally had to have surgery. Didn't have any pain at all afterwards and it was great. It stinks to not have the insurance to be able to get help. I hope that he gets some relief soon though. I still have my instructions the physical therapist gave me for stretches that are supposed to help (when it wasn't as bad as mine was). If he is interested, I would be happy to send you a copy of it. You never know what might help! Just let me know!!
I didn't know that you dealt with this too, Tara. That really stinks! Don has tried some physical therapy exercises. He's just in so much pain right now that they would actually do more harm than good. I'm pretty sure that we'll have to go the spinal decompression route. We'll get an MRI this week, then go from there. Thanks for offer to send info! If we get to the point that physical therapy is the answer, I'll have to get in contact with you. See ya!
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