******FIRST I WANT TO FIRMLY STATE I AM NOT ASKING FOR ANY MEDICAL ADVICE IN THIS POST AT ALL SO PLEASE LEAVE THOSE COMMENTS FOR SOMEONE ELSE******
Since the first week of October I've been having some pretty crappy medical issues that popped up literally overnight. I woke up with a stiff neck and by noon I had shooting pain radiating from between my left shoulder blade & my spine that traveled down my left arm. I knew this wasn't a heart attack because I'm in the medical field & it wasn't centered from my heart/front of my chest but instead was in the far back. By 8pm it was intense pain in the same area and I decided to go to the ER to get something for the pain (mmm morphine!). That was on a Saturday & I was told to follow up with my regular doctor on Monday or Tuesday if I was still having any pain. I did just that on Monday morning because the pain was still at a level of 8-9 constantly and I have a high tolerance for pain to begin with. I saw his FNP who gave me some NSAID and said it was most likely a pinched nerve & to see the chiropractor and massage therapist they have in office later in the week. I went to my massage appointment and it didn't do crap for me other than hurting me even more. The next day was my chiro appointment but I got the times mixed up and missed it (I went after lunch & he leaves before lunch) so I ended up seeing the FNP again to inform her the NSAID wasn't working. She gave me a different one to take and sent me on my merry way. The very next day I woke up with my index, thumb, and middle finger completely numb so I took my happy little ass back to the doctor because the other NSAID didn't do crap either. I saw a PA this time and told her that the only thing that has gotten me out of pain was the 2 day prescription of Norco that the ER gave me when I was there. I told her very firmly I didn't want another NSAID but I wanted Norco. She said that the big guy (the actual MD that owns the office) is the only one that can write for long term Norco & that in order to get it long term I had to do a pain management contract with the office but she was ok giving me enough to last me until I could see him the next week so I was happy. I should say that the Norco didn't take the pain away completely but it dropped it from the constant 8-9 to a 4-5 which was more tolerable for me and luckily for me Norco doesn't give me that drunk or high feeling like it does to some people (codeine does though for some strange reason). She actually gave me enough to last until I could see the chiro. Fast forward to the next week & my appointment with the big guy. He did a neuro exam and some testing and blood work (mostly to make sure I didn't have an imbalance or that I was on drugs) which all came back within normal limits. He told me that he has suspicions that it was something to do with my radial nerve but he didn't want to say what it was because it was out of his scope of practice so he was sending me to a neurologist. It took a couple days to get approval from my insurance company but once they got approval & called the neurologist, I had an appointment literally the following day. Neurologist ordered a MRI of my brain & cervical spine and told me he wanted to do a nerve test on the day of my follow up too.
I went to the neurologist today for my nerve test & results for all the testing I've had done. Basically he told me good & bad news. Good news is it was nothing related to my brain. Bad news was it was TWO different things going on with my body that are separate from each other. The first issue which I thought was the bigger issue until he explained why its not is that I have left cubital tunnel syndrome (basically its carpal tunnel but in your elbow). He said this was a secondary issue and wanted to address the other problem first. The other thing he discovered is that I have cervical radiculopathy (left side cervical C7 root compression due to disclose bulge) which is what the link is about. He said the reason he is wanting to address & treat this first is because it could give a misdiagnosis of the other issue because they involve the same nerves. When I asked him about the intense pain I get when I cough, sneeze, or breath too deeply he said that's caused by the bulging. He is referring me to a neurosurgeon and pain specialist to get a cervical epidural and treatment.
As far as treatment goes, he told me that from the looks of things surgery on my neck is highly possible treatment for me. I actually asked him specifically about cannabis and if he thought that would help my problems. He said something to the point of "Though I am a firm believer in the healing power of cannabis, I am not licensed to prescribe it. I have given other patients the names and numbers of providers who can, and will, prescribe it. But my opinion in your situation is that it would not help." He did tell me to keep taking the Lyrica until/unless told otherwise and for the acute pain to keep taking the Norco which is actually the ONLY thing that helps when I'm having extra pain or having usage pain.
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tl;dr: I got life altering medical diagnosis & have never dealt with this before
My boyfriend is sorta freaking out over all this because he's afraid I'll be disabled and crap for the rest of my life because of all this even if I were to have surgery. He's scared that I could become paralyzed if the doctor screws up or die. I come from a medical/nursing family so I understand all the risks involved for other people but when its happening to YOU, its a whole other situation. I'm worried I won't be able to finish my nursing school because of the weakness in my grip of my left hand & numbness.
All that being said, have any of YOU ever had to deal with either a similar situation or been on the receiving end of really bad medical results? How did you cope? What advice can you give on the coping with bad news and how to move forward?