Nerve compression: The story continues
If you have been following my blog in these past few weeks, you must have seen that I talk about nerve compression a lot and you are also likely to know why. I got to learn and write about this abnormal health issue that affects nerves recently because my sister happens to be suffering from one currently.
For the sake of those that are just reading this article one-off, nerve compression occurs when a nerve in the human body is pinched by the surrounding tissues - it could be muscles or bone. Consequently, the person who suffers from this ailment could experience pain as one of the major symptoms.
Symptoms of nerve compression could vary from individual to individual and it also depends on the part of the body the compression is happening. Apart from pain that could become chronic with time, other symptoms include numbness in the affected area, decreased muscle strength in the area, and partial loss of control of the area which could be hand or leg.
We have been battling my sister's case for a while. The nerve compression started as lower back pain and gradually, the pain started radiating to the left leg. She did an x-ray of the spine and she was informed that the lower back pain is due to osteoarthritis - a condition that has also been found to be genetic. She was prescribed some drugs and recommended a change of lifestyle in order to manage the situation and prevent it from getting worse.
Some weeks after, she started feeling some pains in her left leg. It started slowly until it became unbearable. She visited the hospital and after several to and fros, she was prescribed an MRI scan. The result of the scan is in the screenshot below.
According to the doctor in charge of her case, the only way out is surgery if she's to stand a chance of the pain being alleviated. Due to the comment of @sam9999 on one of the posts I made about the situation, I later asked the doctor what the chances are to get the nerve decompressed with therapy.
Zero!
As for the cost of the surgery, we were told to prepare about $4,000 - a really huge sum considering our economic background. A date was fixed for the surgery irrespective of our input. One would think that it is going to be free.
She was prescribed a drug to temporarily alleviate the pain - pregabalin. I am kind of familiar with the drug during my days as a pharmacy technician, even though I erroneously thought it is one of those strong painkillers. Instead, the drug works by blocking pain signals that the neurons send to the brain - neuropathic pains.
I and other family members have been running helter-skelter for funds since then. Due to the scarcity of neurosurgeons in Nigeria (Nigeria has got only about 70 for a population estimated to be over 200 million), we either try to come up with the funds on the given date or run the risk of having to wait for a long time before fixing another date.
The initial date was the 1st of November - this last Tuesday. Even though we were only able to come up with a small percentage of the required funds, we proceeded to the hospital as scheduled. She was admitted and with the little funds that we had, we started buying the list of recommended drugs and surgery paraphernalia.
Some of the drugs and surgery paraphernalia bought so far.
Thereafter, we were told to deposit some initial amount of money in order for the surgery to take place the following day. To cut the long story short, all our efforts to raise funds yielded no results. We pleaded for more time to be able to raise the fund and we were given another opportunity until the 7th of November, which is tomorrow.
We started exploring every possible scenario. If the surgery is not done, it means she will be stuck with a drug that costs us about $12 a week. We may not be able to come up with the surgery funds within a short period, but $12 a week seems feasible for us. But for how long?
Next, I started researching the possible effects of long-term usage of pregabalin. According to my findings, the possible effects associated with the drug are mainly withdrawal symptoms. A sudden stoppage of the drug may cause sleep disorders, seizures, headaches, and so on. Hence, doses are usually decreased gradually in order to minimize the effects due to withdrawal.
We have been able to come up with more funds, even though still some ways off the required amount. We are hoping that we could plead for the surgery to be done. We will keep sourcing and come up with the funds later.
Let's see how tomorrow would go.
Resources
Posted with STEMGeeks
Zero? I emphatically disagree, the question whether it can be decompressed with therapy cannot be zero, as a matter of fact the result from the MRI showed mild stenosis, not moderate, not severe, but mild.
Sir, BRING HER FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY!!! the surgery should be a last resort after all have failed, like you said she never received any form of Physiotherapy treatment. The neuro-physiotherpay team will most likely see her or the orthopaedic Physiotherapy team .
Let us assess her, once we assess her, we would give her some therapy, let Physiotherapy treatment session fail then we talk about surgery.
I'm only saying this because I have seen and heard testimonies from unbearable pain from compression that got resolved with Physiotherapy, of course it wasn't magic, a lot of therapeutic sessions had to be undergone by the patient before there was significant pain relief.
I won't advice surgery no matter how severe. And as a matter of fact she can still walk. Just the pain .
Sir, does she feel the pain all the time no matter the position of posture she assume?
Again is there anything she notices that actually alleviate the pain? Probably a position she assumes...
I will confront the consultant again tomorrow. And perhaps talk to some senior doctors over there. Why are they not exploring that option before surgery? Why the eagerness to perform surgery right away? I'm confuse.
I will screenshot this comment and send it to her. Let her answer the questions herself. I will tag you with her response.
Alright Sir, and um, just so you know, the medical doctors, especially those in this part of the world are not well informed about what Physiotherapy is and what exactly they do. They hear Physiotherapy and most of them think massage and exercises. There is more to what Physiotherapy can do.
Only few of them are well informed, and are mostly those who have experienced it first hand due to their own personal condition or a relative condition or those who have made a conscious effort to make findings on what Physiotherapy does.
That's quite sad. One would think that both auto and physio will have a continuous collaboration to solve many cases. They shouldn't exist in isolation, even neuro.
They do know the fundamentals of what we do, and of course collaborate with us routinely in common conditions in which they know we are indispensable, but in some other cases where they have options (usually options of medications or surgery)they completely forget the indication for Physiotherapy. For instance, most of them forget or completely have no idea we are indicated in conditions like Bells or facial palsy
That aside, some of them have made conscious and commendable effort, and are very well informed of what Physiotherapy do and do well to refer their patient to us once they see some indicated conditions which is not usually seen routinely. Kudos to these group of medical doctors for making life easier for their patients.
Sir please watch this video on Robin Mckenzie and how he solved a Back pain radiating to the leg that was actually headed for surgery.
Time stamp: [3:26]
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support.
Most of these medicines create a sort of dependency when direct to the nervous system
!1UP
You have received a 1UP from @gwajnberg!
@stem-curator, @neoxag-curator, @pal-curator
And they will bring !PIZZA 🍕.
Learn more about our delegation service to earn daily rewards. Join the Cartel on Discord.
Eh. How old is your sister? I'm asking cos of the osteoarthritis, which usually affects older people, though you say it's at least partly genetic. Any chance it could be some undiscovered autoimmune? How's her weight? Maybe some diabetes contributing?
Her age is written on the MRI scan report above (42). She's not on the weighty side (can't be more than 65 kg) and she is not diabetic. Could it be autoimmune? I have no iota of idea.
Congratulations @gentleshaid! You received a personal badge!
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking