Struggling with a Medical Diagnosis

Been trying to get help for years. Not much luck and wouldn’t call my level of pain and function “manageable” anymore. Multiple docs have told me spine is inoperable but finally found a new doctor and he said the same but 2 options are spinal chord stimulation and nerve ablation. Previously my doctors only said pain management and steroid injections were the only option. Pain management helps but only so much. And steroids are horrible in my experience- make everything worse. About to do the ablation and hoping it helps. In terms of diagnoses- have lot of issues show up on imaging and test but overall the docs say nothing from those should cause the level of pain I’m in and lack of function. They’ve been doing “diagnostic” injections for years (which trigger flares for me) to figure out what the root cause of the pain actually is. Working on seeing specialist to see if there are other (inflammatory & autoimmune) issues in play causing inflammation and if correcting those will help the pain or lessen the symptoms. So frustrating not being able to find help and I’m so sorry you’re going thru it.

😥 I recall when the disk in my neck "popped" in my last car accident. I wasn't even driving...the paramedics asked what had happened, decided that "since my neck was already damaged (herniated) that I didn't need a collar". When I got to hospital, I couldn't even hold my own head up. The xrays "looked like a snow storm" but ER didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until I lost all function in my arms and hands that someone took a real look at my neck. I ended having 3 levels of compression, fractured disk, and the "snow" ended up being bones chips. I was so angry at the incompetence of the paramedics and ER doctors. One wrong move and I would have been paralyzed from neck down or dead.