I've suffered with back pain for decades. The NHS will spend years telling you it's only muscular, have some more pain killers. Eventually you may get an MRI and finally surgery and the result isn't brilliant because the offending nerve has been hammered for so long it has suffered permanent damage. It's not right, but if you're in pain pay for a private MRI (£400 to £800 maybe), if all looks good then you've at least bought peace of mind. Just before covid my partner Zoe was in bed on every medication available and with no relief. Somehow got her into the car and an MRI done which confirmed prolapsed disc between L4/L5 vertebrae. (What used to be called a slipped disc.) Waiting list was still several months, she had no life, I said go private. How much would you pay at the end of your life for 3 or 4 months of pain free normality? Surgery was £8k (sell one of the bikes if you have to!!) but we got it done just before lockdown and with the disc bulge taken off the nerve the pain relief was instant and she was on the road to a full recovery. If we had waited for the NHS I suspect she would have been bed bound for the last three years still waiting for surgery.
The key word there is physical. If a disc has burst and the inner gooey stuff has bulged out and is pressing on a nerve all the pain killers and talking therapies in the world are not going to solve the problem, you have to make a physical intervention to expect any good long term result. It may not be a great analogy but imagine your car's front suspension has collapsed and the tyre is rubbing on the bodywork. What can you do? Pain relief - put on headphones with loud music. The problem is still there but hopefully you won't notice it. Decompression surgery - cut away the bodywork so it's not pressing on the tyre. Do the job properly - rebuild the suspension replacing the bits that are worn out. In my case I think this would be disc removal and replacement with an artificial disc. I'm told this might have been a possibility, but it has to be done early. Now with allied facet joint degredation and arthritis I'm past that possibility.
I don't know for just how many decades, but above is "busman's holiday" stuff for me now sadly, I won't volunteer an opinion publicly on above, and you've probably heard it all before, and considered this yourself already. Sorry to hear you are in the same boat Charles, there have been at least 3 others on here over the years, and we have exchanged a p.m. or three on here over the years - I hope you find occasional relief for yours.
I am lucky to have had private insurance for 29 years and had my back, heart, injuries, broken bits all fine BIA that route. It does fall a bit that I pay do much of my earnings in NI and get very little, a Dr appt when I have a chest infection for drugs or the times I’ve been to A&e, for it.
I have a work colleague who needed hip replacement but the NHS said he was too overweight for it. He went private and paid for it from his savings.
That’s all wrong and goes against the basic concept of the purpose of our NHS.Furthermore, not everyone is overweight because of excessive eating.
I've woken up with a sore throat this morning, it feels like glass paper. Also i've just seen my latest gas bill..........
Unfortunately with the advances in medicine and surgery there’s a lot of things the NHS is expected to do. Extend life and enhance life, unfortunately it’s not an infinite resource. It would seem that’s it trying to do too much with too little for too many. Hence it’s present troubles, SiL is a nurse on a cancer ward and works a lot of hours out of goodwill or rather did she now won’t work outside her contracted hours.
When I was being treated for Cancer in the therapy ward the nurses were so overworked they were actually running across the ward between patients in order to keep up with the workload.I owe them so much for caring for me when I needed them.What is even more wonderful is that they treat each of their patients as special people.
My other issue is no priority. As a working person, if what you have affects your ability to work (and you’re not a skiving layabout!) you should be pushed up the queue. Without these people, there is no one to pay the tax to support the nhs. My cardiologist is also an nhs consultant. He could see me in 9 months for my af originally with nhs, or in 2 weeks private. the ablation had c18m waiting list, private he got me in less than 2 weeks after consultation. The drugs I was on would mean I could not work. Self employed at the time, paying over 40k in tax pa, and I’d have lost my house, life, everything. And the taxpayer would have picked up more cost and less income. Back to today…..I’ve treated the missus to a nice, soft poached egg with bacon on whole meal farmers this morning. So at least someone has started the day happy
You're getting almost as bad as Multi75, who seems to spend the vast proportion of his time eating.....just about anything too!
Exactly where I'm now, Bulging disc in my neck c5,c6, Consultant said basically if it gets worse then come back as there is two options, come in from the back of the neck and shave the area to give the nerve a bit more room or come in from the front of the neck past all the bits to get to the spine and take a piece of my bone to replace the bulging disc and fuse it all together, One thing i don't want to happen is have the same problem you have, joint problem and arthritis making it impossible to have the opp, Good to hear your partners opp was a success. Your analogy is spot on.
When you state treat, do you mean you bought it from a food outlet or you cooked it for her with your fair hand? The former would be a treat the later not so much…..maybe.
I was lucky enough to have private health insurance through my employer, as I ended up having two separate cervical disctectomies for C3 AND C6 five years apart. Both involved an MRI and consultations with the neuro surgeon both before and after surgery. In my case they replaced two cartilage discs with Delrin plastic rings, that feature a mesh material on the upper and lower surface, designed to fuse to the vertebrae above and below. They came in through the front of my neck to reach the spine. My neck is now 30% plastic. It is quite a common procedure and you are often discharged on the same day. I was warned to avoid any strenuous physical work or heavy lifting of any kind for a minimum of three months. To be honest the bruising to the soft tissues in my neck and esophagus were what were most painful after, as they have to shove everything over to one side to get to your spine but this subsided after a week. Had to hold my head whenever I brushed my teeth for a while as well, as it was pretty uncomfortable initially. Without the treatment I would have lost my medical and as a result my ability to work. I am ever thankful I was so fortunate and take nothing for granted. I hope you get the resolution you need.
Thanks for that Good to hear from someone that has had the opp i don't think it will be many years before i have the opp as the nerve is running down my right arm and ending up at my hand, thought i had carpal tunnel but i don't its the bulging disc causing it, next is the carpal opp on the wrist and possibly the inside of my right elbow to release pressure on the nerve, then there is the nerve above my right eye that causes me to have a permanent headache 24hrs a day above my right eye for the last 3 years (Suna headaches) the consultant believes there not related but i beg to differ, Again thanks for giving me some information about the opp
I wouldn't claim any experience of neck problems, yet......... but certainly for the lower back my concern is that if you start fusing things together stresses and strains that should have been distributed between all the vertebrae now get concentrated on the joint above and joint below putting more stress on them and so they fail etc etc. Good luck for getting your neck sorted.
As much as it grates me, and I put it off for many years, I’ve taken out private health cover for both of us. The monthly cost is the price of a decent meal out. We’ll use the NHS for emergencies, anything else will go through the insurance. Shouldn’t have to do it tbh, I pay an absolute fortune in NI, but I can’t be arsed to get wound up by it any more.
Having managed to finally choose a new bathroom suite now the bloody quest continues for tiles Jesus give me strength.
