Will this effect my claim

[Andyman73]

Me again, bet some of you are getting tired of me, right? I know I sure am!

Anyway, I have an appointment with pain management for consult and/or treatment for pain in my lower back.  More specifically for the pain in the illiac crest region,  Physiatrist referred me to them recommending injections in my lower back to treat the pain in my waist.  My concern is this, will this impede any claim for pelvic region pain, if the injections work and eliminate the pain?  I had a C&P exam back on October 30th, for this, but at the time it was filed as hip pain.

During the exam I kept pointing everywhere I felt the pain, as examiner was moving my legs.  As it turns out, it wasn't my hips, since I was pointing to what I now know as my illiac crest areas.  The illiac crest is the bony plates in your waist area between hips and lower back.  And the pain is coming from there, most likely where muscles are attached.  And he was recording the ROM and it put me in 30% or higher rating block.  Afterwards I couldn't sit up with out his help.

I'm trying to get someone to tie it down to something, either lower extremity related, or back, for a secondary claim.  The physiatrist was quite intrigued by the whole thing, since I already tried the physical therapy and lasted only 3 sessions.  Therapist was disappointed at the lack of improvements and didn't want to make things worse.  He's on my side! Lol.  Physiatrist said this kind of pain is more common with patients who were in a head on crash where their knees were driven back into their waist.  Or with major muscle injuries in the back like deep tissue lacerations or major blunt force trauma.  But since I fell down some stairs, 23 years ago, and have had over 2 decades of knee, feet, ankle and back issues ever since. 

And this illiac crest related pain only showed up after my PCP took me off ibuprofen due to effects on bp, and switched me to tylenol.  We all know what that means, right? No more anti-inflammatory benefits, since Tylenol is not an anti-inflammatory.  I firmly believe that is when I first began enjoying this new pain sensation, and it was masked by the ibuprofen previously.

Anyway, any thoughts, opinions, and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

Andy

[iceturkee]

andy, i, too, fell down two flights of stairs (but broke it after the first flight) when i was in the army. i sustained a shaarp pain in the middle of my back but never went on sick call because of all the horror stories i had heard about our army hospital.

 

fast forward a few years later, a civilian orthopod decided i had sustained a slight fracture of my t-6 vertebrae. years, later in the navy, i threw out my lower back trying to pick up a box.

 

i have severe issues in my lumbar spine which has now radiated into both legs, keeping me in agony even when trying to sleep. we tried the pain clinic route a couple of years ago but that didn't work. however, my quality of life continues to diminish and i'm not sure what happens next. see my doc mar 23.

 

don't know if this helps. but wanted you to know you aren't the lone stranger. god bless and good luck!

[Andyman73]

Thanks, iceturkee, at least I know I'm not the only one(in the November Rain).  My cervical spine was feeling left out over the years, so it began to join the party a few years ago! 

Godbless you, my friend, and all you other crazy kats, too!

[silverdollar22]

Andyman, Quick question, Are you trying to tie your cervical problems with your lumbar issues?  Just wondering because i'm in the same boat only my lumbar region is tore up with 5 herniated disks and now it seems to be traveling up to my cervical region and i was thinking of trying to tie these two together.  Hurt my back lifting a generator set in the mid 80's and had also fallen down some steps in Germany in the 90's!!! Damn those steps!! LOL!!   

[pwrslm]

The spine is a funny critter.  If you know how you stack dominoes, then knock them over, this is how the spine falls apart.  One bad disc at first just upsets the level balance of the one above, and the weight bearing of the one below, and alters the wear pattern in both directions.  As you age, it gets more and more pronounced.  It is not uncommon to find scoliosis secondary to old back injuries, caused by desiccated discs.  I was right at 20 when I injured my back doing sit ups in the gravel.  18 months later they said I had scoliosis, and blamed that for my back pain.  They were wrong, it was a herniated disc and at that young age it brought about a visibly noticeable curve to my spine after 1.5 years.  Ancient History, 35 years later I had 4 level spinal fusion, thanks US Army, not diagnosing my back pain really did change my life.

 

But beyond this, the iliac crest is the top of the hip bones.  Its the last section of the pelvis bone to grow, and spans across the top side of the hip bone.  Pain from this location is most likely muscular or tendon related, but dont ignore it because the pain might telegraph from the sacroiliac joint (the S1 through S5) or your Lumbar spine.  Get the MRI, and have a good Orthopedic MD look at it.  Don't assume that the guy from Radiology is reading it correctly.  The sacrum is the last 5 segments of your spine, and is a part of the sacroiliac joint, its a very complex region and diagnosing where the source of pain is in this region is a little harder than say, the L4/5 would be.

 

The sacrum and lumbarthoracic spine will be rated as one segment of the spine, but if the sacroiliac joint is involved, then you have to get this identified by the specialist (orthopedic MD) and detail its nexus as secondary or primary to an original service injury to get it rated properly.  If it is a muscular or tendon problem, then you probably will be limited to low ratings for it, much like most cases of arthritis would be.  If an aspirin a day masked the injury, its probably not significant enough to garner more than the basic or 10% minimum due to pain.

Edited March 10, 2016 by pwrslm

[iceturkee]

42 minutes ago, pwrslm said:

The spine is a funny critter.  If you know how you stack dominoes, then knock them over, this is how the spine falls apart.  One bad disc at first just upsets the level balance of the one above, and the weight bearing of the one below, and alters the wear pattern in both directions.  As you age, it gets more and more pronounced.  It is not uncommon to find scoliosis secondary to old back injuries, caused by desiccated discs.  I was right at 20 when I injured my back doing sit ups in the gravel.  18 months later they said I had scoliosis, and blamed that for my back pain.  They were wrong, it was a herniated disc and at that young age it brought about a visibly noticeable curve to my spine after 1.5 years.  Ancient History, 35 years later I had 4 level spinal fusion, thanks US Army, not diagnosing my back pain really did change my life.

 

But beyond this, the iliac crest is the top of the hip bones.  Its the last section of the pelvis bone to grow, and spans across the top side of the hip bone.  Pain from this location is most likely muscular or tendon related, but dont ignore it because the pain might telegraph from the sacroiliac joint (the S1 through S5) or your Lumbar spine.  Get the MRI, and have a good Orthopedic MD look at it.  Don't assume that the guy from Radiology is reading it correctly.  The sacrum is the last 5 segments of your spine, and is a part of the sacroiliac joint, its a very complex region and diagnosing where the source of pain is in this region is a little harder than say, the L4/5 would be.

 

The sacrum and lumbarthoracic spine will be rated as one segment of the spine, but if the sacroiliac joint is involved, then you have to get this identified by the specialist (orthopedic MD) and detail its nexus as secondary or primary to an original service injury to get it rated properly.  If it is a muscular or tendon problem, then you probably will be limited to low ratings for it, much like most cases of arthritis would be.  If an aspirin a day masked the injury, its probably not significant enough to garner more than the basic or 10% minimum due to pain.

i definitely have had problems with va radiologists reading my xrays.

[Vync]

Andyman,
Some of the newer NSAIDs have less effect on blood pressure. In addition, I take a medication called prazosin to help me sleep, but a positive side effect is that it also lowers blood pressure. Between that and celebrex, my BP has been closer to normal than when I did take BP meds. I'm not saying this will work for you, but it might be worth asking about.