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

[Andyman73]

pwrslm,

You so funny! An aspirin a day....LOL!!!    No sir, try 2-3K mgs of ibuprofen a day.  And for many years I just associated the pain in the waist as a part of my low back pain.  And it may be coincidental that it became more apparent after being taken off the NSAID and put on tylenol. 

How do I get the actual MRI images to take for an IMO/IME?  I already have L5/S1 issues documented by VA and AD imaging.

2 hours ago, silverdollar22 said:

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!!   

silverdollar

I'm trying to get the neck as primary, since I did have a lot of pain in my neck right after my fall.  But there was no obvious injury to my neck at that time.  And 800mg horsepills of Vitamin M masked most of the pain anyway.  Yah, that first step is a lulu, as Bugs Bunny used to say.

I've have problems with my knees since that day I fell, which equals 23 years of limping, which certainly would affect all the joints above and below.  But not that the VA will recognize that.

 

[iceturkee]

andy, you should be able to request copies of your mri's and reports by signing a release of information form. i do it all the time. good luck.

[Andyman73]

I do have copies of the MRI reports but is that enough?  Or do I need the actual images too?

[rwskitch]

...maybe not, from my past experiences all they read on the reports are the 'impression' section, which is supposed to explain what's going on in the  MRI picture.

[iceturkee]

21 hours ago, Andyman73 said:

I do have copies of the MRI reports but is that enough?  Or do I need the actual images too?

images would help in the liklihood the va radiologist didn't read the xrays properly.

[pwrslm]

At the place that you get the MRI done, you can ask for a copy on CD.  Normally they will give it to you before you leave.  The ROI for or release form still needs to be signed, but usually they have that on the spot where you can sign it before they make the CD for you.