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

[ArNG11]

They can do anastetic disco gram. My private provider performed it on my c6c7 spots.  It was used to narrow down the pain source once upon a time.

[Andyman73]

On 4/14/2016 at 11:04 PM, ArNG11 said:

They can do anastetic disco gram. My private provider performed it on my c6c7 spots.  It was used to narrow down the pain source once upon a time.

Is that some type of retro dance craze with leisure suits? Will John Travolta be making an appearance?

[broncovet]

Andyman:

   No.  I dont think the VA can reduce you because injections or meds gave you pain relief.  Think about it.  

Example:  You lost a leg from an IED.  VA gives you a prosthetic device, and now you can run on it.  Do you think the VA can now say, "Ok, I dont know what your are complaining about.  We gave you loss of use for the missing leg, and then we gave you a new wooden leg, so you are just fine and stop complaining that your leg is still gone.  You can use the wooden one just fine, so we no longer pay you for the loss of use of the leg."  

   The fact that we respond positively to medications or treatments does not mean the malady went away.  Otherwise, VA could just leave in an IV coctail  of Morphine, Fentanyl, oxycodene, alcohol,  and maybe heroin,  and never pay you for any pain.    You still have pain, but get short term relief from strong pain killers.  This coctail of pain killers may work to ease the pain, but you are gonna have even worse health problems than "just" pain.  

    The Veteran can report symptoms to his doctor based on the "worst" day.  If I take Vicodin, and my pain goes away for 3 hours, then they are not going to reduce my benefits as I no longer have pain.  Almost everyone has "good days" and "bad days", where our symptoms are more severe on some days.   While you wont get benefits for pain that hits and goes away permanently after 4 hours, if you have chronic complaints of pain, then this is what compensation is for.  Chronic (longer term) not acute.  If I sprain my knee and it hurts 4 days, that is "acute" pain.  But if it still hurts 4 years later, that is chronic.  Chronic pain deserves compensation.  But if you got punched in the face in boot camp and it hurt for 2 days then went away permanently, you wont get paid for it, unless you have "current" symptoms, such as scars, etc.    

Edited April 15, 2016 by broncovet

[Andyman73]

Broncovet,

I understand, it's just thinking about it and going through it sure don't make you feel better about it.

So...chronic, If I fell down a flight of stairs at boot camp, and over 8,500 days later, still have pain, there might be something to it?  I know that the pain I'm enjoying, many times a day, is slowly inching higher on the 1-10 pain scale.

By the way, I keep my wooden leg in a nice "Pelican" carrying case, that way it stays nice and clean and shiny...well, I would if I had one, that is.

[ArNG11]

On April 15, 2016 at 4:37 AM, Andyman73 said:

Is that some type of retro dance craze with leisure suits? Will John Travolta be making an appearance?

It's where they pressurize your disk to narrow down the pain source, but I like your description better. ?

[Buck52]

Andyman,

Anytime you can get relief from your back hip pain  please do so....don't worry about your rating so much, the  medical treatments & symptoms is what they go by &ROM  it basically all comes down to what your C&P Examiner puts in his/her report.

jmo

.............Buck