Back Pain to Neuropathy

Hello DreamKit Members. I am the new Intern at DreamKit. I will be interning with you all for approximately a month. This is my first day writing an article. For my first article, I have decided to write about how Neuropathy took over my life.

I was what you call a “so-called” active person. I liked to go hiking and I tried kayaking. I loved walking around parks, go siteseeing, traveling the East Coast, and even joined the gym here and there. I was not on any kind of diet. However, I did eat a lot of candy and junk food.

For several years I have had severe back and neck pain. I would always run to my chiropractor. He adjusted me so many times that it was getting old. I saw a headache doctor who gave me botox injections around my forehead and the back of my head. Some days I could not move my neck, reach, bend, sit down, lift, and walk or stand for a long period of time. Showering became very difficult for me. So my chiropractor referred me to pain management. I was prescribed medications, creams, and patches. However, they did not help. Pain management offered epidurals and SIJ injections, which I accepted. I then experienced sciatica symptoms. Sciatica is pain affecting your back, hip, and outer side of your leg, it is caused by compression of a spinal nerve root in your lower back. Stretching and easy exercises became difficult. Lifting weights was hard for me to do. I used a walker and a cane to move around. I could not drive my car to appointments due to numbness and tingling in my feet and legs. An MRI showed some inflammation in my neck and back. Then I thought about changing my diet and getting on some vitamins. I had to take dairy out of my diet. A Neurologist performed a few tests on me. One test came back positive for neuropathy. Neuropathy is a disease or dysfunction of one or more peripheral nerves, typically causing numbness and/or weakness.

This pain mentally drained me. I had to reach out to doctors, surgeons, a dietician, physical therapy, integrated medicine, and I even received home care services. The doctors tried to come up with solutions on how I could manage this pain. I received several injections and was on tons of medications. This pain has not gone away nor will it. I had to come up with some ideas on how to deal with this pain. My Behaviorist worked with me on practicing mindfulness. I joined groups on Facebook and was amazed at how many people were in the group suffering from neuropathy. I connected with people through messenger. I read a post from an admin that stated the group had a buddy system. I now have my own buddy who messages me once a week. The negative way I was thinking changed. I didn’t have it bad, as others did.

Every morning I wake up and say “Thank you God for waking me up for another day on this earth.” I put on some music, stretch, and lift eight-pound weights. I do not push myself. I stop when my body says to. I have to remember that I will no longer be able to do what I did before. I also have to remember that I need to slow down at times. This is a learning experience for me and I will keep fighting.

I hope and pray that one day there is a cure for neuropathy. You may check out an online foundation about neuropathy at: www.foundationforpn.org where you can get more information. I hope you’ve learned a little bit about neuropathy and how it can affect different people.

Michelle S.

aka DJ Skitlz