I've only just caught this thread.
MM I am so sorry to hear of all your pain, how dreadful for you.
As Fudgely says keep on at them don't give them a minutes peace, keep ringing until they are so fed up with you they give you an appointment
I have back trouble too. Mine is caused by damage to the sacral nerve following radiotherapy. So I have almost continual pain in my left leg.
All the best MM, hope things get sorted out very soon.

Someone mentioned Voltarol.
You say diclofenac makes you sick so you can't take it so don't touch Voltarol as it is brand name diclofenac.

Apart from that I can only agree with you about how good chirpractors are and how hopeless the NHS is with back care.

Keep on at them for your appointment. Is it possible to go on a short notice waiting list? ie if someone cancels you can grab their slot?

It makes me mad them saying csot is the cause of your wait for an MRI when they were willing to give Charlie two for the sack of posting a cd of the first one.

Hope you get some answers and some relief soon.

P.S I've known many people have the op on their back and they are like different people afterwards, no more pain.

Thanks becky . I had diclofenac years ago for back pain I had after a bad fall from a horse. It made me feel very nauseous all the time but on top of that , I was constantly retching , even on an empty stomach. I'd only taken it for a few days before the side effects started. This time round , my doc wanted to try me on Naproxen instead of Ibuprofen. It's a similar type of drug to ibuprofen ( non steroidal anti inflamatory) but longer acting. I told the doctor I was worried incase it upset my stomach so he told me just to try it when I was ready. A couple of weeks ago , I decided to give it a try so after taking my normal dose of paracetomol , ibuprofen and dihydrocodeine at tea time one night , I took no more Ibuprofen after that. The following morning , after making sure I'd had no Ibuprofen for at least 12 hours , I took 1 Naproxen with my other pills. 12 hours later , I had another one , and another 12 hours (the next morning) I had one more. Of course , I took my other pills as normal , every 4 hours , minus the Ibuprofen. One thing I did notice was that I was in more pain than normal. The other thing was that after the 3rd Naproxen , I started having severe stomach pains. I stopped taking them and had to wait 12 hours before I could go back to Ibuprofen , and I told my doc what happened at my next appointment. He confirmed that the Naproxen obviously didn't agree with me , especially as the stomach pain came on so quickly. I do know that I am sensitive to some antihistamines . Even the ones that state " non drowsy" knock me unconcious for hours ! The only antihistamine I can take without falling into a deep sleep is Benadryl ( cetirizine hydrochloride).

hello MM

really sorry to hear about your problems, glad that your work might be able to sort out the private scan - that would be good huh?

Hope Missy is providing lots of staffie snuffles....

also if you are really stuck for a dog walker then let me know and i will try and help if i can ok ??

Awwww , thanks Dani . I've got everything crossed , hoping my work agree to pay for a private scan. It's made me feel much happier since that was suggested. Knowing my luck , they won't agree and I'll end up feeling down about it.
I have to say , Missy is doing her bit to promote the health benefits of having as many Staffie snuffles as she can give. God I love that dog soooooooo much. Having her is stopping me from slipping into depression again. She hardly leaves my side , and is always ready to pick things up for me the very second I drop anything
With regards to walking her , She is really missing out on the long walks she used to get . She seems to be happy enough with what I can give her , but if you like , You are more than welcome to take her for a longer walk sometime if you can manage. I would really appreciate that and I'm sure Missy would too. We're surrounded by open fields here and hardly any livestock , so Bruno would love it out here too ! Would you like to come over one day to see how Bruno and Missy get on ?

I knwo EXACTLY how you feel. I suffered back pain as a result of a car accident, I had one serious bout of Sciatica, then constant pain, but "manageable." Last May, the Sciatica returned something awful, I was left unable to walk nor move. The referral service is crap on the NHS, I paid for a private consultation to get to an MRI, it cost £150, he suggested an MRI as he felt the problem was serious, I paid private for that too, £295 and the waiting list wasnt 3 months as quoted by my GP on the NHS, it was an hour an half!

I had a herniated disc, plus a couple other "compressed discs" the disc material had pushed into the sciatic nerve and thats what causes the pain, its excruciating, I can appreciate how bad you feel. I had private surgery and its fixed! Sorted, pain free for the first time in years, a little stiff in the morning but thats it. I do have "diminished responses" in my left leg though, due to the nerve damage, the surgeon said, much longer and I could of been severly debilitated, if not leaving in a wheelchair! I have a numb foot and bottom of my leg, but it causes me no problems at all.

I was taking Cocodamol and Volterol, I lived on them for weeks and weeks, please, if you can possibly afford it, go private, the wait is too long, the pain is too bad, nobody should have to suffer like this for this long.

PM me if you want any more info on cost etc.. although I expect it varies quite a bit in different areas.
Dawn.

I was going to say PM Borderdawn as she's been through the same thing recently, but she beat me too it

I do recommend going private. Ay least you'll get it sorted out quicker.

Thanks Dawn . Both my doctor and chiropracter suspect I have a prolapsed disc at L5 / S1 area , pressing on my sciatic nerve. My chiropracter has even written to my doctor , stressing how urgently I need to have an MRI.He also suggested to ask my doc to refer me to another area which does have a shorter waiting list. Even that hasn't made any difference. My doc told me the waiting time up here is 3 months. Well it is now 3 months since he said he would refer me but still I have heard nothing ! If it wasn't for my car needing taxed this week and needing a repair done , I would just about have enough money to pay for a private scan. It will take me another few weeks to save up again now. From what I believe , the longer a nerve is under that sort of pressure , the more likely it is to have permanent nerve damage. I'm hoping ny work agree to pay for a scan. If they don't , then my doctor is going to get a hard time over this. It's good to talk to someone who has experienced the same kind of pain. It's not easy to describe how bad it actually is. The nearest pain I can think of that comes anywhere near this , it once when I had a really bad tooth abcess. Similar pain but from your back , all the way down your leg. With numbness/ pins and needles at the same time.

Dawn
it is amazing what can be done now, National Health in this country stinks. Far better to pay into a private health insurance than into national health, faster and better treatment and Doctors who actually get off their backsides and get the treatment required before its too late.

tumbleweed

So sorry to hear about what you have been going through. Hope Royal Mail get their finger out and get you that MRI paid for. Sam has disc problems so I can empathise with the screaming in pain. Thinking of you.xx