Posted by Larry Hoover on March 18, 2005, at 7:15:09
In reply to Re: Percodan/Percoset Experiences?? » Larry Hoover, posted by cubbybear on March 18, 2005, at 5:36:58
> >
> > I regret to acknowledge that I have had some lengthy interactions with Percocet. Not because of the drug, but because of the necessity for it. Pain. Chronic pain sucks.
> >
> > Hi Larry,
> In a subsequent post, you mentioned that your problem is a worker's comp case. Can you say what happened to cause your injury?
> cubbybearI fell off a truck.
My upper arm bone (humerus) cracked the end of one of my forearm bones, the radius. Originally diagnosed as a non-displaced fracture (broken, but all pieces still where they ought to be), treatment was conservative. Upon load-bearing work in physiotherapy, the joint began to lock, with excrutiating ice-pick point pain. I had to discontinue physio.
Also, the fall did nerve damage on the other side of elbow, at the ulna. The compression fracture on the outside aspect of my arm was accompanied by extension ligament damage on the inside. (In effect, my elbow "tried" to bend sideways.) That also caused a significant nerve injury to the ulnar nerve, which ennervates the pinky, and one-half of the ring finger (split right down the middle, freakily enough), the associated part of the palm, and a decent patch of the forearm. When you "hit your funny bone", you've hit the ulnar nerve where it passes through the ulnar groove, a small depression in the end of the ulna. (Kind of like the carpal tunnel, the ulnar groove allows the nerve to get past skeletal structures that would otherwise block the way.)
Upon the onset of this locking phenomenon, I was told I clearly had a "surgical elbow". That was last March. Worker's Comp wanted evidence. CT and MRI were inconclusive. WC insisted I see their own choice of surgeon.
While waiting for all this to happen, an achiness came into play, along with the ice pick pain. I was in pain 24/7. When I finally got to see this surgeon (55 weeks post-injury), I was really quite tender. His examination didn't make me hurt on the spot, but by the time I drove home (2 hours), I was in agony. Not only did I have a major flare of the ice pick and the ache, but the nerve injury had been massively exacerbated, feeling like that "funny bone" thing, all the time. So, I seem to have musculo-skeletal pain, hyperalgesic pain (the ache, a response to steady pain signals arriving at the spinal cord), and neurogenic pain (the ulnar nerve thingie), all at the same time.
BTW, for the major surgical consult, I had to get new x-rays, and collect together all the older imaging studies. As I had them at home for a few days prior, I took a look at them. It's clearly not a non-displaced fracture. Even I can see that. I've got an exposed jagged edge on the radial head, and lord knows what damage that has been doing to the cartilage during this period of delay.
Bureaucracy sucks.
Lar
P.S. This is not my first nor only experience of serious pain. Merely the most recent/most salient.
P.P.S. I still have yet to be booked for surgery.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:470781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/472388.html