I was hoping these photos would impress upon doctors, the severity of my pain. I just can’t seem to get it across to them that I have been tortured daily for 15 years, with pain they can’t begin to imagine. Only those who have experienced such chronic pain can begin to understand how it wrecks your life, and how hard it is to find medical help. I’ve found that empathy is a rare quality. I myself have been guilty of minimizing the pain of others. Here’s an empathy test for you. Look at the inflammation in these photos (yes doctors, it is inflammation, not painless lipoma), produced by irritated intercostal nerves (if the latest diagnosis is accurate). Try to imagine the burning, stabbing, level 10 pain this nerve irritation might cause. The intercostal nerves innervate the entire thoracic region. It hurts to breathe, move, lie down. When really flared up, all I can do is wait for the precious methadone (denied to most in my situation) to kick in, to be able to eat and have a conversation. Take a look and try to imagine unbearable nerve pain in your entire left thoracic region (core, solar plexus, diaphragm, stomach, spine, ribs, etc.), all the time …..
Figure 1 – “Trigger points noted – left paravertebral T7-T8” – Dr. Desai, Stanford Neurosurgeon
Really? Everything I’ve read, including the bible by Travel, Simons and Simons, says trigger points are not inflammatory and certainly not visible to the naked eye. Maybe Dr. L is right, “nowadays, everything is a trigger point”. I expected more from a Stanford doctor but seeing over 25 or 30 doctors for this condition, an educated guess is really all you can get …. nowadays. If my latest theory is correct, I will diagnosed this completely on my own. Thanks docs. What makes it worse is that there was only one doctor who would help me relieve the pain. A sincere thank you to Dr. L! Looking at this with the new intercostal subluxation theory in mind, it looks like two ribs below the inflammation and the egg shape follows the ribs, more or less. Everything is starting to make sense with this new theory.
Figure 2 – Here’s another viewpoint. The tattoo is pointing to the inflamed area that is pushing against the spine.
Figure 3 – One more. It’s the big blob above the camera shadow (excuse the sheet wrinkles).
PET-MRI
Figure 4 – This PET-MRI shows significant uptake in the lower thoracic disc marrow, at levels consistent with my pain (T8-10). The radiologist said this is almost certainly a major pain contributor and is seen with autoimmune illness (I was recently diagnosed with Giant Cell Arteritis). I could spend pages on this but I think it’s mostly a red herring. If anything, I think I developed an autoimmune illness from 14 years of a revved up immune system, trying to battle pain that it doesn’t understand. I do think it shows that everything left of my spine, including the spine itself, is inflamed. That’s certainly what it feels like!
Figure 5 – Facet and costotransverse/costovertebral joint inflammation from Left T4 through T10
I need to look at this imaging again, with the interchondral subluxation (Slipping Rib Syndrome) theory in mind.