Anyone Here Have Facet Joint Syndrome?

[freckles]

In addition to other spinal problems, my last MRI showed Bilateral Facet Hypertrophy in L2-3, L3-4 and L4-5.

I've had both of my hips replaced trying to get rid of the horrible pain that is in my buttocks, lower back and coccyx and down the back of my thighs. Sorry to say that after the two surgeries, the condition was not diagnosed correctly because the pain is still there. So now I take pain meds and have to put up with the inconveniences of motion that come with the replacement surgeries.

I'm wondering if anyone here has problems with their Facet Joints and if their pain is in the same areas as described above. I keep telling my doctors that "it hurts where I sit". That's the best way I can describe it. Sometimes at night I wake up at 3 or 4 am hurting so bad that I have to get up and pace the floor for half an hour or so. I'm really trying to find out what is wrong so I can see if there is something that can be done to fix it. Even tho the pain meds help, the pain never really goes away and I've been on pain meds now for about 4 years. My tolerance has really built up in that time and I'm on a pretty high dose of Norco. I've tried MSContin, Fentanyl patches and Oxycontin and they made me so nauseas that I had to go off them. The hydrocodone seems to suit my system the best but even with that, I tend to get an upset stomach a lot. I dropped 15 lbs in about 6 months trying the Oxycontin and was up to 80 mg twice a day, with NO effect on my pain at all.

[Kathi49]

Freckles,

Sure do! Just about everywhere in my cervical spine and more recently the lumbar. My spine pain management doctor did a couple of facet injections at the L3, L4, L5 and S1. They gave me about a week's worth of relief. But he said even at that, even though it was just a week, it was still proof that that was where some of the pain was coming from. So, he did a radiofrequency neurotomy about a month or so ago. I still have pain from the L4/L5 disc bulge and still right sided facet problems (hasn't worked on those yet).

I also have some female issues contributing to some of this and maybe even piriformis syndrome. But the radiofrequency really helped to take the pain down some.

I will say it is still tough to drive; now that will really get to me and probably from getting in and out of the car.

Ask your doctor about facet injections and see what he says. :) Oh, I do want to add that sometimes they will work and sometimes they won't. But it is definitely worth a try to determine your pain generators.

[Kathi49]

Oops, forgot to add...

Yes, the pain was in my "sit bones", radiated down my leg and into my outer ankle and foot. And yep, I had to get up at night too and walk around or put Biofreeze on my backside just to go to sleep. I was trying desperately to keep the pain meds down. So, I tried everything to alleviate it. :(

Also,

The radiofrequency neurotomy or ablation they sometimes say, will last anywhere from 6 to 12 months, something like that. But that the nerves will grow back. No big deal as you can always have the procedure repeated. I was scared to death to have this done because I had heard so many horror stories about the pain from the procedure. But for me, it was a piece of cake and I don't remember much about it at all! :)

[slipnslide]

freckles,

Like Kathi, I have degeneration in both the cervical spine and lumbar. My last lumbar MRI was just over a year ago, which showed moderate facet hypertrophy in the mid and lower lumbar spine. The pain I experience with it feels like both of my buttocks bones have been beaten and bruised with a baseball bat and pain down to the bones in the backs of my thighs, and burning pain in the fronts of the thighs. I also have pain right by those two bones that stick out on either side in my lower back. I've yet to address my lumbar issues with my doctors since my cervical spine seems to keep me in more intense pain for the time being.:(

[Kathi49]

Kim,

That's a good way to put it...like your backside has been bruised with a baseball bat because that is exactly what it feels like. You need to add here too what you need to have done next on the cervical spine. :(

Freckles,

Kim and I are also experiencing problems with our shoulders, arms and hands to various degrees which we both are trying to get sorted out.

[slipnslide]

Kathi,

Okay, here goes....lol:D ....As Kathi has already stated, both she and I are having issues with shoulders and arms since our fusion surgeries. I had Facet RF's done back in January '07 that gave me my first taste of pain relief in over a year, but only in the left side of my neck where the RF's were done, the shoulder & arm (and base of the skull) pain is unchanged. At my follow-up visit (a few weeks ago), my PM said he feels I have Facet syndrome, but wanted to wait until I saw my OSS again before doing any more RF's or injections & also felt it might be good to get a CT done to better view the spinal canal. I saw my OSS this past friday and he called my PM during my appt. They "put their heads together" (his words...lol:) ) and he said they want me to go back to the PM and do transforaminal injections, and/or low pulsed radio frequency and to have them done on one side and one level at a time to try to single out what nerve is radiating pain to where. Their hopes (and mine too!:D ) is to alleviate the pain in my shoulders and arms.

I told my OSS that I'm getting desperate and discouraged, and said I'm at the point where I wish they would just cut the nerves totally, then I wouldn't have to feel any pain. My OSS knows I'm just frustrated and said "you don't want that because your arms will just be flopping at your sides":rolleyes: :D .

[Kathi49]

Kim,

I had to laugh at the last! Too true!

I said the same thing about the cervical pain once; "Can't you just destroy all of those nerves?" And the PM I had then started laughing and said, "Yeah, and when were are done, we will have to say sorry Mrs. _______ but your arms no longer work!"

And I may be right behind you Kim in this process. It's just that we or our conditions are similar but being approached in different ways.

Oh, I did want to ask you. When did the relief finally kick in on the side you had done? I know you told me once, but I forgot. I know for the lumbar the relief was almost immediate. There were about two days afterwards that the pain was pretty bad and I was pretty sore. I expected the pain to last much longer but it didn't. :)

[slipnslide]

Kathi,

The Facet RF Ablation on my neck at C4/5/6 (he had to stop the procedure on C7 since I was feeling it all the way into my fingers) was done the last week of January. I was sore for a few days, then it was a few days, to maybe a week after that that I noticed that the pain was only in the base of my skull, skipped the left side of the neck, then started back at the base of my neck (where the neck meets the shoulders) and down into the arms from there.