The spinal nerves that exit the spine at different levels, in my case a problem nerve forks off the spinal cord at T-1, thoracic #1. That nerve travels to my right upper back, then down the right arm. It is not happy because it is being compressed and pushed out of whack. The nerve causes pain along the path but mostly at my right neck in the back. It's torture when the twist or pressure on it is raging. An interesting result is that when I reach or extend my right arm to pick something up from the floor or reach to grab a glass from an upper cabinet shelf, the nerve screams at me because it is not long enough to do the job.
It seems simple to me: Do surgery to increase the space between discs or vertebrae that are involved. Don't make the guy or gal wait 5 years needing to take meds to ameliorate severe pain.
I know that you have a relative or friend with a similar condition. They meet up with physicians who have been bombarded with new guidelines that limit their prescribing. Nowadays, a prescriber's hands are tied by HMO rules, VA rules, pharmacists butting into their business, and what-all. The government wants doctors to treat pain patients from a mindset that their patients are faking and are physically or psychologically dependent on opioids. What garbage!
Sure, the DEA let Florida and West Virginia run wild for years with cash 'pain clinics,' but it's a big country with only a few percent of the pain patients being sketchy. Our lives as patients are wasted; fix us, dammit. Please.
