Before I knew I had Lyme I went to a neuro. and he said that I had a pinched nerve, probably causing the numbing and tingling in my left leg.After I told the LLMD that, she said it would probably be good to do the MRI afterall to rule out anything else.

Who do I listen to- I've only had 2 apps. with the ortho and I've been with my LLMD now for 8 months and trust her implicitly.

As far as the pain- the ortho sent me Neurotin which totally drugs me and makes me feel very groggy in the AM. The LLMD said to take it along with Vicodin HP- which really gave me a gigantic buzz!

I don't know what the heck to do-one about the MRI and the other about the pain meds!

I'm real cheap about myself- first I have to meet my deductible ($500) and then pay 20% of the bone scan and the MRI- there goes my tax refund!

Many times we subject ourselves to tests before thinking..

1. What are we looking for? We KNOW there is pain.. we know from the other tests... so what will this show the others didn't?

2. If we find something.. can anything be done about it?

3. If we find something and something CAN be done about it.. will I want to go to that extreme?

4. If it shows nothing conclusive.. then what?

5. If you have it done and pain meds are the answer.. and you don't have it and pain meds are the answer.. why have it done and pay the big bucks?

Personally I have a mess of bad disks.. and degenerated ones. Not much, if anything, can be done to fix them... so do I want to spend money to take pictures? And why?

My thought is to take the tax refund and spend it on ice cream.

Don't waste it on a test that won't fix the problem.

But I am NOT a doctor... and that is my opinion.

About the meds?

If they don't work.. don't take them.

I hope you feel better soon!

I don't know exactly where this will fit into your equation, but here's some food for thought based on my experience.

I have degenerative disc disease in my upper back/neck. (Forget exactly where.) It was found by MRI when they were looking for something else.

OK, it's interesting to know what's going on there, but would I have paid to find out knowing that there isn't anything to be done about it? Doubt it.

Here's a questions for your LLMD: If you do have DDD, might it be caused, either directly or indirectly, by the Lyme such that effective Lyme treatment would arrest further deterioration? (I don't think you can reverse the damage.) If so, you might not want to have the MRI to look for DDD.

The pinched nerve is another story, though. I don't know anything about that, but if it's treatable, I would get tested for it.

Tincup has provided an excellent approach with this list of questions. When I find myself racked (sp?) by indecision, it is almost always because I do not have enough facts to make a decision.

The hardest part can be determining which questions to ask, but once you have those, everything else will fall into place.

We made great progress in healing and pain relief going to the chripractor along with abx.

I feel for you! I know how bad that sort of thing can hurt!

Tincup's reasoning is good... no point doing something and spending money purely for acedemic interest.

Think in terms of less invasive, less drastic things that might actually give some relief.

Have you tried a good chiropractor? I have always been a bit of a skeptic toward this trade, but there have been 2 times in my life when I twisted wrong or lifted something badly and found myself in unbearable pain for days on end and unable to even move to go to the bathroom. Once when I was 17 and cutting firewood, and once a couple of years ago when on vacation and lifted luggage wrong. Vicodin didn't even take the edge off the pain.

In both cases an hour or less with one of the 'much maligned until you really need one' chiropractors totally fixed me.

It is unbelievable how much pain a pinched nerve can cause, and how unbeleivably good it feels when the pain stops.

It may be Lyme related, but you are doing all you can for that already.

The standard medical approaches are pain pills or surgery.

Try the non-invasive approach first before you even consider letting someone cut on you. That is a last resort with lifelong consequences.

I wrote off all my lower back and leg pain to lyme and did not get examined by an orthopedist.

Perhaps I could have done something about it if I'd had the information from an MRI BEFORE it ruptured! A year after surgery it ruptured again, so I am faced with more surgery or permanent lower back pain, full hip-to-toe spasms, sleep-interrupting sciatica, and patchy numbness below the belt.

Once your spine "goes", you're forever on a slippery slope. Do not cheap out on yourself with this one!

Edited to add, I posted before reading the responses before mine. So far I am a minority of one on this, but I'll stick to my guns. Notice that these people already KNOW that they have disk problems. You need to KNOW at least that much.

What can be done? At the very least, you can avoid activities that will make it worse and perhaps do some exercises to strengthen the muscles in the area to stabilize it a bit.

If you're told that nothing beyond that can be done, well there's no need to have additional tests. But lack of knowledge about things like this can be dangerous and REALLY PAINFUL (I didn't know the pain scale extended that far), as I found out first-hand. Get a baseline MRI and go from there.

i took the mri to an orthopedist.it was not the tendon's at all.he did orthoscopic surgery.what the mri did not show was the damage the lyme had done.there was a growth on my leg bone's.he scraped them,then sewed me up.he told me to see a rheumotoligist.i did.he put me on 4 week's iv abx.

the pain continued,got worse.i went back to the orthopedist.he wanted to operate again.

this time he did an open synovectomy.in a matter of 8 month's(between surgery's) my synovial lining was gone,just little pieces were left to remove.some piece's are still there.

it will be 2 year's next month since last surgery.the pain is worse then ever.i am using the duragesic patch.the dose has been elevated to 50mg. every 2 day's..

just today,my doc put me on percocet again,to work in tandum with the patch..

i know there is more damage to my knee.now no orthopedist will touch me,cause in my postop report it sez,chronic lyme arthritis with extensive synovitis..

now you must remember that i had 4 week's of iv ceftriaxone,in between surgery's. i still got worse(knee)..

i have state funded health ins. they think it is cheaper to make me a druggie ,then to fix my knee.i know i need long term abx. but i have no say in my own health care...

i think i would go with the mri.this way there is a good chance it will show what is going on with your knee.maybe you could get by with orthoscopic surgery.

with orthoscopic surgery
the doc can see exactly what is going on in there.plus,they can do a biopsy on the tissue he remove's. have bowen lab's or mdl or the other lab that does lyme testing.(i can't recall name of the other lab)..

i am sorry for going on so long,my address is on here if you want more info.....gary

Just that the ortho's tend to see every problem as a surgery. (Some problems unfortunately are.)

Many painful problems are just functional, injured or cramped muscles holding a joint at an unnatural angle... pinching a nerve... causing the muscle to cramp more... pinching the nerve harder... a vicious circle.

The chiropractic discipline seems to be better at dealing with these problems BEFORE they are to the point of needing drills and saws and stainless steel screws. I would take massaging, stretching and exercise over that any day!

First of all do no harm... you can always do the harm later if you feel the need.

A good chiropractor (yes, there are quacks too) would also want some kind of imaging to know what is going on in there before doing any more than massaging cramped muscles. At least an x-ray. It still will cost some money no matter what you do, but your chances of getting some relief for the money are better IMO.

My mother has had back problems for most of her life. She has had countless surgeries, many of which screwed things up worse. All were painful.

Some things the chiropractors could not fix, but they were always the ones that were the best at getting her functional again and the pain under control.

It is not a matter of choosing between doctors either. Use them when you need them for various problems. I know your LLMD is all for anything that relieves suffering, whether it is Lyme induced or not. She might even be able to suggest somebody if she thinks they could help with this problem.

Then again it might just be pain in the knee and hip joints themselves, and not spine related. If you get it checked out hou have a chance of getting it fixed.

I just wouldn't make the orthopedic surgeons my first stop!

I thought my case was strange, but after reading so many stories from all of you, I realize I'm not so alone. I imagine I've had Lyme for quite awhile, but my immune system was very strong. After a couple of car wrecks and a few other things, I seemed to just "break". So many weird things. I had no idea your body could do the things mine did. I am so glad that I now have a lyme doctor who knows what is wrong and how to fix it.