Diagnosis

[Mangetout]

I'm sorry to hear your wife is suffering so much. Nothing worse than constant pain. Give her my best wishes.

[hughnique]

Thank youMangetout, very kind of you. This morning brings yet more problems, talk about Friday the 13th. 3am she awoke with what she, in the dark thought was a wet face, but upon turning the lights on realised she was covered in blood from a heavy nose bleed, all over the place, evidently both of the tablets she is taking has a one in a thousand chance of causing it, seems that whatever she is prescribed gives her some sort of side effect.

[Veem]

That's scary to wake up to. Is this a new med she's just been given recently?

[hughnique]

Basically yes new med although she has had the Morphine before in both tablet and liquid form, yesterday was spent all day kipping on the settee, looks as though today will be a repeat. I think she should stop the tablets and see the doctor again??

[Veem]

It rather depends on how vital it is to her health I suppose. Not to belittle her level of pain for a moment, but if the med is for pain rather than for prevention of something life threatening then perhaps she and her doctor can weigh up the pros and cons of not taking it.

[Blaze]

Is you GP pro-active ? It sounds as if she should be talking to a back specialist/surgeon who could organise not just x-rays, but scans to see what the problem is. The back is very complex and there are areas that an osteopath will not touch because of the delicacy. It's necessary to determine the cause rather than just treating the symptoms.

A severe nose bleed could indicate something other than a medication side effect.

The reasoning for my comments above : OH lifted something very awkwardly recently resulting in shooting pains down one thigh. The osteopath had a look but said whilst it might be a herniated (slipped) disc, he couldn't be sure and did not want to do any sort of manipulation. His GP thought it might be a herniated disc but wasn't sure and referred him to a back surgeon. Surgeon said it definitely wasn't a herniated disc. Scans revealed disc degeneration (normal with age) and inflammation. He has had 2 back infiltrations which seem to have solved the problem for the moment.

Insist she sees a specialist, Hughnique, because it sounds as if you don't know or haven't been told what the problem is.

[Pathca]

What is the other medication besides morphine

[hughnique]

Skenan is one, the other is Surgam

[Pathca]

With back issues scans are probably better than X-rays as more likely to show soft tissue problems

[Lori]

That is very alarming Hughnique. If she has recently received steroid treatment, I would contact the doctor who prescribed it to inquire if it could be the cause or if steroid combination with her other prescribed medication could be the cause. I'm sure you are already doing all that.

I hope this improves quickly and you get some answers.