Back Issues - Need Advice

[WotAGuy]

Find a good back or spinal specialist. Taking any advice without medical expertise is risky. My experience is having a herniated disc at L4-L5. I tried chiro, accupuncture and electrical stim. Nothing helped. Once I found a good specialist he did epidurals with a steroid/novacaine mix. It relieved the pain and leg symptoms. Then I did Mackenziie exercises to improve lordosis. I've had this since 1994 and have occasional flare ups but with quality medical care I have avoided surgery. Spinal surgery can be a crapshoot and both a neurosurgeon and orthopod surgeon have told me to avoid surgery if I can. Beware treating this without medical expertise.

 

PS pain meds landed me in rehab. My experience was as you indicated - you get a buzz but no true pain relief. Be very careful because pain meds are highly addictive to some folks - both emotionally and physically. Good Luck to you Chef!

Edited July 27, 2014 by WotAGuy

[Drifter]

My advice is to try physical therapy before surgery. Once they operate there is no going back. Pun not intended. I've been married to a PT for 20 years, her advice to anyone with back issues is to strengthen the muscles around the spine, it will help minimize shifting of the discs. Talk it over with your physician to see if it is an option. It may not be the solution but I would try almost anything before surgery.

[BringBackFergy]

Find a good back or spinal specialist. Taking any advice without medical expertise is risky. My experience is having a herniated disc at L4-L5. I tried chiro, accupuncture and electrical stim. Nothing helped. Once I found a good specialist he did epidurals with a steroid/novacaine mix. It relieved the pain and leg symptoms. Then I did Mackenziie exercises to improve lordosis. I've had this since 1994 and have occasional flare ups but with quality medical care I have avoided surgery. Spinal surgery can be a crapshoot and both a neurosurgeon and orthopod surgeon have told me to avoid surgery if I can. Beware treating this without medical expertise.

 

PS pain meds landed me in rehab. My experience was as you indicated - you get a buzz but no true pain relief. Be very careful because pain meds are highly addictive to some folks - both emotionally and physically. Good Luck to you Chef!

Mackenzie exercises...that's the name I was referring to above. Great book. Helped me a lot.

[Best Player Available]

Find a good back or spinal specialist. Taking any advice without medical expertise is risky. My experience is having a herniated disc at L4-L5. I tried chiro, accupuncture and electrical stim. Nothing helped. Once I found a good specialist he did epidurals with a steroid/novacaine mix. It relieved the pain and leg symptoms. Then I did Mackenziie exercises to improve lordosis. I've had this since 1994 and have occasional flare ups but with quality medical care I have avoided surgery. Spinal surgery can be a crapshoot and both a neurosurgeon and orthopod surgeon have told me to avoid surgery if I can. Beware treating this without medical expertise.

 

PS pain meds landed me in rehab. My experience was as you indicated - you get a buzz but no true pain relief. Be very careful because pain meds are highly addictive to some folks - both emotionally and physically. Good Luck to you Chef!

Epidurals are great until they wear off. if its 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 16 weeks. For me it only increased depression. As for opitates cannot agree more. Acupuncture for me anyways was extremely short term. have a 3pm appointment walk out feeling good and in full blown spasms by 7 pm that night. i did years of it. Chinese, French you name it. Chiro well thats a friggin joke if you have herniated disks, that always caused more pain than it was worth. Now seeing an Osteopath using pressure points and that would provide some longer term relief. Disctomoy's well be dam sure the disc above and below are at 100% because my operation failed since the damage above and below could not be seen by a simple MRI. It took a diskogram to figure it out. Talk about painful.

 

In the SF bay area, the best and I went to them all was Dr. Ken HSU from St. Mary's spinal clinic in SF. He is older now and has taught his approaches to others. i have sat in the office and talked to people that had flown in from Sydney Australia to see him. he is a groundbreaking surgeon and extremely conservative. he tells it like it is. Dr. Hsu is also known as the doctor who saved Joe Montana's career If he is still around I recomend him or any of his sidekicks there.

[John Adams]

I did accupuncture for something else. I have to say that it's rejuvenating...but no more rejuvenating than setting aside 60 minutes to sit in peaceful meditation or a low pressure yoga class. To me, that's the reason it works. It works because meditation works.

 

On the back pain, I didn't have chronic back pain but I had another chronic pain issue and found this book to be extremely helpful. It took me 3 years and chiros, accupuncture, doctors, platelet injections (like the pros!), PT, shrinks, and everything short of a witch doctor to get to listening to the advice and diagnosis in that book, which I'd read early in the process.

 

Good luck. We don't see eye to eye at times but the chronic pain thing can be a B word and I relate. As that book indicates, mine was largely in my noggin. You're completely screwed up so it's probably in yours too.

[BuffaloBillsForever]

I know I know but this is serious. I've had a back issue for about three months. It's kind of like sciatica but I've been told that's not what's going on. They say I have some disc issues and degenrative bone disease. Exruciating pain that starts in my lower back and shoots down my leg. I've had x-rays, an MRI and see a nerve specialist in a couple of weeks. My doc also has given me a referral to a neurosurgeon which is scary. I'm on pretty heavy duty pain meds now that do nothing other than give me a buzz. Which isn't a bad thing but frustrating that they don't help. I've done the chiropractor thing to no avail. She said it could take a couple of months to find relief but I can't wait that long. I have a high threshold for pain (lifelong Bills fan will do that) but it's beginning to wear on me. I'm considering acupuncture. Anyone try it? Did it work?

 

Now flame away if you want but serious posts would be helpful.

 

My brother had the exact same issue this winter. He did everything you tried above including acupuncture. They only brought temp relief to him. The only thing that has helped him on a permanent basis was physiotherapy (going on a weekly basis I believe for several months) and doing stretching excercises everyday at home (which he still does) that were recommended by his physiotherapist.

Edited July 27, 2014 by BuffaloBillsForever

[Chef Jim]

Thanks for the advice but Jesus Christ dude I'm not going to read all that. That's worse than an OC post over on PPP. I'll stick with the bad back.

[John Adams]

Thanks for the advice but Jesus Christ dude I'm not going to read all that. That's worse than an OC post over on PPP. I'll stick with the bad back.

 

Ill bottom line it.

 

You're crazy.

 

Your craziness affects your body.

 

Undo or acknowledge some craziness and you'll feel better.

 

Now, you're so !@#$ed up that it might be too late for you. In that case, skip the cure and drink more wine.

[GG]

Add one more in favor of acupuncture. Ascribe what ever you want to it, but go with an open mind, and lo & behold, it works. Don't ask me how. It just does.

[Chef Jim]

 

 

Ill bottom line it.

 

You're crazy.

 

Your craziness affects your body.

 

Undo or acknowledge some craziness and you'll feel better.

 

Now, you're so !@#$ed up that it might be too late for you. In that case, skip the cure and drink more wine.

 

I'm crazy. Come on man tell me something I don't know. And regarding the wine I've been on the wagon for a while.

 

And I know I need to change my activity levels. I used to be a huge gym rat. The doc asked if I used to lift a a lot of heavy items. I said I worked in a kitchen. He asked how long. I said 25 years. He nodded his head with look of "there you go".

[Rubes]

Be very careful of back surgery. There is no evidence to suggest that it improves symptoms any more than traditional (eg, PT) approaches. It's different when the problem causes significant nerve issues (such as weakness or incontinence), and in those cases surgery is important, but that is rare. In the absence of that, I would try many different approaches before I'd begin to consider surgery.

 

Acupuncture is a very valid alternative, and I would consider it. I had a disc problem at L5-S1 dating back to 2003, and I tried a lot of things, including chiropracty (which did nothing for me). Steroid injections helped with the pain, but those are very temporary and the main reason for getting them, besides providing temporary pain relief, is so you can be comfortable enough to do the therapy to strengthen your core and back muscles.

 

Physical therapy is tough to stick with, but it can be helpful. Yoga or pilates is also excellent, although it can be difficult to get started when you're having acute pain. But this is the path I encourage. It has helped me tremendously. I still have some pain in my back every now and then, but it doesn't interfere with my life and I can do everything normally.

 

It's a long road back, but if you can get to where the acute pain is subsided, you can begin to get back to normality. Well, as normal as someone like you can be.

[John Adams]

I'm crazy. Come on man tell me something I don't know. And regarding the wine I've been on the wagon for a while.

 

And I know I need to change my activity levels. I used to be a huge gym rat. The doc asked if I used to lift a a lot of heavy items. I said I worked in a kitchen. He asked how long. I said 25 years. He nodded his head with look of "there you go".

 

That's BS. If you were overweight, he'd say "there you go." If you were in a car accident in 1999, he'd say "there you go." If you fell on your driveway this past winter, he'd say "there you go." There's no easy "there you go" to some mysterious chronic back pain. One thing that I found when I went through my pain baloney is that every doctor wants to ID the cause so they grasp at them. And if you go to 6 docs, you'll get 4 diagnoses. I had docs telling me everythign from hernia to back issues to nerve damage to muscle tears etc. All of them sounded confident in their diagnoses and all of them showed me different MRIs or images telling me something was wrong.

 

Try out the "you're just crazy" diagnosis. You know it's true and it might cut through years of medical crap.

 

Do not get back surgery. That's just plain stupid.

Edited July 28, 2014 by John Adams

[Chef Jim]

 

 

That's BS. If you were overweight, he'd say "there you go." If you were in a car accident in 1999, he'd say "there you go." If you fell on your driveway this past winter, he'd say "there you go." There's no easy "there you go" to some mysterious chronic back pain. One thing that I found when I went through my pain baloney is that every doctor wants to ID the cause so they grasp at them. And if you go to 6 docs, you'll get 4 diagnoses. I had docs telling me everythign from hernia to back issues to nerve damage to muscle tears etc. All of them sounded confident in their diagnoses and all of them showed me different MRIs or images telling me something was wrong.

 

Try out the "you're just crazy" diagnosis. You know it's true and it might cut through years of medical crap.

 

Do not get back surgery. That's just plain stupid.

 

So you've determined that medicine is an imperfect science? Bravo. Good for you.

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

electro shock therapy not kidding pulsating voltage for half an hour a day. Lift with your legs and not your back, don't twist too far carrying anything of a significant weight and don't stay bent over for too long doing ..........

 

at the first sign of discomfort I use Icy Hot No Mess. Much better than a patch that rips your hair out

http://www.icyhot.com/no-mess/

 

Icy Hot has a new item out

http://www.icyhot.com/smartrelief/

[John Adams]

It's called stim not electro shock therapy although that's closer to what he needs.

Edited July 29, 2014 by John Adams

[Chef Jim]

It's called stim not electro shock therapy although that's closer to what he needs.

 

Thanks for all your advice here. It's been very helpful.

 

 

 

So I had my first round of acupuncture today. Did nothing so far other than having a tall thin Asian chick grabbing my ass. I go back Thursday.

[John Adams]

If you don't think it will work, it won't.

[Nanker]

Jim, seek out a Physiatrist. Google that in the Bay Area.

They can give you an epidural which is the fastest (nearly immediate) relief from the pain caused by an inflamed/irritated sciatic nerve. They get to the source of the pain and calm the situation down very quickly.

Sounds like you'll need a series of treatments. I had about six two years ago and it saved me from a decision I was headed toward - a third back surgery.

 

Here's my guy. He's a little nutty, but does good work - including acupuncture - but in my case went the epidural route:

http://www.spine-health.com/doctor/physiatrist/grant-cooper-princeton-nj

[John from Riverside]

I have some stuff to say about this.

 

I was in a car accident some years back where I was at a standstill and a teen driver plowed into me from behind she wasnt watching what she was doing.......bent my car in half and put me like 20 feet down the road in he ditch.....

 

Ever since that day I have had back problems...I am told that I have protruding disks in my lower back and every once in a while nerves will get crossed up back there and cause a LOT of pain (and weakness in the back where the strength slowly biulds back up)

 

There are things that I have figured out helps keep my back in shape

 

- Lift with my legs

- I swear by the chiropractor....and go every so often to make sure everything is alignment.....really helps

- need to keep the weight off.....the less weight you are carrying around the less the back is stressed

- There are some stretching exercises for the back that I learned when I was going to physical therapy........I do them every so often or when i feel my back tightening up

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

It's called stim not electro shock therapy although that's closer to what he needs.

it was a joke

which you eventually got to

 

in case it wasn't mentioned

 

Don't keep your wallet in your back pocket when sitting.

 

it offsets the balance of the spine

 

maybe look into an inversion table. I hear they may help

Edited July 29, 2014 by BillsFan-4-Ever