Who has it and what has helped you? I've had it for about 10 years or so and sick of it. I'm going to try a decompression Chiropractor this week. Trying to get an appointment for an MRI through an Orthopedist this month sometime. Probably doing this backwards but willing to try anything.
Sciatica pain
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I feel your pain brother, only mine is not a sciatic. Check out a recent post where I hurt my back. I got lots of advice here and went to see a Dr. just this past Friday. My goal is to never let this happen again. I've been suffering with it for about a month, I don't know how you've lived with this type of pain for ten years. Good luck with it.
chopped39
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Go straight to the back specialist. I have been putting it off for a while. My dad had the same thing and they performed a laminectomy on him. He is way better. 81 years old and still driving a truck 3 times a week. A guy I work with had the same surgery and he feels pretty good but now his right leg goes to sleep once in awhile
They ar sending him to therapy three times a week.Thats workers comp for you
If its work related go to your specialist first. Comp sent my friend to therapy for three months and then they did a fusion on him and he is having pain all the time in his legs.
They ar sending him to therapy three times a week.Thats workers comp for you If its work related go to your specialist first. Comp sent my friend to therapy for three months and then they did a fusion on him and he is having pain all the time in his legs.
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Same here... Been living w/ it for 20 yrs...Each incident seems to be of a longer duration. I'm looking at the newer technology using arthriscopic surgery..MUCH faster recover, local anethisia, no hospital stay.... Those I've talked to, say it's the way to go.
LOTS of info thru a Google search.
FWIW: My surgeon told me in no uncertain terms, NO chiropractors!
LOTS of info thru a Google search.
FWIW: My surgeon told me in no uncertain terms, NO chiropractors!
Our backs are like TurboRegals; they are the same but some respond better to some things. That pain is most likely caused by a bulging (or whatever name there is now) disc at L4-L5. Somehow that seems to be a hot spot for hitting that nerve. I wouldn't even THINK about touching my back until I had an MRI and at least 4 different opinions from doctors (2 surgeons-which will tell you to operate, and 2 chiropractors-which will tell you to go to them and receive treatment.) Most people have back problems and you would have to decide if you want to take OTC medication for a while (which could mess your stomach up), live with the pain or go for surgery, which could mess other things up.
I had L4-L5 discetomy, give me a PM with your # if you want to discuss further.
I had L4-L5 discetomy, give me a PM with your # if you want to discuss further.
turbo39151
anycoloraslongasitsblack
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Just my .02...
I've had this issue several times. The Chiropractor does help however, it's not a permanent fix (mostly helps upper back for me). Last time I had this issue I had a deep tissue massage with a brutal therapist who attacked the connection points in the glutes... It hurt but she has been the only therapist - to date- that has managed to affect actual relief. The other thing is stupid simple... Stretching. Yup, that's it. My Chiropractor does sports medicine as well and stated that not stretching was the cause of lots of low back issues... I have tried some of his "prescribed" stretches along with some yoga stuff... It works... I know it sounds like some hippy crap but I can definitely tell the difference since I've been doing it. Feel better, stronger, and less recurrence.
My opinion would be to try this first. It's free ( You can look stuff up on youtube) and there's no cutting on your back.... You have nothing to lose but pain.
Good Luck.
I've had this issue several times. The Chiropractor does help however, it's not a permanent fix (mostly helps upper back for me). Last time I had this issue I had a deep tissue massage with a brutal therapist who attacked the connection points in the glutes... It hurt but she has been the only therapist - to date- that has managed to affect actual relief. The other thing is stupid simple... Stretching. Yup, that's it. My Chiropractor does sports medicine as well and stated that not stretching was the cause of lots of low back issues... I have tried some of his "prescribed" stretches along with some yoga stuff... It works... I know it sounds like some hippy crap but I can definitely tell the difference since I've been doing it. Feel better, stronger, and less recurrence.
My opinion would be to try this first. It's free ( You can look stuff up on youtube) and there's no cutting on your back.... You have nothing to lose but pain.
Good Luck.
Appreciate the advice. Decompression Chiro wants like $3700 for 25 visits. According to the Chiro x-ray, looks like I have a worn disc that's causing my nerve problems. I'm going to go to an Orthopedist and see what they say. I had an MRI scheduled but it's $1500. There's an Orthopedist here that has a MRI inhouse so they just charge a copay.
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Maybe that is why you still have it after 20 years and its getting worse???
FYI UPMC just passed new low back care management guidelines for insurance coverage in 2012. They will not approve surgery, MRI or injections until after 12 weeks of chiropractic care and/or spinal rehab. Yes, that's right if you have UPMC insurance you have to see me for 12 weeks before you can even go to the spine surgeon!
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Good advice. To add to this there is no quick fix and most back pain took years to develop even though it just started hurting.
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25 visits isn't unreasonable but $3700 is pretty high. Sounds like a "decompression" marketing scheme. I would look elsewhere for another doc.
Try here
www.acrb.org
Before you go down the MRI injections route try manipulative therapy decompression and rehab. Injections only work 33% of the time. If you do therapy and rehab first and your symptoms dont resolve then have injections and their effectiveness jumps to 72% of the time.
turbofabricator
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I had L4-L5 micro-discectomy in in 2006. 6mos. post surgery I was still in the same 5-8 pain level all day and was watching the news and here is my doctor on the TV being suspended because he wasn't a surgeon at all. He is an anisthesiologist. No formal surgical training. Had a post surgical MRI done and he hadn't made any difference in my back. Went to another surgeon (2 actually) and they said I shuldn't have had surgery at all to begin with, and nothing they can do for me at this (then) time. I have been taking pain meds ever sense and it is just getting worse and worse. 'Bout time to get it fixed right. So my advice is to ask them point blank if they are board certified in the field they are practicing and make them prove it!!! Not all doc's are upstanding citizens. Look the person up on ratemd.com There is a link at the top of the page for the doctor you are looking at to see if there are any state diciplinary actions taken against the doc. Do your research. not all doctors are even close to equal. I have had 9-10 surgeries in my life and I can tell you few are really good. I've had 6 shoulder surgeries and the last doc was by far the best skilled guy.
"I fell your pain, though" Been living with it for years.
"I fell your pain, though" Been living with it for years.
hello; Most of us as we age develope something with the back. The sciatic nerve on me any way runs down my side and down my leg. I've streached it, messages it, tried a chiropter but it's goes away after time. What I got (someone here suggested) is a inversion devise where your hang upside down enlongating the spine. It makes sence to me and I think it helped with my ailments. I even got to the level of a inverted sit up. Core strength is key to your self. The situps work the whole ab area. I got one on sale at Costco's. It took a while to do what I say but it was worth it.
IBBY
ps; while where talking pain. Lately when I wake up the back of my calfs hurt like hell. Probably more of the age factor. What do yous think.
IBBY
ps; while where talking pain. Lately when I wake up the back of my calfs hurt like hell. Probably more of the age factor. What do yous think.
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[quote="turbobuick, post: 3028979, member: 2032" ]25 visits isn't unreasonable but $3700 is pretty high. [/quote]
When I have a 'need' to see 'my' Chiropractor he always starts off with the same speech: "If I don't have you feeling better
within 3 visits.....". He claims too many Chiropractors want you to come back for the rest of your life. Based on seeing
Chiropractors on and off for 36 years i would have to agree with him. Once I ran into one who stressed the importance
of 'core strength' my back pain has been very minimal and no pain meds. YAY!
When I have a 'need' to see 'my' Chiropractor he always starts off with the same speech: "If I don't have you feeling better
within 3 visits.....". He claims too many Chiropractors want you to come back for the rest of your life. Based on seeing
Chiropractors on and off for 36 years i would have to agree with him. Once I ran into one who stressed the importance
of 'core strength' my back pain has been very minimal and no pain meds. YAY!
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Chiropractic is a profession not a treatment. Spinal manipulation is a treatment and not all patients require it or even need it.
Pain is a symptom and typically stems from dysfunction. 90% of the time a patients MRI and X-ray findings are MEANINGLESS!!
I can MRI 10 asymptomatic people off the street and 7 of them will have disc pathology, this has been proven in numerous studies. I will x-ray 100 50 year old's and 99% of them will have disc degeneration. But will all of them have pain? NO!
Pain is typically a functional problem. Functional treatment such as manipulation and rehab not only work well but have been shown in numerous studies to far exceed everything else especially in terms of costs, patient satisfaction and most importantly long term outcomes. Poor lumbopelvic stability over time wears out discs and joints leading to structural pathology (bad discs) that also leads to permanent dysfunction. Even with bad discs and arthritis if you can improve lumbopelvic (increase core strength) stability and function you will decrease pain.
Some (most) patients I see are not capable of improving or exercising there way out of the mess they are in with their backs without my help and guidance. Back pain is a progressive disease that develops over time and is often an accumulation of bad things that we have done to our selves. Patient education and understanding is critical to over coming low back pain. There are no quick fixes you get out what you put in. BTW surgery is not a "fix" it is a band aid at best that may buy a few years if you are lucky. It is however sometimes necessary but should be a last resort. When I say last resort I mean you have tried everything you have made EVERY effort possible and the pain is so bad you can not function in life.
Treatment durations are pretty standard and dictated mostly by tissue healing times. A new patient that is in acute pain will take 2-4 weeks to just resolve the acute pain this is typically 6-12 visits. You can not start functional rehab with acute pain it has to be resolved first. If you want to make any physiologic change to the body at all 6 weeks is needed, this would include rehab core strengthening etc. At 3 times a week that is 18 visits. So a typical acute patient with lumbar stabilization exercises would be anywhere from 24-30 visits. This is a pretty well accepted treatment plan not only used by Chiro's but PTs and anyone else doing therapy. So in reference to the above statement 25 visits isn't unreasonable. 25 visits with only passive therapies and decompression probably isn't the best treatment plan and not very well thought out IMO and probably canned.
As far as costs, a non complicated low back surgery is about $54k (this does not include any associated costs MRI epidurals Meds therapy etc). This would buy you at least 10 years of treatment in my office at 3x a week. Which do you think would have a better 10 or even 20 year outcome? Which would your insurance company pay for? Maybe this is the problem with health care today?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/h...o-workplace-injuries.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Pain is a symptom and typically stems from dysfunction. 90% of the time a patients MRI and X-ray findings are MEANINGLESS!!
I can MRI 10 asymptomatic people off the street and 7 of them will have disc pathology, this has been proven in numerous studies. I will x-ray 100 50 year old's and 99% of them will have disc degeneration. But will all of them have pain? NO!
Pain is typically a functional problem. Functional treatment such as manipulation and rehab not only work well but have been shown in numerous studies to far exceed everything else especially in terms of costs, patient satisfaction and most importantly long term outcomes. Poor lumbopelvic stability over time wears out discs and joints leading to structural pathology (bad discs) that also leads to permanent dysfunction. Even with bad discs and arthritis if you can improve lumbopelvic (increase core strength) stability and function you will decrease pain.
Some (most) patients I see are not capable of improving or exercising there way out of the mess they are in with their backs without my help and guidance. Back pain is a progressive disease that develops over time and is often an accumulation of bad things that we have done to our selves. Patient education and understanding is critical to over coming low back pain. There are no quick fixes you get out what you put in. BTW surgery is not a "fix" it is a band aid at best that may buy a few years if you are lucky. It is however sometimes necessary but should be a last resort. When I say last resort I mean you have tried everything you have made EVERY effort possible and the pain is so bad you can not function in life.
Treatment durations are pretty standard and dictated mostly by tissue healing times. A new patient that is in acute pain will take 2-4 weeks to just resolve the acute pain this is typically 6-12 visits. You can not start functional rehab with acute pain it has to be resolved first. If you want to make any physiologic change to the body at all 6 weeks is needed, this would include rehab core strengthening etc. At 3 times a week that is 18 visits. So a typical acute patient with lumbar stabilization exercises would be anywhere from 24-30 visits. This is a pretty well accepted treatment plan not only used by Chiro's but PTs and anyone else doing therapy. So in reference to the above statement 25 visits isn't unreasonable. 25 visits with only passive therapies and decompression probably isn't the best treatment plan and not very well thought out IMO and probably canned.
As far as costs, a non complicated low back surgery is about $54k (this does not include any associated costs MRI epidurals Meds therapy etc). This would buy you at least 10 years of treatment in my office at 3x a week. Which do you think would have a better 10 or even 20 year outcome? Which would your insurance company pay for? Maybe this is the problem with health care today?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/h...o-workplace-injuries.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
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Part of the problem today seems to be that 'the powers that be' are absolutely against preventive medicine.
"at least 10 years of treatment in my office" does sound quite a bit like what I stated in my previous post.
Just Sayin..........
"at least 10 years of treatment in my office" does sound quite a bit like what I stated in my previous post.
Just Sayin..........
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Take a look at the NY times article I posted. This isnt about preventative this is about actually treating the problem correctly. My analogy above was to show the difference in costs. I do have patients that have been with me 10+ years, but I see them on occasion and not 3x a week, lol.
FYI heart disease is the leading cause of death and the highest cost driver in healthcare today. It is also 90% curable and reversible.
FYI heart disease is the leading cause of death and the highest cost driver in healthcare today. It is also 90% curable and reversible.
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It is not only 90% curable and reversible - for many it is preventable! But you are right, this is not about 'preventative', it is about the original poster looking for effective treatment.
I do hope that he finds a solution to his problem. Pain is no fun. Well, there are exceptions I guess, I met a girl who claimed she liked pleasure spiked with pain!
I do hope that he finds a solution to his problem. Pain is no fun. Well, there are exceptions I guess, I met a girl who claimed she liked pleasure spiked with pain!
grey racer
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My story....about a year ago, I put my foot up on my bathroom sink counter to cut my toenails, not a pretty sight ! Had my leg in that position for to long, and felt something
goin on in my lower back right around my upper butt on my left side....I could stand up, no pain, I could lie down, no pain. But when I'd sit down, wow...big pain down my leg.
When I'd drive somewhere, it would kill me, but 10 sec after I got out of the car, the pain was gone....could sleep, stand fine, but could not sit.
So I'm eating at a breakfast nook in town and kind of standing while eating and I see this chiropractor lady I know, and tell her what's going on.
She tells me.....put an icepack right above the cheek of my butt and leave it for 15 minutes and do that 3 or 4 times a day. She said the ice will shrink the muscles that
are pinching the nerve and free up the nerve....did it maybe 4 or 5 times, and the pain disappeared completely and has never returned . It was killing me for about
a month before I ran into her and it was like a miracle come true.
Don't know if this will work for anyone else, but can't hurt to try !!!!! Good luck, I have felt your pain......
goin on in my lower back right around my upper butt on my left side....I could stand up, no pain, I could lie down, no pain. But when I'd sit down, wow...big pain down my leg.
When I'd drive somewhere, it would kill me, but 10 sec after I got out of the car, the pain was gone....could sleep, stand fine, but could not sit.
So I'm eating at a breakfast nook in town and kind of standing while eating and I see this chiropractor lady I know, and tell her what's going on.
She tells me.....put an icepack right above the cheek of my butt and leave it for 15 minutes and do that 3 or 4 times a day. She said the ice will shrink the muscles that
are pinching the nerve and free up the nerve....did it maybe 4 or 5 times, and the pain disappeared completely and has never returned . It was killing me for about
a month before I ran into her and it was like a miracle come true.
Don't know if this will work for anyone else, but can't hurt to try !!!!! Good luck, I have felt your pain......
Evans Ward
Love those LC2/ Y56 cars!
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Michael,
Sorry to hear that you have to deal with this. I've had this for about 3 years and had sciatica so bad 2 yrs ago that I couldn't walk for about 3 weeks without immense pain. The MRI is a great step to take to determine involvement. Mine is L 3-5 with degenerative arthritis too. I've used chiropratic before but was reluctant with the lumbar involvement so I went the orthopedic route. I wound up having 2 epidural nerve blocks injected in the affected area. The first didn't give full relief so I had a second about a month later which greatly helped. You may want to ask your Ortho Doc about these as a possible treatment option. Since then, I have good and bad days and have to take pain pills to take the edge off of the pain when over doing it. Surgery is a last resort option for me and I will put it off unless it is absolutely necessary. I really think lifting transmissions and other heavy parts when aging and without proper form/ technique contributes to these problems as well as hereditary factors. I sold one of my cars as a result if needing to scale back and not have more maintainance than necessary. There are also Physical Therapy exercises you may want to try that will help strengthen areas and give you relief. Ask your Doc for a referral to a PT and many have them in house. Good luck and I'll pray for your physical healing.
Sorry to hear that you have to deal with this. I've had this for about 3 years and had sciatica so bad 2 yrs ago that I couldn't walk for about 3 weeks without immense pain. The MRI is a great step to take to determine involvement. Mine is L 3-5 with degenerative arthritis too. I've used chiropratic before but was reluctant with the lumbar involvement so I went the orthopedic route. I wound up having 2 epidural nerve blocks injected in the affected area. The first didn't give full relief so I had a second about a month later which greatly helped. You may want to ask your Ortho Doc about these as a possible treatment option. Since then, I have good and bad days and have to take pain pills to take the edge off of the pain when over doing it. Surgery is a last resort option for me and I will put it off unless it is absolutely necessary. I really think lifting transmissions and other heavy parts when aging and without proper form/ technique contributes to these problems as well as hereditary factors. I sold one of my cars as a result if needing to scale back and not have more maintainance than necessary. There are also Physical Therapy exercises you may want to try that will help strengthen areas and give you relief. Ask your Doc for a referral to a PT and many have them in house. Good luck and I'll pray for your physical healing.
^^This is sound advice. I had bad sciatic pain back in 2001. My back was miserable and the pain shot down to the heels of my feet. I could barely walk. I went through doctors and a chiropractor with no good relief. I ended up going to a really good massage therapist who was also well versed in reflexology and accupressure. She worked the problem from inside the pelvis. It was crazy how far she reached in there. I was pain free within 2 days. Also, if you have a fluffy pillow top mattress, ditch it. I started to have lower back issues like that one and they all started after I got a really nice pillow top. A couple years later my wife and I stepped up to a king size bed and got a Temperpedic mattress. My back has been great ever since. Monthly visits to the chiro and massage therapist help too, but I only started doing that a couple yers ago. I've heard good things about sleep number beds too. If you were in AZ I would have a recommendation for a massage therapist for you.
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