back pain

[Lineman North Florida]

I had to have back surgery 2 years ago and boy was it an eye opener for me, I always thought I was invincible but all the years of doing the kind of work I do caught up to me, I had a disc herniate or rupture whatever you want to call it inward and it pinched my spinal column and I was flat of my back for about 5 weeks until they got it all figured out and was able to do surgery, it is an eye opener not to be able to put on your own pants or shoes or set down and get up off the toilet, very humbling. I was offered open back surgery and declined due to the rate of success verses failure, I was able to get in with a place that specialized in neck and back surgery and they did it all arthriscopically very small incision, crippled into the operating room 3 hrs later was able to stand upright and walk out something I was unable to do for over a month prior to this surgery, these people got me back going again, I was afraid after listening to several doctors that I would have to retire and give up the trade I loved, but fortunately my surgery was a success, as mentioned in an earlier post surgeon told me to walk a lot.

 

[2manyrocks]

.

By all means loose the belly. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a 40# bag of cement and carry it around the store while you shop. No difference between the cement and that extra gut you are feeding. Your back has to carry that load at a large offset. The bending moment from the beer gut is huge and responsible for a lot of back deformation.

Agree with the weight loss, but the cement bag therapy ....

 

[dmccarty]

Get the Bone Cracker ASAP.

Like Yesterday.

I first messed up my back putting tile up in the bathroom. I was straddling the tub. One leg in and one leg out. I reached behind me to far and too fast to lay some gunk on the wall and I felt and heard my back pop. I said this is going to hurt.

It did. :drool:

The pain ramped up over the following week. I was holding my right arm over my head which I learned later was a classic symptom of the injury. The wifey want me to go to her Chiropractor. I did not listen to her. A week after the injury I woke up in very bad pain and went to the Doc In A Box. The did Xrays, told me to take Tylonel/Motrin and said go to your Dr on Monday. I did not have a doctor so we started looking and found a nearby sport medicine doctor. Unfortunately Sunday night I felt good enough to take a shower.

I like HOT showers. Guess what? Heat at the wrong time and place can cause you more pain. The shower sent me to the ER at 0200. :confused2: Which was a waste of time since they did nothing.

I found out later that the injury causes swelling. The swelling then causes pain. Which causes more swelling. Which causes more pain. :confused2: This is what happened to me all week. The hot shower set the pain off again.

Eventually, a lifetime it seems, I get to the doctor who gives me pain killer, 800mg Motrin, muscle relaxer, and it seems like something else. All of which took away the pain but put me on the couch out of work for a week. My boss was talking about putting me on short term disability.

I made two mistakes. Well three. I waited too long going for treatment. I went to a MD. And I took a hot shower.

The delay in going to the bone cracker has left me with numbness in my finger tips. The injury caused pain down my right arm and into my fingers. I can over work my arm and have very bad muscle cramps which is due to the injury. I can't throw stuff anymore either. I threw a foot ball with my daughter a couple of week back and the pain almost put me on the ground. The muscles have changed in my shoulder.

A few months after this happened I was laying a retaining block wall to build up an area for our "barn". This was not good. This just made the back pain flare up. I could feel it ramping up and told the wifey to get me an appointment with her Bone Cracker ASAP.

I told her that if they could not help I would be back in the ER by the weekend. The DC took XRAYs and did some tests on a Friday. He told me they would review the results, go home and put ice on my back every seven minutes every hour for as many hours as I could, and come back on Monday. If the pain was bad take some Motrin. I gave him a look like he was out of his mind. :laughing: I was in pain and knew I would be in the ER soon. He saw the look, gave me his card, and said to call if the pain got worse......

I went home and did what he said. The ice pad reduce the pain and swelling. No ER for me. We started treatment and the fixed me up.

Basically with a few over the counter pills and an ice pad. The MDs had me drugged out of my mine and out of work. I could go to work with the DC. And I did.

Years later the back was in pretty good shape.....

And some idiot did not yield at a light and hit us which sent me back to the DC with a messed up neck..... :confused2:

Be careful with heat. It has its place in treatment. Eventually I was doing cold, heat, cold treatments. But heat up front can cause lots of pain. Cold is better.

With the car accident I have done accupuncture, cupping, and massage as well as the DC. They all have worked. And no drugs. No missed work from being ga ga at home from the MD's drugs. Those have their place for sure but you can get pain relieve from an ice pad.....

Go to the DC.

The TENS that Hakim talked about also works. Just be careful dialing in the power. That little 9 volt battery can really shock you. :confused2:

Later,
Dan

 

[955er]

Inversion table. Stretches you right out. It gets me up many days. I suggest the teeter hang-ups. Try one out at the store.

 

[archerm3]

Two Mondays ago, thru the day, I got quite a back pain; lower back. I guess it was a total of shoveling snow, falling down in snow at least 5 times while trimming tree limbs out of drive lane, breaking ice up from concrete walk, riding in rough Dodge pickup and plowing snow in an old 84 Blazer. Monday evening I couldn't walk to bathroom without help. Toughed it out till Tue morn and called doctor to go in. He said go to ER. Spent 2 days there and got all the good tests; MRI, CAT scan, X rays, blood work etc. They said all is OK. However, I still have a lot of pain. Things went good till last nite. While sleeping I moved the wrong way and what pain! I had a big set back. I could hardly walk again.

This morning I sent to Lowe's for one of those back support belts. Believe it or not, I got relief instantly. I have ventured out of house to test this belt out. The pain is there. However, when moving around I don't get those sharp deep pains. I am going to watch what I do, but I'm one of those guys who never learn.

Does anyone out there have some suggestions on ways to relieve pain. I think I just got a pulled muscle in lower right side. Funny though, the doctor never did tell me what happened; even after running the "good" tests. I never did get checked by a doctor that might be a muscle doctor. Go figure.

Cheers...Coffeeman

Sounds like a muscle spasm, you need painkillers and muscle relaxants.

 

[DocHeb]

Just a reminder to all:

There are multiple ways to obtain relief since there are multiple reasons for back pain, running the gamut from muscle strains to arthritis of the bone to degenerative disc disease to herniated discs to compression fractures to metastatic cancer to infections (even tuberculosis) of the spine.

The worrisome signs for significant reasons for back pain (lumbar or cervical):
1. Sudden onset of pain associated with a high-energy mechanism (fall from height, car crash, etc)
2. Midline pain (rather than the muscle pain along the sides of the spine) especially when associated with night sweats and fevers.
3. Motor weakness of the arms or legs.
4. Urinary or bowel incontinence
5. Numbness/pins and needles of your "privates"
6. Loss of sexual function.

The last three are associated with a condition called "Cauda Equina Syndrome", where a ruptured disc pushes on the lower sacral nerves. This is a true emergency, especially if the symptoms are associated with a sudden onset during a high-energy activity. These nerves can't take a joke and can be permanently damaged within hours. I have been asking about the CES symptoms in my back pain patients for 25 years. I saw my first case about 9 months ago when a newly-married schoolteacher was playing basketball with his students. He jumped high and "landed crooked". It caused severe pain, but he played for 5 more minutes because he didn't want to show his students he was hurt. He knew something was up as the pain got worse and he felt like he needed to urinate but "it wouldn't come out", and he also whispered to me that "'it' isn't working any more". He had his MRI within one hour and it showed a complete rupture of the L5 disc backwards into the spinal canal - and it was totally squishing the lower nerve roots. He was on the operating room table within three hours of the injury. The worst part of my day (and he and his sobbing wife's) was warning him that some of the symptoms may persist after the surgery - i.e. "it" might not ever work again.

Please have significant back pain evaluated by a medical physician at least once. Chiropractors can do wonders with muscle and bulging disc problems - not so much with metastatic prostate cancer or multiple myeloma. I would (and have personally) used a PM&R (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) doctor.

 

[Hakim]

Chris,

Wise advice indeed. Thanks for posting.

 

[dave1949]

Great advice DocHeb, but you are taking all the fun out of the rest of practicing w/o a licence

It's certainly helpful to point out that not all back pains are created equal and can be a lot more serious than a layperson could guess.
Dave.

 

[MossRoad]

Yes, very good advice indeed. Thanks.

 

[DocHeb]

I would also like to mention a saying that is often quoted in medicine: "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses rather than zebras". That is to say, common things happen commonly, and rare things happen rarely. A unusual or uncommon diagnosis may take several visits to diagnose, but eventually a good physician will find it. Don't give up after one visit - let the doctor know the first plan hasn't worked and give him a second chance at making the rare diagnosis - rather than jumping from doctor-to-doctor. However, if it appears the doctor has given up, it is a good time to switch.