Back pain...

[Lloyd_E]

Lloyd, sounds very similar to what I experience. If I hurt on the left side, the left leg tingles or the toes even go numb, but the pain at the lower spine is intense. Same for the right.
I finally went to a spinal surgeon and he said (posted early in this thread somewhere) I have onset of early Stenosis, likely due to poor lifting habits or early damage such as you elude to. So far he has told me to deal with it best we can without surgery, best thing he has done so far is had the Physical Therapy dept put me on a "body/back " stretcher, that gives me immediate relief and last several weeks.

Next recommended is the "shots", as some of the posters here have mentioned then surgery, but as he said and (several guys here have had it), the surgery is procedures now are much better.

When those nerves get agitated, it can be a nightmare. I have had day's where I can only sit in one way, If I stand in one position for a while it starts. Strange thing is, if I stay moving and not in the same stance, i do quite well.

Western.

Bang on! You nailed it. It's exactly how I feel. I did see the osteopath today and she did some different work methods. Actually tried acupuncture - 5 needles I believe. One hit the muscle nerve-painful but manageable.

I have been working on a project all day at my desk/computer. I actually feel less pain than yesterday. Hopefully this will work.

Are you still icing your back? It works for me. NO heat - it only inflames the muscle/nerves.

lloyd

 

[dmccarty]

Western.

Bang on! You nailed it. It's exactly how I feel. I did see the osteopath today and she did some different work methods. Actually tried acupuncture - 5 needles I believe. One hit the muscle nerve-painful but manageable.

I have been working on a project all day at my desk/computer. I actually feel less pain than yesterday. Hopefully this will work.

Are you still icing your back? It works for me. NO heat - it only inflames the muscle/nerves.

lloyd

With the neck pain from the car accident I did acupuncture and cupping. Both relieved the pain for hours. Cupping is when they put little shot like glasses on your back and heat them up. The heat causes a vacuum and pulls the skin into the cup. It actually hurt a bit at times but I was without pain for hours. Go figure.

I told the first bone cracker that if he said running around the house, counter clockwise, under a full moon, singing Yankee Doodle Dandy would get rid of the pain, I would try it.

HEAT at the wrong time can MESS you up. I would use a different word but TBN is Family Friendly. I found this out the hard way and the easy way. Unfortunately in that order.

With the first injury I was really in pain a week after the back went POP. I woke up Sunday morning and could not take the pain any longer so I went to the Doc In A Box. They did XRays, wrote me up for 800mg of something, told me to see my doctor, what doctor I ain't got no doctor, and sent me home. :laughing: The 800mg of Motrin? must have worked because Sunday night I was feeling a bit better. Still in pain but better.

Figured a nice long hot shower would help....

Figured wrong.

Took the shower at 10:00pm. At 2:00am I was driving myself to the ER with my arm held over my head. Figured if I got pulled over it was going to look real bad. :laughing: The ER was a waste of time and money since they did NOTHING but right a script for 800mg of Motrin.

The next day the doctor hooked me up with he real pain meds.

But, there has to be a but, the wifey thought as did I, that a heating pad would help. Oh lordy NO. It took awhile to figure out that HEAT was NOT the thing to do to relieve pain.

With the next injury and my trip to the Chiropractor they specifically told me NO HEAT until much later in the treatment. Months into treatment they had me use ice, then heat, followed by ice. Each was on the back for something like five minutes. Heat causes inflammation which can be good or can be bad. In my case, early in the treatment, heat was painfully bad.

The first bone cracker moved out of town to be closer to family so we found a new Chiropractor. The new guy told me the same thing about heat during my third injury.

Later,
Dan

 

[timster2]

When those nerves get agitated, it can be a nightmare. I have had day's where I can only sit in one way, If I stand in one position for a while it starts. Strange thing is, if I stay moving and not in the same stance, i do quite well.

Same here, I can sit and work and the pain is manageable. Can't walk through a shopping mall but I can walk through any store leaning on a shopping cart. There are a few things that I can do and can't explain why. I can use my log splitter for hours but can only use the chain saw for a few minutes. I was pleasantly surprised recently when I took a cruise with the wife, the constant motion of the ship actually helped my back stay loose and in a lot less pain than I expected. As long as the ship was moving I was happy.

 

[Western]

I have only iced my back a few times since when it hurts the worst, is when I'm at work or otherwise not in a place to use ice. If I use heat, it is a full body "tub". Since localized heat brings in blood to an injured area and made which feels great for about 10 minutes, but then.....

My back is strong, it's those pesky little nerves at the bottom. When the nerves gets agitated, the muscle around it tightens, that in-turn puts more pressure on the nerve, it is "round and round" .


As Tim said, I can split wood all day walk, hike, but just stand their or do something repetitive, I'm looking for trouble

Dan, I haven't considers Acupuncture, well, not in the "professional" sense. I have been known in times of Pain, to tell my wife to get the "wire cutters"

Backstretching really works, that said from a serious skeptic, $19 a session at the Surgeons office, or you can by one for the home. I haven't tried the "hang-by your heels" but hear good about them too.

 

[foggy1111]

When my back was pretty bad I thought that heat would relieve the ache.....and it did for a little while. But I quickly learned that ice packs were my friend. Ice does more to relieve back inflammation than any other treatment in my experience.

Before my surgery...there were times I literally had to slither on the floor, in agony, in order to get to the bathroom.....and could barely make it onto the toilet. At times the pain was unbearable. When pain and numbness are going down your leg.....I would not be spending much time with chiropractic. IMO that's the time for a specialist. Some of that nerve damage may be irreversible.

 

[dmccarty]

I have only iced my back a few times since when it hurts the worst, is when I'm at work or otherwise not in a place to use ice. If I use heat, it is a full body "tub". Since localized heat brings in blood to an injured area and made which feels great for about 10 minutes, but then.....

I think this is why the Chiropractor had me ice, then heat, then ice again. I only did this after the pain had greatly subsided after months of treatment.

Dan, I haven't considers Acupuncture, well, not in the "professional" sense. I have been known in times of Pain, to tell my wife to get the "wire cutters"

Backstretching really works, that said from a serious skeptic, $19 a session at the Surgeons office, or you can by one for the home. I haven't tried the "hang-by your heels" but hear good about them too.

I only we could use the wire cutter to cut the pain. That would be easy! :laughing:

With my first injury to my neck the bone cracker sold me this neck do hickey. The thing was U shaped, was folded up like the bellows on an Accordion, and had a little hand pump. You put this thing on your neck and squeezed the hand pump which filled up the bellows which in turn expanded you neck.

This would pull your neck bones apart and relieve the pain a bit. It really helped. I was supposed to do this quite a few times during the day so I had to take it to work. At the time I was working with a dozen or so people in an open environment. My coworkers loved to watch me stretch my neck. They got a good laugh out of the little exercise I had to do multiple times a day to relieve pain.

What was funny was how many people wanted to help pump the thing up to stretch my neck! :laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

When my back was pretty bad I thought that heat would relieve the ache.....and it did for a little while. But I quickly learned that ice packs were my friend. Ice does more to relieve back inflammation than any other treatment in my experience.

Before my surgery...there were times I literally had to slither on the floor, in agony, in order to get to the bathroom.....and could barely make it onto the toilet. At times the pain was unbearable. When pain and numbness are going down your leg.....I would not be spending much time with chiropractic. IMO that's the time for a specialist. Some of that nerve damage may be irreversible.

Yes on the ice! :thumbsup:

The bone cracker can only do so much. Then it is off to a specialist or surgery.

I have numbness in my fingers from my first injury. I don't think the damage was from the initial injury but in the length of time it took to remove the inflammation with drugs. There was no pain for a day or so after I got hurt. But as the days went on the pain got worse and worse. I think that is where I took the damage.

They wifey has had two shoulder surgeries due to a car accident. Before and after the surgery she was doing PT per the Doc as well as acupuncture and some other things at the Chiropractor. The Doc was perfectly ok with this. Before we left the recovery room the wifey was hooked up to a TENS unit to relieve pain. We have had one for years from the bone cracker. Dang thing works. Just don't hit the power wheel by accident. :laughing:

For people who don't know about a TENS Unit, Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is a box about the size of a pack of smokes that holds a little itty bitty 9 volt battery. There are two wire that each have two pads. You put the pads around the area that has pain and SLOWLY turn on and crank up the power on the TENS unit. The TENS unit shocks the site of the injury and really helps reduce pain. You can wear the TENS unit on your belt. This is good. This is bad. It is easy to hit the power adjustment wheels on the TENS which will rock your wheel. And not in a good way.

The TENS unit really has helped us reduce the pain. It is another tool in pain relief.

Later,
Dan

 

[Depmandog]

.....,

For people who don't know about a TENS Unit.......

It is a box about the size of a pack of smokes that holds a little itty bitty 9 volt battery. There are two wire that each have two pads. You put the pads around the area that has pain and SLOWLY turn on and crank up the power on the TENS unit. The TENS unit shocks the site of the injury and really helps reduce pain. You can wear the TENS unit on your belt. This is good. This is bad. It is easy to hit the power adjustment wheels on the TENS which will rock your wheel. And not in a good way.

The TENS unit really has helped us reduce the pain. It is another tool in pain relief.

Later,
Dan

Several years back, my ortho surgeon wanted me to purchase a TENS unit. He gave me the name of a rep. I called him, asked how much this TENS unit was (we have 5k deductible). He said the price was $3100. I thought to my self - holy smokes that's high.

A few days later, I visited my chiropractor. I was telling him the Doc had prescribed a TENS, but I didn't think I was going to purchase it because of the price. He excused himself, came back im a few minutes with a thin catalogue, thumbed a few pages then said "Do you think this would work?" A TENS unit for less then $200!!! Looked just like the one the rep was trying to sell me!

I had the Chiro order it in, he didn't charge may any markup, and two days later - I had a TENS unit!!! You can bet the next time I saw that ortho I gave him a piece of my mind!! I told him there is no reason he couldn't order the same thing my chiro did, and save everybody some money.

I have have an internal stimulator now, so I don't use the TENS unit too often. But it was money WELL spent.

Dan I am curious about your neck stretcher. Do you have a pic you could post? That sounds like that would feel might good some days.

 

[Depmandog]

I found this neck stretcher for $30 plus shipping. Is this like yours Dan?

http://www.neckstretcher.net/

Looks like this would be the ticket!!
Thanks!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

End of last year, I finally was diagnosed with Stenosis. After several years of light to moderate and sometimes severe pain, it was nice to find out what it was. It is a PITA, literally, when your lower back gets messed up.

Good thing is Doctor said at this point it is manageable, I.E. no surgery, that was probably one of the biggest factors in why I neglected to see a surgeon sooner. I have heard SOO many horror stories about back surgery, but the surgeon said
"those day's" are pretty much over with all the new technologies now.

Treatments right now are an occasional "stretching" (totally awesome) Steroid injections, (haven't done that yet) and of course the "knife" ( don't want to).

Last 3 day's been laid up and all I did was take the wife fish'n:thumbsup: Better today, actually got out and watered the flowers.

I am only a "hard" 48 years old, doc said I have really overworked my back and he see's that more now day's in the younger folks, used to be nothing to grabbing 2 square bales and head for the trailer.

Word to the wise::: Take care of your back and pay attention on how and what you lift, it "aint " worth the drama to be a tough guy when you start getting older.

I understand your fear of having back surgery but your doctor is right. The horror stories are mostly a thing of the past. In your situation you are lucky in that you can do your research and find the best doctor available if it does come to the point where you need surgery. When I broke my back I didn't really have much time to think it over. I was flown directly to ECMC (which is the Erie County Medical Center). The neurosurgeon on staff at the time ended up being a good one. He went over all my options and gave me plenty of time to decide what to do. I was there 7 days before we actually did the surgery. My pain is only from pushing myself too hard. I don't have chronic back pain. In fact, I actually have less back pain now then before I broke my back. I not only take things a little easier but I also do things smarter and with less stress on my body. So if it does come down to it just take your time, ask lots of questions, get a second opinion and find the best doctor your comfortable with and hope for the best.