Apparition

Did "something" to my lower back on December 1st. Been in continual agony ever since.

Seen two Drs. Neither told me what exactly I have done. Gave me painkillers, which don't even touch it. And anti inflamatorys which I really don't like taking but do for a week or two at a time.

Anyone have any helpful suggestions?

My brother says I should walk in to casualty and ask for an x-ray.

It really isn't getting any better and today is total hell on wheels!

Simes777

Find a Chiropractor or Osteopath in your area.

I've had lower back problems - self inflicted due to playing Squash - for years and they always put me straight again.

Redkop

Try going to see a Chiropractor, people I know with back problems, don't even bother going to the Docs now.

blueone

Months down the line be prepared for the dredded *twinge* If you handle the spasm wrong it can set it all off again. Best thing is when you feel it coming on, is to just not tense up, slowly correct your posture and relax and it should be ok. I use to get the twinge and tense up straight away from fear of the ****ing pain returning. This was counterproductive as it just set my back off again and I would end up laid up for 2-3 weeks at a time. Now I have learned that it is a warning sign to stop what ever has caused the *twinge* be it lifting, streching funny or slouching.
If you have been suffering continualy for this long then I would make a point of having proper investigation via a MRI scan carried out. You will have to fight to get an MRI scan as they cost quite a bit I beleive and the NHS don't like paying for them. I think this is the only way to get a proper diagnosis of what is causing the problem. I would not wish this pain on anyone so good luck.

Apparition

Thanks guys.........Blueone I know what you mean about tensing up, very easy to fall into that trap.
I've been doing McKenzie exercises, find the first "panic" exercise is the best. Lie on your front flat on the floor, relax the lower back area and just lie for a few mins. Its very effective.
Just making me soooooo miserable that its lasting so long and I think an xray at least is in the pipeline now.
Thanks once again.

Apparition

PS Scared to death of chiropractors, went to one early on and came home bruised and in lots more pain.

little'un

iTrader: (9)

Ever since a bike accident 3yrs ago, I've had horrendous problems with my back and 5 days out of 7 I'll be walking stooped over like some old lady and I''m only 30. I'm on two different lots of extra strong painkillers for the pain and the only thing that seems to help occasionally is a stinking hot bath. It gets aggravated even more now when I try and take the dog for a walk and I even have trouble cleaning the car as I'll suffer for it by the evening.

I had the independant medical report for the accident and walked in bent over and it's quite embarrassing cos people have to wait for me to catch up. He got me a normal xray there and then and found that the last two lumbar vertebrae are badly worn. He's referring me for an MRI scan.

Can they tell when the damage was caused? he wants to find out if it was caused by the accident.

Lins

blueone

I'm no Dr but I think that they can tell the age of an injury by the scar tissue etc. I don't think they can say ten years later that it happened on the 3rd Tuesday in Septemeber but I think they can give a general indicator as to the age of an injury by the speed that the body is known to take to try and repair itself. If some injury happened twenty years ago and you was to say it was 3 years ago then yes I think they can determine the difference. If some accident agrivated an old injury you never had pain from and that you was unaware of it. I'm not sure they could dismiss a claim 100%, they may split the difference and try and lesson the payout. Badly worn means to me that it was a continuous process and not a single specific injury which *damaged* the vertebrae. Remember I'm no Dr and could be talking total poo here! Any Dr's on the BBS confirm how they tell when an injury occured?

little'un

iTrader: (9)

Blueone

just as a note, if it was there before then, yes I agree it may have aggravated it in the the accident and the way I've been walking. My knee cap etc was shattered and I don't walk correctly. I never had problems like this before it my life. It does get quite depressing some times.

If anyone has any info, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
Lins

SteA

No they wont be able to tell the age of the injury by scar tissue, its very difficult to actually diagnose the injury in the first place, never mind how old it is


Apparition; Hard to say without actually seeing you, but its unlikely that an xray will show anything. It may however be worth visiting casualty if you are in constant severe pain, and it is definitely worth visiting casualty if you have any unusual bladder/bowel problems or muscle weakness (eg tripping on you foot because you cant lift it clear of the ground as you walk).

Do go and see someone though, if not a chiropractor, then a good musculoskeletal physio, but make sure you tell them that you are apprehensive and explain what happened previously.

Where abouts in the country are you?

Sbradley

Apparition, I have a brilliant Osteopath whom I would recommend without hesitation if you're anywhere within sensible striking distance of North Kent.

PM me if you want more info.

S(imon)B

Leslie

Sorry to hear about your back Apparition, I hurt mine a lttle while ago through shifting bags of coal. If you are lucky if may go off again, mine is improving slowly. The colder weather always makes you more susceptible to it happening again too. Just have to rest it and not try too much for a while.

If it does not improve, then I think it is good advice to see a chiropracter.

Hope it gets better soon

Les

David Lock

Following might be worth looking through.....

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...t=chiropractor

Good luck, DL

Apparition

Awww you are all so good. Many thanks for all the input.
I'm in South Lincs SteA. I shall probably try a local physio soon.
The most annoying thing about this now, is the residual sciatic pain down my right leg into the area under the ankle bone. I'm trying so very hard NOT to walk with a limp. And I do take on board all the above helpful comments and appreciate there are those out there far worse off. Littl'un I wish you some success somewhere along the line.
Leslie, Thats just how this has probably happened. I used to own and run a little old fashioned hardware shop and was constantly lugging around 25Kg sacks of coal and salt. Now I've given that up and moved to new pastures and relaxed... this is the kick back no doubt !
You have all given me hope that it WILL get better one day and I just have to be patient ! Ta x

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

i damaged my back early jan and back to about 90% right, the sciatic pain is a real **** ain't it?! my spinal pain is all but gone, but the nerve pain in my leg is still giving me jip every now and again.

4 sessions with an osteopath have at worst straightened my spine back to where it should be (had a nice curve on it and my pelvis was on the **** giving me one leg longer than the other) which should at least give me a fighting chance to ward off further back damage.

not entirely sure the osteopath cured the pain though, this seems to have got better thru time and rest (as much as possible that is with work etc) coincidentaly my sciatic pain has been relieved a little with taking anti inflamatorys i had left over when i did my back in last year. this was around october and it took untill xmas for the sciatic pain to go

in short, see an osteopath as he/she may well be able to correct something which will hopefully stop you from injuring yourself again, but don't expect a miracle in regards to your pain.

*all based on my own experiences, it may well be my osteopath is an *****

Apparition

You can say that again about that sciatic pain...am sitting here now in total agony... painkillers just don't touch it and the anti-inflams aren't doing much either....... its like toothache multiplied by thousands.
The only comfort at the mo. is reading all these threads and the linked one, I'm chuffed to have got to 53 without this happening. Some poor devils on here have had it happen at 28 & 30...... Jeez I'd be mortified if I'd had this back then.
Well tomorrow I decide between a physio or osteopath.

SteA

Try and go to see someone who will also assess your nervous system, as well as just treating local problems in your spine as you would probably benefit from some neural mobilisations (note the mobilisations, which means in your case they should not be neural stretches, but rather in a comfortable mid range). You could try some simple neural mobes now, in sidelying, with a pillow between your knees and painful side uppermost. Have your hips and knees flexed about 45 degrees. Slowly straighten your knee of your top leg and at the same time point your toes. Stay in a comfortable range, do not go so far that you feel pain or tightening and do about 10 repetitions, have a rest then repeat x 10 another 2 times. Do several times during the day, gently and must not cause pain. In the meantime look after yourself, keep active as long as its not making your pain worse and maintain the most comfortable positions for you the majority of the time, which is frequently not sat at a computer eg lye on you side instead of sitting when watching tv if thats more comfortable. If you feel really sore first thing in the mornings and have real problems bending forward to put socks on etc then try staying a bit more upright till things loosen a little, eg wash with flannel instead of bending over sink, get someone to help put socks on etc. I hope you get stuff sorted.

Cheers

Steve

Apparition

David Lock is an angel from up there somewhere......... he's sent me some exercises to do, and already within 24hrs I'm feeling a difference.
Thank you everyone for all your advice. Can't tell you what a releif it is to get some freedon from pain.
Cheers. Yve

OllyK

Wise to be so. There are some that provide a similar service to a physio, but Chriopractors are not medically trained in the normal sense. Do some reading, the origins are based on a belief in a supernatural things called subluxations (which given the same patient different practitioners find in different places). If your chiropractor starts mentioning those or long time spinal manipulations, get up and walk. If they suggest you see a GP first etc etc, then you will probably be OK.

Osteopaths did have Quack beginning but they shook that off a long time ago and have moved forward under a scientific banner. Given the choice, go to them first!

David Lock

Ah shucks

Great to learn of some improvement.

SteA

Apparition,

Cool it will get better.........

David,

Just curious, which exercises did you send?

David Lock

Nothing earth shattering - just a tip I had been given in similar circumstances. It may all have been coincidence but the good thing is the young lass is in less pain.

SteA

definitely, but I'm curious now, what was the tip........... I tend to give patients exercises based on their presentation, but there are lots of exercises that tend to work generally. I'm always interested in exercises etc I may not have come across.....

Apparition

YOUNG LASS !!!!!! WOW you REALLY Have made my day now....(Look at my reply of yesterday at around 17.19)

David Lock

Te-he. Yep I did see Post 16 so I just put that in to make you smile Still a kid to me though!!

David Lock

You are obviously a pro and I'm not so am a bit reluctant to comment. All I suggested was lying face down on bed or floor on tummy and moving one knee at a time upwards with leg still touching floor so that knee was as high as it could go i.e. near thigh/tummy (leg now bent) and using hand behind knee and pulling upwards. This effectively slightly stretches the spine thus relieving disc pressure on sciatic nerve. Let me stress this was just something that helped me so not a recommendation or anything. I think sleeping on a firmish bed is also very important for long term benefit. If you think this is dangerous advice then please say so. I also said do not do this if it hurts too much. David

Sorry don't know how to do 2 quotes in one message

SteA

Cool, patients are often the biggest source of inspiration and guidance for therapeutic exercises and quite frequently all it takes is a bit of non harmfull movement to get things moving in the right direction, which the above exercise is for many people

Brit_in_Japan

A bit of a generalisation I grant you, but GP's too often treat symptoms and not the underlying cause, hence the prescription for painkillers and anti-inflamatories. You really have to be careful with anti-inflamatories too, usage can cause gastic problems.

Physiotherapists can be exactly the same. I had a problem with shin splits for a year and had numerous treatments from 2 different physios who failed to cure the problem. It was only the third which took the time to identify the underlying cause (new boots) and cured the problem permanently.

IMHO it's better to find someone who tries to identify and correct the underlying cause, not just treat the symptoms. When I had a cricked neck someone recommended I see someone who had sorted them out when many others in both conventional medicine and other chiropractors had failed. This lady was a fully qualified chiropractor and physiotherapist. She manipulated my vertebrae very very gently by just a few mm. I was in pain and spasm initially but then it all seemed to click into place and I never needed to go back to her.

Good luck.
BIJ

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I first hurt my back in the eighties when I was doing lots of heavy digging and chainsaw work. During the nineties it got so bad that on some days I had trouble walking so I went to see an osteopath initially then, someone recommmended a chiropractor. After about six months with the chiropractor the pain had all but gone and it felt fantastic so I stopped going and enjoyed a fairly long period of no back pain. Then, gradually during the next 10 years it got worse and worse again.

Last year after suffering from recurring bouts of sciatica and constant back pain which was getting worse I decided to do something about it and went to the doctor. He referred me to a specialist who sent me for an MRI scan which revealed some damaged and worn discs in my spine. The consultant was concerned that I may have developed arthritis so I was actually quite relieved to find out it was only damaged discs

I've now been having physio for nine weeks which has helped enormously and, for the last three weeks my phyiso has also been treating me with medical acupuncture. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful acupuncture is. It has made a huge difference, I'm absolutely staggered. I love it - acupuncture rocks I've got my last session (as paid for by my health insurance anyway) next week and I'm gutted. It's definitely something I'll keep up I'm still suffering with back pain but it's not waking me up in the night so much now and, when it does hurt (for instance if I've been out walking with a rucksack on all day) the pain goes off fairly quickly compared to how it used to be.

My advice to anyone with back problems is don't leave it thinking it will go away, I left mine for 20 years before getting it looked at properly. I could've saved myself years of pain and further damage if I'd have got it sorted earlier

Sal

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

One of the great things about internet forums eh?