Doc's....shot of my back...opinions

[madmmac]

The x ray was taken at the University of Washington Sports and Spine Center. The Dr who I saw was not a surgeon, but a rehabilitation specialist. His thought was no surgery would help.

No recent injury for the cause. But, in the last year I have had 4 episodes of a lot more pain than my daily/nightly normal. Like when you look at your socks or underwear and wonder how you will ever get them on.

I am 55. Yes, my lower back muscles are pretty much in spasm 24/7.

No, I was not in Nam'.

I was in PT for 3 months in my last bad episode. Traction, stretching, ab work, and I even tried some acupuncture. I have a EPI tens device that I wear when things are very bad and I sometimes take a muscle relaxer before I go to bed to hopefully help with some sleep.

Yes, I can only sleep on my sides and I use a pillow between my legs, knees bent and brought up, another pillow to my chest and hug and another under my head.

No chiropractor due to 1 cervical rupture and another bulging disc below it. Doc said I could become paralyzed if they did something wrong. I had only went 2x.

Mark Henry, good catch on the possible kidney stone. They thought it may be a calcium build up on the aortic. A calcium heart count and stress test ruled that out. So yes, it is probably a kidney stone....F....

Thanks for the inspiration.

P.S....my wife tells me I'm FOC all the time.

Thanks again.

[Tobra]

If your spine has that much scoliosis, you almost certainly have a functional limb length discrepancy, lift in the short side might help

That looks worse than mine did the day after my car wreck

[pavulon]

I'd ask to see a spine surgeon (or three) and then a pain specialist...perhaps you already have. If so and you truly are at the end of options, I'd say you have a legitimate reason to smoke as much marijuana as you want.

[MRM]

Mitch, I'm not a doctor but I've played one. I am a lawyer and I used to do a lot of personal injury defense work. I know enough about the spine to fool MDs for quite a while as long as we stick to that. Anyway, I've seen a lot of scans and I have to say I've never seen a worse spine in my life, including people with pretty serious car accidents with documented orthopedic injuries. My first impression was that you might have gotten the scan at a sub par place and you needed to get another one done to show your real situation. I didn't think that you were a surgical candidate and am glad to hear your docs don't think so either.

You don't need me to tell you that you have one bad back there. Seriously, you are a statistical outlier. I can't give you any medical advice, but I can tell you the things that I have seen help people over my years of talking to people who have sustained back injuries.

Physical therapy is the first and obvious choice. PT is a broad term, but you need something that has an active exercise program. You can't do just passive modalities. To the extend that you possibly can, you need to build up your muscles to compensate for that poor twisted spine. In addition, if it provides you with comfort, do the TENs therapy and massage. Don't be shy about taking anti inflamatories and pain meds. They help quiet down the spasms and that's what you need to have happen. Pain meds were invented to block the pain. Let them do their job. Don't get addicted, but don't suffer needlessly. Massage can be very helpful, as can various forms of passive PT. I think one term is scaling, where the PT sticks his fingers deep into the fascia and stretches is manualy. I did that, along with active exercises, and found wonderful relief. Work on your posture. Bad posture is a cycle where it causes pain, which causes splinting, which causes spasms, which cause pain, etc. Try as hard as you can to observe good posture. Get your gait checked out. Make sure you're walking correctly, get orthodics in your shoes if necessary. Back backs can cause serious gait issues, which then cause serious back issues.

Your MD is right about staying away from chiros. A blown disc could kill you and high velocity chiro adjustments can blow the damaged disk. If you don't have direct disk impingment on the cord or a nerve root, you're not a surgical candidate anyway. But do make sure you get some MRIs and follow up with both an ortho and a neuro specialist who have particular expertise with backs, and extra special subspecialties in scoliosis.

Best of luck. Let us know how it goes and what works best for you.

[madmmac]

Originally Posted by MRM

My first impression was that you might have gotten the scan at a sub par place and you needed to get another one done to show your real situation.

The x-ray was taken at the University of Washington Spine and Sports Medicine. It is a very highly respected medical community in a number of fields.

I thank you for the other information and insight.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally Posted by kevinp73

i can tell you're not a lawyer, i can see a spine.

lol

[NY65912]

I've had a bad back for over 30 years. I had a double laminectomy (L3-4 & L5-S1) in '94, and was never right. When the nerves get irritated they cause the muscles to go into spasm to protect it. I have used an anti-spasmodic called Zanaflex and had very good results.

I've done TPI's, trigger point injections into the focus of the spasms and they helped a great deal. Myofascial release massage is a huge relief. The muscle gets little knots and then the whole muscle follows it into spasm. My docs have told me that muscle pain is one of the worst pain you can experience.

Back in June I started a series of PRP injections. The docs concluded that the ligaments were damaged from repeated injuries and surgery and that they needed to be tightened. The PRPs did the trick. I can now do things I would not have even dreamed of a year ago for fear of being down for a week or two.

Try heat and ice, 20min on/20min off and a muscle relaxant. Movement is good after a few days of rest, but go gradually. Stretching slowly as well. Massage is the greatest in my opinion. I have a TENS unit and it really did not do anything for me.

Good Luck, I know your pain. PS...a chiro screwed me up big time. I should have sued the bastard!