Season is over for me - need some help with Back Injury

[WCB]

Stay the hell away from chiro's!! If you have any real injury they probably will only hurt it more. There is a reason they are not MDs...

I've had 3 back surgeries, shots, therapy and fusions. I have had pain for years. But there is relief!! I have degenerative disc disease and have S1/L5/L4/L3 fused. L2 we are working on now with shots and therapy.

See a real doc...

[Cajun shooter]

I suggest you go get another opinion, I have had great success with my back pain with Airrosti (https://www.airrosti.com/). They are mostly chiropractors, but they don't manipulate your spine, they work on the muscles that are being impacted, along the lines of what Cajun shooter was saying. They can work wonders, its painful, but in the end I think you will get some improvement pretty quick.

If they aren't able to help you then I would go see a spine specialist, sometimes surgery IS the best option.

I've had two spine surgeries and wish I would have found Airrsoti first and then I also wish I would have done the surgeries much sooner, disc replacement in both instances.

I seriously am not trying to be controversial, only informative. Airrosti is not like what I practice, if anything its the opposite. They are basically doing a for of massage (using tools) and/or exercise. They are not systematically and specifically testing all the individual muscles and divisions of muscles throughout the body. Their purpose is to loosen up tight muscles and then try to get you to do exercises to get them to work.

Problem is, if muscles won’t work (neurologically) then exercise is not going to get them to work, but may strengthen the compensating muscles around them. This may to some degree help but it won’t solve the problem. It will eventually come back and maybe get worse.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[OrangeBlood]

take some organic sulfur, helps with inflammation and can relieve some pain.

[kyleseipp]

Kyle this is what I do all day long and have for 20 years. I would typically stay away from this conversation but because you are a long way away from me I don’t think it can be said that I’m trying to drum up business.

First there are muscles in our body who are there to prevent spinal compression. If these muscles don’t work then you dont have the ability to stop the compression yourself. Anything you do to unload the compression is only temporary until you stand back up again. Then gravity will cause the compression again.

Most people aren’t aware of our muscles ability to prevent spinal compression and those that are familiar don’t have the ability to test them to see if they work or not, or get them working if they don’t.

Sooooo I practice something called Muscle Activation Techniques (www.muscleactivationhou.com). This is what we do. Plain and simply, if any muscle in your body can’t do its job, you are going to have dysfunction in that part of your body. Muscles control every part of your skeleton. Not the connective tissue, not the joints, not the ligaments, the muscles.

If you really want to find out why this is happening and resolve it rather than just chasing the symptoms I’d recommend you call one of these guys. I’m not sure how convenient they are for you but they may be able to make a recommendation if they’re not. This is not about exercise! There is no exercise that is going to do what MAT does, and its not painful.
Glenn Haugk
Muscle Activation Fitness
2500 Dallas Parkway
Unit 111
Plano, TX 75093,
214-995-6495

Jake Harden
Muscle Activation Fitness
2500 Dallas Parkway
Suite #111
Plano, TX 75093,
9728006862


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you. This has definitely been on my mind, as far as future prevention. For me in my triage, I am trying to rectify the pain and compression so that I can hone in on future prevention. Thanks for the local recs as well. I will give them a call.

[kyleseipp]

IF it comes down to needing surgery, shoot me a pm and I can recommend a very good neurosurgeon. He did my back in Feb of 2016. Recovery to return back to work on light duty was 6 weeks. 4 level 360 ALIF procedure. Replaced the bottom disks and fused 4 levels. My disks were almost completely gone. There simply was nothing there to speak of and the bones were already starting to calsify and trying to fuse themselves which was causing more pain by pinching the nerves.

Surgery isn't for everybody but if it comes down to it, get it done. Trust me when I say that going through life living in a cloud from the pain meds and constantly worrying that you are going to go down with back pain at any moment is not a way to live. I haven't had to take more than ibuprophene in over a year. It was worth it for me. Only you and a doctor you can trust can decide your best course of action.

Lastly, while I don't have a problem with chiropractors, they have their place, it sounds like you need something more. Good luck, I know your pain. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Thanks for this too. I am definitely working to do all I can to avoid surgery, and certainly some form of preventative care for the future. I have some additional treatments in the next few days so I will update any progress.

[Cajun shooter]

Thank you. This has definitely been on my mind, as far as future prevention. For me in my triage, I am trying to rectify the pain and compression so that I can hone in on future prevention. Thanks for the local recs as well. I will give them a call.

Kyle this not just for future prevention. If you have muscles that will not support your spine, you may never get out of pain. You also may end up having surgery because you’re still in pain. Look up studies of the efficacy of back surgery. The pain most of the time doesn’t go away or comes back some time after surgery. Why? Could it be because the muscular problem was never addressed?

I’m not telling you all this because I want your business, I’m telling you because it’s what I see every day all day long. I just had a woman who flew her 89 year old father in from Little Rock because he had been every other route over 9 months and was still in back pain. After two visits he couldn’t believe how much better he was feeling. Only because we were able to get all his muscles to do what they were meant to do.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CrookedArrow]

I am the poster child for back surgeries. I have ok days and good days. I work, I play, hunt etc.

My neck and upper back are small cross beams of titanium parts. Severe loss of range of motion to turn my head. Numbness, tingling to my left arm. Caught this in time before I was headed as a parapalegic.

Lower back? L4 and L5. I didn't catch that till it was late. Nerve damage to my left leg and I now have a "drop foot" surgery could not correct it but we tried. Watch me walk and you think I limp, its my foot dragging. I have to remind my brain to tell my leg to lift.

Everyday is a challenge but I'm still standing. I lost weight, work out, and keep a postive attitude. Back pain sucks and is one of the leading causes of suicide for men.

Take it seriously and hope you get some good medical help.

[bowsticker]

You should seriously consider getting a steroidal shot or two. It might provide enough relief that you could return to a somewhat normal world with substantially diminished pain.

This..........

[Stoof]

Following along as I am on week 5 of serious pain. Mostly in my lower back and left hip. My usual routine of yoga and exercise has done nothing to relieve the symptoms. Deep tissue massage has done nothing. Very frustrating as I consider myself a fit 43 year old.


-------------------------------
Violence never settles anything
-Genghis Kahn

[Lawhunter]

No help, but I hope you have a speedy recovery

[Kemo Sabe]

I was fixing to get steroid injections, but then back was better. Then doc was going to do facet joint injections and asked how my pain is and I said really not that bad(sciatic nerve/L5 and ddd) so he said physical therapy. But if you do a facet joint injection and it does not work they can do Radiofrequency ablation where they singe the nerve ending supposedly this works long term. I have had degen disc issues for years. When your better yoga will help.

[Burnadell]

Back pain can be debilitating and not much anything is worse. Hate it for you and hope you get some relief!

[kyleseipp]

Quick update -
I stayed with the Chiropractor, knowing that it would not be an immediate fix, and the pain, which was based on the inflammation for sure as well as the mushed discs was still quite bad for a while. My range of motion at the time of my initial post was terrible and over the next few days after that got significantly worse. However, after lot of conversation with her, and hivolt ultrasound, and ice I have finally had that switch-flip moment.

After session 5 of decompression and subsequent ice and biofreeze, I gained a large range of motion back and after session 6, my pain level has subsided immensely. I am more straight up with little to no lean, just need to finish out my decompression sequence and obvious muscle buildup to get level again.

For response to several comments -
I have an inversion table but was advised to not use it during the decompression sequence. That said, when I was just doing adjustments early, early on, the table helped and I can see where it will help after as well. Mostly, it was able to relieve pressure, but again, when I was using it, I was already contorted, so it wasn't a remedy, just relief.

Yoga...yoga has been suggested multiple times, and by multiple people I have spoken with. No leotards are in my future, but will kickoff pretty quick once I gain a little bit more range of motion. Who knew...

Thanks for the feedback again.

[wal1809]

I suffered an injury of the exact same discs. Take everything written here discard it, with the exception of what Cajun Shooter wrote. That is exactly what you need to do. Good luck with the recovery. I was bed bound for 6 months. The only thing that allowed me to even crawl to the kitchen was Lortabs, that is problematic in itself.

[PVDT]

From experience I can say do not wait too long to have surgery. Being a firefighter I was scared to death of surgery because I feared what might happen to my career. Long story short, I waited too long and ended up with nerve damage and deal with pain and sciatica daily. I finally had a laminectomy surgery in 2008 and wished I had done it sooner. Due to my wait, I will always have issues. So please don't wait. If your statement of "10mm" is referring to a 10mm bulge in your L4L5, that is a very significant bulge. I hate to be the pessimistic **** in the conversation, but decompression will not fix that. Find the absolute best surgeon you can find and get it over with. Trust me....you will be glad you did. Before my surgery, I tried absolutely everything. I even tried some non-FDA approved treatments. I wish I had decided to have surgery sooner.