Back Injury Causes Agonizing Pain and Discomfort

[hedgehog]

Hi everyone!
Crikey, where do I start? My life's history is one of back problems. During the twenty years of learning to cope with and treat all these problems I have put together a short document with all my tricks n tips on. It would be too long to post here. If anybody would like a copy, pop your email on a reply and I'll forward it on. Here's just two points, which seem immediately relevant to some of the points made in this discussion :

1) Doctor? Chiropractor? Physiotherapist? Osteopath?

answer - go to ALL of them, maybe just once or twice. I have been
surprised at how biased their approaches are; and I have found that
while none of the above, in general, are true back experts, I have found
that each one is far more knowledgeable than the others in a particular
area, so if you go to all for some advice, you cover the full range of
possibilities and suggested treatments. Taking my visits as an example:

Doctor: Approach: Relied only on the x-ray
Diagnosis: possible spondylolisthesis.
recommended: train myself to sit upright,
do gentle swimming, take painkillers.
Recommended no surgery as I was only 18.
did the tratment work? Kind of got better slowly over 10
years! Glad I didn't go for surgery, I've heard this can lead
to complications in later life.

Osteopath: Approach: feeling all the vertebra and gently moving the
back, feeling further what each joint was doing.
I went to him with upper back pain, and he detected the
(15-year old!) lower back problem just by feel and
manipulation, without me even telling him!
Diagnosis: severe joint stiffness and possible injury scar
tissue build-up.
Recommended: spending as much money as possible on
an ultra high quality soft, independently sprung bed.
Did it work? Definitely. The bed was a HUGE help. Hard
beds being good for back=BS. (Note the new bed benefit
may not be felt for several weeks, but you will notice it.)

(one thing not so good: the osteopath's bone-crunching
manipulation of the stiff joint area worked a treat ONLY for a little
while - I always found the problem came back. Several others
have told me of the same experience.)

Physiotherapist: Approach: tested overall flexibility of back and limbs,
viewed my posture from a distance for several
minutes.
Diagnosis: possible very very slight genetic curvature
of the spine.
Recommended: a program of stretching exercises.

Chiropractor: Approach: looked at my height and skinniness and
nodded in a knowing way.
diagnosis: Too tall, too skinny. The back needs
muscular support to work properly!
Recommended a program of back-strengthening
exercises.
Did it work? No, because the exercises given were
unsuitable for the back's condition.
Was he right? YES, because with GOOD back
exercises building up strength, that I eventually
discovered myself, HELPED ENORMOUSLY.

Reiki : Approach: the laying of hands.
Diagnosis: Back splinting. (super-contraction of
muscles to protect an injury.)
Did it work? I have to say I was, and remain
skeptical, but the injury did seem to get better quicker
after this session. However I firmly believe that if
any undiscovered healing power does exist, then it
is a gift in a small number of people; I do not believe
anyone can 'learn' this stuff. So if you try an
alternative , holistic approach: go by a
recommendation.

so all these 'experts' gave different diagnoses and advice! Moral: get a second, third and fourth opinion, but each time from a different type of specialist, and combine the best advice into a program of treatment that
seems right for you.

2) The one single, best-of-all exercise I have found which helps loads of
different back problems: MINI-DIPS. Grab hold of a dip-bar
(I made one in the yard) and raise yourself to the upper position. Now
go up and down, but only by a few inches each time. So it's a series of
tiny little bounces; you are NOT doing weight-training full-dips.
Not even half-way dips. You need to do MINI-DIPS. This minimizes
injury, strengthens the joints in a safe way and puts the spine through
a series of gentle traction motions. Because mini-dips are so much easier
to do than full dips, you will soon find over the space of a few months
that you will be able to do hundreds of these mini dips at a time.
Then the back muscles will really start to strengthen up, and the back
gets stretched for longer.
This exercise is great for gently building up shoulder and back strength.

Although I was very weak to start with, I could still do 30 or so. To my
amazement some of my overweight friends could not even support
themselves on the bars! If this is the case for you, find a gym that has
an assisted dip machine. These have a platform you can stand on, and
you can adjust the assistance that the platform gives you, but the
exercise will remain the same, and you can build up slowly.

Oh another thing : for lower back problems, if you let your legs hang
LOOSELY on the dip bar (ie it feels as if your lower back is really being
stretched, you will feel what I mean when you try it) then what you can
do is move your legs back and forwards in a walking motion. You can
really feel the lower spine being moved about! I would not recommend
much of this, but it can give immediate relief if your back is poor.

3) As a last entry, and I hope I don't upset all you Americans too much:
DITCH THE CAR. Driving long distances is terrible, long-term for your
back. If you can, take the train or bus or cycle.

- - - -
ok that's it for now, my list has about 30 or so suggestions / treatments on in all, as said post your email and I'll send it to you.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical expert. I am a computer bod. I can script a mean bit of unix and code and deploy advanced j2ee on an oracle application server, but I am utterly ignorant of offical medical training. Take this advice at your own risk! :-)

bye for now ! :-)

 

[Moonbear]

1) Doctor? Chiropractor? Physiotherapist? Osteopath?

Osteopathic medicine and allopathic medicine really aren't that different in terms of actual medical training, and osteopaths can get regular residencies (the residency is what's important to how they approach medicine). Your physician (the "regular" doctor) really shouldn't have relied only on x-rays to diagnose you, but should have also thoroughly examined if the pain was associated with specific locations and movements, felt for abnormalities, etc. Basically, what the D.O. ended up doing for you. (Then again, I was talking with one of the med students today who went to the student health services yesterday for back pain, and was basically given the "take two aspirin and call back tomorrow" answer...of course I told him it's med student hypochondria since they just covered the topic of referred pain, but only joking about that, and instead just suggested he remember how he didn't really like walking out of the office not knowing much more than he went in knowing so he wouldn't treat his own patients that way.)

Physiotherapists can really help with muscle and joint strengthening, but you should only go to those on the referral of a physician who has ruled out any condition that would be worsened by the exercises.

Chiropractors are still quacks. You might feel some temporary relief, but they can also cause a lot more harm than good. But, if your only problem is sore muscles that could be treated with a good massage, they might be helpful...but a massage therapist would be cheaper.

It's a good thing you took the advice to only go for surgery as a last resort. When it comes to back surgery, that's the best approach. If it's seriously hindering your mobility or quality of life, then consider it, but otherwise, it's not guaranteed to help, and you could wind up worse off...so you basically don't want to do it unless you feel that you really couldn't get much worse so it's worth trying and are willing to accept all the risks that go with it (including the possibility of paralysis). If anything else might work, try it first.