Back Problem Advice Please

In My Humble Opinion
1

Calling all SD’ers with medically treated lumbar back problems. A good friend’s fiancée is going through debilitating back pain. Four years ago, she injured herself in a fall and is experiencing continued discomfort and impediment. They are planning to be married in four months and my friend is deeply concerned that their special day may be marred if she is in great pain or partially disabled by her condition. Here are some of the facts:

The injury occurred from a fall four years ago.

Disk degeneration has progressed since that time.

The problem involves disks at L4 & L5 and L6 is starting to bulge.

There is limited insurance coverage available right now.

She has received therapeutic massage.

She received oral medication for swelling (probably corticosteroids) in the past and discontinued the regimen due to the side effects.

She has received acupuncture.

She has had hot stone and ‘candle’ treatments.

She has received extensive chiropractic manipulation.

She currently relies upon thermal treatment (heating pad).

She is resistant to invasive surgery.

She is against having the discs fused. (a minimum of 3 need to be fused) as this would severely restrict her mobility.

Site injections are the only quasi-acceptable (yet resisted) treatment.

Efficacy of site injection and regimen is a subject of interest.

Periodicity and effectiveness of site injection are prime acceptance criteria.

There is a four month treatment window prior to the marriage.[ul]This is the big issue as there is a limited amount of time and proving out the effectiveness of site injections will take a while. My friend has hopes persuade her to begin this form of treatment soon so that any adjustments in dose or injection site can be perfected before the wedding.[/ul]Noninvasive cures are preferred.

Homeopathic remedies are of extreme interest.

Shiatsu or other manual manipulation is a desirable therapy form despite previous limited results.

Physical therapy is of interest and has been pursued.

All other suggestions are welcome.

Those of you not wishing to disclose personal information here may email my friend directly at bt99plus@earthlink.net. Otherwise, please feel free to post in this thread.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might shed further light on this major problem for my friends.

Zenster

2

Zenster, has she cut caffeine out of her diet? It wont “heal” her back problems at their source but it could help reduce the pain. Anyway it can’t hurt to try.

3

**Shiatsu **!!!**Shiatsu **!!!**Shiatsu **!!!

Coupled with a magnetic cumberbuns you can buy at Brookstone.

My uncle did this after years of toiling and pain. He had a horrible accident when he fell of a ladder.

4

Severely Herniated disk L5 S1 checking in. I also want to manage this non-surgically and have been successfully doing so for almost 5 years. After my regular orthopedic surgeon started suggesting surger, I consulted with an excellent orthopedic surgeon in Chicago who actually went through all the surgical options and told me why they were not good options for me.

Epidural Steriod injections definately helped me. I’ve had about 7 of them total - 3 after the inital problem, 3 about two years later, and 1 last year when things started flaring up again. I’ve had two sets ofphysical therapy, which were generally helpful.

If your friend is motivated enough to do thing on her own, I’d strongly suggest Resist-a-Ball (aka Swiss Ball aka Yoga Ball) training, which emphasized posture and building of abdominal as well as the opposing back muscle. You really need to find a class with a good instructor to learn the basics - tapes are available but they can’t correct you and there are a lot of subtleties involved. I’m also new to Iyengar Yoga, which I also find very helpful. Again, I’d really recomment a class over a video. It also places a big emphasis on posture, and uses props to ease yourself into postures you wouldn’t be able to do without them. Also, I’m a big proponenty of weight training starting with a qualified trainer - I never had an injury and felt a lot better when I was doing this type of work. You can combine hand weight training with the Resist-a-Ball and get a really good workout. Unfortunatley my migraine have prevented me from doing much of anything earlier this year, but they’ve been getting under control so I’m starting Yoga class again next week.

I’ve also found therapeutic massage to be a great benefit (deep tissue type of massage) to my overall well being - I can’t say this helps the disk directly, but it certainly helps the muscles. The massage itself hurts while it’s happening, though - a touchy feely massage that feels great at the time has little long-term benefit for me.

I tried acupuncture, but it didn’t help me.

Some links:
http://www.bksiyengar.com/
http://www.resistaball.com/

Good Luck to your friend!

5

Just a note the the instructor of the Resistaball class I took had two disk fusions in her early twenties and was still in pain. The ball was absolutely the only thing that helped her. It takes some getting used to, as at first you think you’re going to fall off, but it really is extremely beneficial. I can’t overemphasize it.

IIRC, jarbabyj has had excellent results treating her back with yoga when absolutely nothing else helped. I believe she had a thread about this sometime last year.

6

Look up about TENS units as a possible means of pain relief.
Alexander technique can be good at improving posture so that the back is not under so much stress in daily life. If the pain is reduced by heat, an electric heat pad (from Walgreen…) can be great (I have one and it really helps).
Cheers, Bippy

7

Don’t waste your time or money on homeopathy.

Regards,
Shodan

8

I’m probably going to be slapped for posting this but…does she have a good quality mattress? I have back problems that I’ve struggled with since I was about sixteen, and I can say from my experience that a good mattress really does help. If it can be afforded, the coil and spring-less type are the best that I’ve found. I can’t remember the specific names, but you see them on commercials all the time…“The only NASA approved mattress!” and such crap. They really do help ease my discomfort, as I’m prone to have the worst pain in the morning.

There are those who swear by Bryonia alba (herb) for relief. A word of caution: Bryonia is extremely potent, IIRC, and one must be very well-versed in homeopathy in order to mix it correctly.

Good luck to your friend.

9

Hello Again, good point. Stimulants are not going to help this woman’s condition.

Phlosphr, you’re saying your Uncle had good results from a magnetic cummerbund? I’ve seen little supporting literature for magnetics. Rest assured, with the minimal cost it represents, my friends shall probably look into it. Sadly, the shiatsu work was very painful and this gal is gun-shy about continuing a course of it. Then again, the therapeutic massage I had for a neck injury was some of the most painful I’ve ever experienced and it worked wonders. Since this woman is a trained massage therapist, she has the ability to exchange services via professional courtesy. She may wish to resume pursuit of this option.

Porcupine, thank you so much for the detailed post. I’ll be sending my friend the URL for this thread today so he can share it with his lady. The yoga ball sounds great, as it is right up her alley. I can already tell you how grateful my friends will both be for your thoughtful insights.

If you would be so kind, please enumerate the sort of results you got from the site injections and how fast they took effect. Was there any difficulty in determining the correct injection site? Were there dosage issues that had to be adjusted? Was there a lot of pain resulting from the injection itself? This woman has some needle fear and it is of great concern.

If I could ask you for one more favor. Would you please forward the name of your orthopedic surgeon in Chicago to my friend’s email (or mine)? I’m hoping your doctor might refer my friends to a Left Coast colleague of similar skill.

Bibby, I trust by “TENS” you are referring to Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation. Thanks for this lead as there should be a lot of documentation on this method. It is also right up the alley of acceptable pain relief methods my friends are seeking.

Shodan, fear not, as a scientist, I have the greatest difficulty in accepting the claims made by homeopathic ‘medicine.’ However, this situation is urgent and even a placebo effect (if successful) would be better than the current situation.

Again, thank you all. I’ll probably ask my friend to register and post the results of their own investigation into all of your wonderful suggestions. I really appreciate this. All of you may quite possibly help to make their wedding day (and life in general) truly blessed.

With Deep Gratitude,

Zenster

PS: MORE SUGGESTIONS, MORE INFORMATION!!!

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Not at all sure this will help, my back problems are insignificant compared to what you describe, however I have found that swimming has completely eliminated my back pain and stiffness.

11

Email sent, Zenster.

Here’s my experiences with the Epidural Steriod Injections:

The procedure itself varies from slightly uncomfortable to hurts-like-fucking-hell. I’ve found that depending on how much pain I am in to start with, the procedure is proportionally unpleasant. So the very first time I had it, when I was in a tremendous amount of pain to start, it was pretty bad. The last time I had it, when I was only marginally (but persistantly) uncomfortable, the procedure was only uncomfortable. They’re injecting cortical steroids at the site of the inflamation, and it creates a lot of pressure, which is a really strange feeling It generally shoots down your leg, and that’s what hurts. Add to that the fact that you cannot move during the procudure, and it’s not a lot of fun. After all, they’ve got an 8-gauge needle in your back - you really don’t want to be flailing around. The same doctor has done all of the procedures, and he does many of these per week, so I discount the idea that that pain or lack thereof was due to the doctor’s skill.

Generally speaking, they’ve been very helpful. I’ve had pain relief, often significant, within 24 hours. Note that after the initial problem (it wasn’t an injury - it just sort of happened), I was on disabilty leave for 3 weeks, so I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t sit for long at all (I could be horizontal or vertical and be in less pain). I followed up with another shot a week or so later, returned to work part time, and then had another shot perhaps 3 weeks later. I went through physcial therapy, lost 60 lbs or so, and started light exercise (started with water aerobics).

I assume your friend has a recent MRI to work from. If not, I don’t know if anyone will do an ESI.

The ESIs don’t help some people at all, though.

About two years later I had a relapse, partically due to not keeping up with the physical therapy. I ended up on disability leave again, this time for a little over two weeks. Again I had a course of either 2 or 3 ESIs, which again helped significantly. The first one of this serieswasn’t as painful as the first one of the prior series, which I attribute to not being in as much pain to being with, but I could be wrong.

Somewhere around this time I started the weight training with a trainer, and later added the Resista-a-Ball training. The instructor actually goes to the doctor whose name I sent you and she raves about him. He’s not the one who did her (probably ill-advised) spinal fusion surgeries.

I had another minor relapse late last year, which I attribute to getting a new job requiring a 1-hour car commute each way. My back just didn’t like this, and wasn’t adjusting. The ESI didn’t help much in this case, though, but eventually the symptoms seemed to let up on their own. Eventually I took up Yoga, which I think is wonderful overall, not just for my back. I’m looking forward to starting again next week.

If your friend does look for videos for either the Resist-A-Ball or Yoga, the ones at www.gaiam.com are decent. I have the one called Yoga for Back Problems (or something like that) and like it quite a bit. You can usually get them cheaper at a retail store, though. The above-mentioned instructor is planning on putting together a vidoe/DVD, but I don’t think she has actually done it yet. I will email her to check status and if it’s not in the works yet, see if she has one that she specifically recommends.

12

Also, she may want to check out Thai Massage - “Yoga for Lazy People.”

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I had PT for my degenerative disks (lower lumbar, I don’t remember the numbers though) 15 years ago and I have been doing the prescribed exercises religiously ever since. I have avoided surgery by doing this, I believe.

What works for me is a “press up” which is similar to a push up, but you keep your hips on the floor while raising your upper body off the floor with your arms. The idea is to curl your back and spine into a U shape, which increases the distance between the disks.

This works for me, but it may not be right for her. As you may imagine, curling one’s spine in this direction increases the space in the front (anterior) of the disks, but compresses them in the back (posterior). So, the effectiveness of this exercise I suspect very definitely depends on where the disk “pinch points” are on your friend.

So, YMMV and IANAPT, but I would definitely seek out a PT clinic that specializes in lower back problems.

HTH.

14

Thank you all for the information and especially to Zenster for introducing me to this board. I have been working with my fiancée to help this situation.

She stretches daily using a program suggested by the chiropractor and does the one mentioned by Spiff.

Thank you Porcupine for the information on Epidural Steroid Injections. Yes, she did have an MRI done and reviewed by both a doctor and the Chiropractor. Although she is resisting the suggestion of getting the injections, I believe it is the only solution to help break the cycle of pain. If she can get some release, then the massage might be able to unlock the muscle spasms. Once the muscles release, then PT will be more effectivet.

QueerGeekGirl, I think I know the mattress that you mentioned. I had some doubt about it figuring that it would be too soft. Could you give me more feedback on how it helped?

Thank you all again
WhoopsterQueerGeekGirl Porcupine Spiff Zenster

15

Having had problems myself in the past, I would recommend the following:

Do not see a chiropractor.
Try seeing an Osteopath. They are MD’s who work along the lines of chiropractic, only it’s different and people are having wonders happen with this type of care. I wouldn’t see anyone else, I have been doing very well since my treatment.

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I think QueerGeekGirl is speaking of the Tempurpedic. It’s made of the foam used on the Space Shuttle to protect the astronauts from the G-Forces during liftoff. The company licensed the substance from NASA through their Technology Transfer program.

My brother had the Tempurpedic pillow and it was amazing. it would be inaccurate to describe the substance as “soft.” It’s actually kind of firm. Imagine the forces it has to resist during liftoff and you’ll realize it is not “soft” as in down-pillow-no-support soft. It’s just very maleable. But firm.

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Outtasight, you’re here Whoopster!

Again, everybody, many thanks to all of you for the input.