Hi all. I happened across here by accident but maybe someone can help me figure this mess out. I hurt my back four months ago at work. I have been in nonstop pain. Especially when sitting or trying to sleep. I have had an MRI. The work man’s comp back specialist says he sees nothing wrong over and over again. They put me through work strengthening. I only made it half way through and could hardly walk at the end of each day. My legs were so week it took everything I had to get to my car. After that I went back to him and he said. Yes you are hurt and yes I believe you’re in pain. He sent me to a surgeon. The surgeon said. You don’t need surgery. You need a shot and pain management. Okay… This has turned out to be me being put to sleep and getting an epidural. Scary. Hasn’t happened yet, not till next Friday. Meanwhile I was in pain going to work. Could not take it so I went to a chiropractor. He took an X ray. It shows I have an old fracture that I didn’t know about. When I hurt my back at work that lumber bone gave now it is putting pressure on nerves. Theback specialist says chiropractors don’t count. I still have to have epidural and go back towork full force . Again scared… If I took the X ray to the place that’s giving me the epidural and say this is what you’re dealing with. Would that help me in any way? Feeling so sick from all of this. Anyone out there have an answer for me? Please and thank you.
(1) I wouldn’t trust a chiropractor for anything, at all. Their “medicine” is almost science-free nonsense.
(2) There are things that cause back pain besides bone and muscle injury - certain types of nerve inflammation can be excruciating and have few observable causes. Be sure they are looking for myelitis in the MRIs along with obvious issues, and if you have any long-term infection such as herpes or Lyme, get titred for antibodies. Both (and a number of similar ‘permanent infections’) can cause myelitis-based pain in the back and lower body. If you’re seeing doctors trained physical injuries, they sometimes have to be slapped upside the head to look at non-injury causes.
If it is an infection will then epidural help?
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO. Title edited to indicate subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I don’t feel well at all. I hurt. I have no appetite. I just made myself eat too much to try to get my appetite back. Now I just feel sick to my stomach along with major anxiety over all of this mess. I cry at the drop of a hat. Gonna get real here so if you’re a guy. Run now! I haven’t had a period since I got hurt. 
And I have lost like ten pounds since I got hurt. My size 4s are hanging off my butt…
Amateur Barbarian, despite their popular derision amongst skeptics Chiros are generally trained in biology/physiology as well as MDs are. However, neither can read X-rays that well without special training and at least MDs admit to that.
I am a little surprised that someone hurt only 4 months ago and not progressing would have been put into “work hardening” as we call it around my parts and especially into pain management - which is usually reserved for much longer term and stubborn cases.
What “shots” did the surgeon recommend?
eta: Where do you live, Bfudled? It seems to me that you could use some employment law advice as much as medical.
They just told me it was an epidural that it had steroids and an anti inflammatory.
I’m a guy. My mom put her back out swimming. She was given an injection to relax her back (epidural I think) and after a week or so she was fine.
When I was a kid I had a bad back and went to a chiropractor. I was in agony walking from the train station to school with a heavy bag full of books. I went for 4 episodes of therapy and in each he massaged my back and then ‘clicked’ it; it made a big crack noise but wasn’t very painful. Since then I’ve not had much back pain at all. I get occasional pain in my lower back which is relieved by yoga. Stretching really helps, I do some every night as prep for going to sleep.
Obviously I can’t give you any help about not having periods. I find medical issues last a lot longer than you’d think, given the research and experience doctors have. Hang in there, is the best advice I can give.
So they meant cortisone, probably. It can be the miracle cure, great temporary relief or ineffective.
Time off work would probably be pretty helpful to you regardless. I think you should look into what your jurisdiction allows for paid time off if I were you.
They won’t let me have time off, just light duty which most people would not call light duty at all. Every day I go into work irritates it more and more. I don’t work at a very caring factory. It’s either work or quit and I live alone so I can’t quit.
Where do you live? Many jurisdictions don’t just leave it up to the factory boss to decide how much you should work while recovering from an injury.
Indiana… 
I have called the indiana State work man’s comp board. They can fire me for any reason they want to so I have to comply.
If that was the sum of their help I wonder why your state bothers even having a workman’s compensation. lol. Did you report your workplace injury to them?
Anyways, good luck but I doubt you are going to get better while doing heavy work.
Your problem is that in a lot of states, and mine is the worst (thanks be to Rick with a P Perry) Worker’s Comp has become a scam to save businesses money by not treating work related injuries effectively. I was injured at work 2 years ago and made the mistake of going into Worker’s Comp. I have a great personal physician and she told me it was a big mistake and even if the specialists they sent me to offered to do surgery, which was unlikely because of the expense, not to let them touch me because they were incompetent. You’re going to have to go through the entire work hardening, cortisone shooting, physical therapy (the PT they sent me to worked out of a dirty mini warehouse full of broken exercise equipment) bullshit process and make no waves and then a supposedly independent doctor will examine you and release you from treatment, probably with a 0 disability rating. Then you can change jobs, get some good health insurance, and have your problem taken care of by real Docs who are outside of worker’s comp and really want to see you get well! It’s the 19th century all over again, business owners get rich and the worker gets it in the butt…
I’m learning all of this the hard way. They tell you that you have to report an injury then they put you through the wringer for getting hurt like it your fault you got hurt. If I had known I never would have reported it. :(. Thank you everyone for your replies.
I manage my chronic lower back pain by daily heating and the use of a stretchy, velcro’d back brace. Also lots of lumbar support when sitting.
I’m amazed how poorly some are trained to read X-rays. I had a soccer injury that occurred when the opposing player and I both kicked the ball at the same time. He connected with the knuckle of my big toe and chipped the bone. Horrible pain for months. Original hospital diagnosis was nothing wrong. Had the X-rays sent to my doctor who looked at it and said I chipped the bone. Seemed pretty obvious to me when he pointed it out.
Anyway, the op needs to provide more info to get anecdotal responses of what works.
I’ll give my example. I use to lift weights with my legs (pushing) and would extend the seat back on the machine so I could bench 1100 lbs. No reason for it other than to say I could do it. If you’re short enough just about anybody can lift that kind of weight with the final extension of the legs. It put all that force on the base of my spine and it caught up to me years later. Every once in awhile my back would pop out. found out over time that laying in bed would actually start the process and/or make it worse. I learned that arching my back would help but after refining the technique I discovered that arching just my right side would fix it immediately. Done.
It took years of experimenting to figure this out but stuff like yoga put me on the right path.
Have you talked to your regular doctor about your weight loss, loss of appetite and vanishing period? Because not to scare you, but that all sounds like something a lot more serious than your back pain.