Back spasm.....AAAARRRGGHHH!!!

[MotF Bane]

No, that pretty much provokes the hell out of these things, usually resulting in the triggering of additional spasms.



$$$

Time to finally find myself a doctor in this area I suppose.

I don't know your financial situation, but dollars now, or your long-term health?

 

[Jeff7]

I don't know your financial situation, but dollars now, or your long-term health?

Well see.....I'm cheap too - that was a pre-existing condition, and it wasn't helped by 4 years of college. :awe:
But yeah, I'll see how things are doing in the morning, and take it from there. Do I just look for "Doctors" in the Yellow Pages?

A doctor and an MRI might be nice though, if only because I'm just curious now.
The pain's gone down to a level I'd typically associate with being a normal back spasm - a dull ache that will twinge a bit when I move slightly, or breathe too deeply. But the idea of a herniated disc is just too icky to forget.
Though I guess if that were the problem, I'd probably be laying on the floor in pain, and not sitting here typing. That sounds like it'd be a considerably more painful thing, and my pain threshold is pretty pathetic.

 

[eits]

Well....and I don't want to summon Godless' wrath into this thread, but I'm kind of "jury's out" on the chiropractor thing. My sister had chronic migraines for years, and went to a chiropractor. I don't know if it was the placebo effect or what, but it seemed to help - for the first few appointments. Then it stopped doing anything, despite the constant "corrections." She tried others, to no effect. I don't know what she does for the headaches now though.
My mom's experiences with chiropractors were similar - they just kept scheduling more and more appointments, but they didn't seem to do much of anything.

Granted, there are doctors who specialize in various areas of the body, and I'm sure the back needs attention; there's just a fair amount of snake oil that's gotten mixed into the practice over the years. "Sure, come see a chiropractor to take care of your pain problems. Oh, but you'll need to keep coming back over and over and over and over again."

On that note, I think the ibuprofen is wearing off, or else my back is finally tiring of this chair. Time to stand up again. Mr. T, tell me another story about pain.:'(

And I don't know if this is just sad or what, but I think I'm more disappointed than anything that I had to leave work. I had to meet with someone quick to work out a communication protocol to be used on a custom solid-state control system we're designing for an array of 1500W heater elements.
Once I get the circuitboard prototype routed out, I can finally solder it up and see if I set any records for bugs in the microcontroller's programming.


Edit: There's also no odd tingling, numbness, or leg pain with this, so hopefully that's indicative of it not being anything like a herniated disc. Of course the online descriptions of herniated disc vs spasm kind of overlap a bit - and I'm not a doctor. All I do know is that reading about herniated discs makes me a bit queasy; too much mental simulation going on of the cartilage squishing out of the bones forcibly. Yuck.

i completely understand.

tell your sister to find a chiropractor who does a.r.t... if she's still getting headaches, either the chiropractor is doing something wrong or she's doing something wrong. most of the time, it's the patient unknowingly continuing an action or habit that continues the problem... but it's not out of the realm of possibility that her chiropractor might just not be that good.

as for your mom's situation, there are four kinds of treatment plans chiropractic patients can be under... 1, relief... 2, corrective... 3, maintenance... 4, wellness. relief care is basically just something that gets rid of the symptoms of whatever issue you're having, but doesn't really fix the problem... these are people who will have hurt their back or leg or something and get it treated maybe twice and think it's all better and stop coming until it happens again. corrective care is kinda like relief care, but you continue to treat it after the pain stopped until the problem is corrected. maintenance care is basically how it sounds... it's been corrected, but every so often, you come back in to maintain the corrected area. wellness is kinda like maintenance, except there's nothing specific being maintained... it's basically like a monthly tune-up... like a dentist teeth cleaning or something.

your mom was probably in a maintenance or corrective treatment plan.

and, yes, that is typically indicative of a disc bulge. it could also be that you're sitting funny or that you're causing too much pressure on a nerve or blood supply to a nerve and your leg's falling asleep. get it checked out to make sure.

please please please don't get any surgery until you've found a GOOD chiropractor in your area and he couldn't treat your problem. if you need me to help find one in your area, pm me and i'll do my best to point you in the right direction.

 

[BoomerD]

Before you consider surgery, remember what my orthopedic surgeon sez:

"There's nothing that a perfectly good surgery can't make worse."

 

[eits]

Before you consider surgery, remember what my orthopedic surgeon sez:

"There's nothing that a perfectly good surgery can't make worse."

failed low back syndrome... which is very common

not to mention the discs get worse a lot faster if they're operated on

 

[olds]

I certainly understand your pain. With my FUBAR'D back, I endure spasms and sciatic pain daily...nearly constantly.
Sitting hurts, laying down hurts, standing up hurts...

I find alternating heat packs and ice packs brings the most non-chemical relief for me.

Add a couple of valium washed down with a couple of beers...

I've had pretty good results with chiropractic over the years, but I agree...it seems to be something you need to continue doing over and over and over...BUT, it kept me going for over 20 years without surgery...until I fucked it up so bad that my chiropractor "fired" me...and the neurosurgeon says there's too much wrong to fix with surgery.

<-- Has back pain 24/7 to one degree or another.
I've tried medical doctors (drugs), chiropractors, acupuncture, physical therapy and cortisone injections.
The injections are the only thing that has helped but they wear off.
I have basically given up on getting any pain relief and just resigned myself to being in pain and grumpy all the time.

EDIT
Almost forgot out the torn tendon in my right shoulder. They said I needed surgery and I would miss 4 months of work and then be on modified duty for 8 months. Fuck that.

 

[Jeff7]

Before you consider surgery, remember what my orthopedic surgeon sez:

"There's nothing that a perfectly good surgery can't make worse."

Not considering surgery at this point.

Things are doing much better today. The pain's down to a fairly localized area now, and it only bugs me if I try to move around or take a deep breath. I'm still taking the day off from work, just to help minimize the amount of activity.
This feels more like the back spasms I remember. I think Satan just took up residence in my back yesterday for a short time, and then he couldn't figure out how to get back out, so that just pissed him off.

I can also move around today without pathetic vocalized expressions of pain.
If it continues to improve at this rate, things should be nearly back to normal by tomorrow, though I certainly won't do any kind of lifting.

 

[eits]

<-- Has back pain 24/7 to one degree or another.
I've tried medical doctors (drugs), chiropractors, acupuncture, physical therapy and cortisone injections.
The injections are the only thing that has helped but they wear off.
I have basically given up on getting any pain relief and just resigned myself to being in pain and grumpy all the time.

EDIT
Almost forgot out the torn tendon in my right shoulder. They said I needed surgery and I would miss 4 months of work and then be on modified duty for 8 months. Fuck that.

what's your pain? what's causing it? who was the chiropractor you saw and what was he doing to correct it (be specific please)?

i might be able to help find someone better.

 

[olds]

I have 2 partially collapsed disks that pinch my sciatic nerve. I also have arthritis.
They did adjustments and shock with a very heavy heated pad.
I felt better for 30 minutes after the treatment then it was like I was never treated.

 

[Modelworks]

Hang upside down. No joke. My brother has an appliance business and has been moving refrigerators, stoves, etc every day for about 20 years , now in his late 40's he was using a ton of ibuprofen, nsaids, etc until he went to a doctor that told him to try hanging from his feet. So he started trying it just 15 minutes a day and it worked.

He also lays on the floor and locks his feet under something then has someone pull both arms, an improvised medieval rack

 

[eits]

I have 2 partially collapsed disks that pinch my sciatic nerve. I also have arthritis.
They did adjustments and shock with a very heavy heated pad.
I felt better for 30 minutes after the treatment then it was like I was never treated.

where do you live?

 

[eits]

Hang upside down. No joke. My brother has an appliance business and has been moving refrigerators, stoves, etc every day for about 20 years , now in his late 40's he was using a ton of ibuprofen, nsaids, etc until he went to a doctor that told him to try hanging from his feet. So he started trying it just 15 minutes a day and it worked.

He also lays on the floor and locks his feet under something then has someone pull both arms, an improvised medieval rack

that gets a good stretch in and decompression, but it doesn't do much for rehydrating your discs. you need both for healthy discs.