I am at the end of my rope here

[Maraya1969]

About a week and 1/2 ago I woke up with some lower back pain. I drove for awhile trying to stretch as I drove. by the time I got to where I was going I was in such pain I could barely move.

I'm 47 and I've never had this kind of really bad back pain. My house is falling apart because every time I clean I end up with more pain. I've been to 3 chiropractors with not much help but I am going to stay with the last one - 3 times a week for now.

I am kind of just bitching here but it really sucks to have something like this and live alone with no one to help you. I do have a couple tenants living in the other side of my house who have helped with some things but I feel like an idiot asking them and the one acts like I am asking for his left arm.

I am on Medicare and Medicaid so I'm not getting the "attention" my friend got when he was hurt in an auto accident. They sent him all over the place for physical therapy because they are looking to get a big pay off from the law suit.

I also get sick from the Somo's I think. My regular doctor Had prescribed them several months ago because I have neck pain. Does anyone know of a muscle relaxant that will not make you sick? I can't take Ibuprofen because I get gastritis and it really chews my stomach up.

Any ideas? I wonder if Medicaid or Medicare has some sort of program that would help you with the house for a short period of time.

[Warpy]

1. First, get to a real doc

Chiropractors are great, and I recommend them for anyone who presents with acute back pain, but pain that is unrelieved after ten days of treatment is more serious and needs to be evaluated more fully.

A good doc will give you a mild narcotic pain reliever and send you to physical therapy for a series of exercises, and the exercises will help if you keep them up over time. Been there, done that.

Another thing to realize is that heat is not going to help. Oh, it feels great while you're on the heating pad, but as soon as you get up, that back is going to spasm and feel even worse. Try an ice pack. It feels like hell at first, but after 20 minutes or so, it numbs the pain quite effectively. Been there, done that, too.

Above all, get this evaluated, get prescriptions, and get some exercises. Good luck.

[Maraya1969]

2. Hey thanks

I have been just going to the chiropractor but I'll call my regular doctor tomorrow. I have pain killers from before that I have been taking and some muscle relaxers that make me sick to my stomach. I thought I was all better yesterday but today I was in pain again. But it is not like it had been so Thank God!

I never realized how brutal, (not sure if this is the right word) I am with myself. It is so incredible hard to NOT bend over to pick things up 50 times a day. And when I got home from the store I took the packages out and carried them with my left arm, (since my right side is hurting today) and realized when I got in the house that I had just hauled in ten pounds with not a thought. And that is light compared to what I usually carry in. I usually just grab as many as I can get a grip on and start hauling.

I guess it is going to be a whole new world for a while at least. I never thought much about my back before.

Oh, I need to lose about 25 pound and I have dropped about 6 so far. I think that is going to help a lot. Having fat in your stomach area is very hard on your back I hear. And it makes sense to me. So I am very motivated now.

Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing in the end.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. An osteopath is, I believe,

much more highly qualified than a chiropracter.

I went to an osteopath for repetitive-stress syndrome, which was agony. I couldn't even turn the car steering-wheel.

He is a native African osteopath, now settled in Edinburgh, who graduated at St Andrews University, and is married to a Scottish lady.

He clicked a few bones back into place, the pain disappeared and the discomfort went soon after. I can tell you, I've seldom been more grateful to another human being. He's one brilliant professional.


How are you these days - if you read this.

[Sgent]

4. Most

osteopaths don't practice osteopathic medicine. Since osteopaths are considered in every state to be the same as a physician (MD), they are specialists like dermatologists and family physicians, etc. Other than once course of book learning during med school, there is no requirement that a osteopath be more familiar with manipulative medicine than a traditional MD.

That being said, there are osteopathic internships that about 1/2 of osteopaths attend, and many then go into fields such as physiatry (sp?), orthopedic surgery, or neurology -- where they do use their osteopathic training. In addition, there are some that truley have a practice mostly dealing with osteopathic medicine.

To my knowledge, there are few to no neurosurgeons who are osteopaths (for political reasons mostly).

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. You are saying, then,

that osteopathic medicine is not a medical specialism, Sgent. In that case, Maraya1969, I would suggest that you seek out a good osteopath who does specialize in manipulative medicine, or performs a great deal of it; or else get a referral from your doctor for a consultation with one.

Does that make sense to you, Sgent?

[Sgent]

6. Yep

It makes sense -- your most likely to find these poeple around a osteopathic school, but it can be anywhere.

A DO is essentially the same as an MD -- they go to the same residencies and internships, etc. The significant difference is that a DO has the potential to go deeper into manipulative medicine if they choose to. That being said, many MD's actually do more manipulative medicine than DO's.

[Corgigal]

7. Hubby is on Medicare

He has a pain specialist and also has lower back pain after being struck by a vehicle. He has a medtronic pain pump. I have a link at the end of my comments so you can read about it. You will need surgery and every 2 months you go in for a refill. You can still take some pain medications by mouth, if needed. It made all the difference in the world for him. Really. He went 10 years with regular conventional therapy and this just works so much better.

http://www.medtronic.com/neuro/ttp/treatment_pump.html

[nashville_brook]

8. hey maraya

i have chronic pain from an infection in my spine. i had years of back trouble before that, it runs in the family.

try a pain clinic. i know it sounds skeevy, but doctors are wary of treating pain unless there's a surgery in it somewhere down the line. i don't think this is just about money -- i think it's about a lot of things. a broken healthcare system for one.

a snippet of my story is last year -- a year after my hospitalization -- i was having horrible pain. exactly like what you write about. i was sitting at my desk crying at work. it was bad -- and the thing about your house falling apart -- jeez -- that was the icing on the cake.

i called my doc and said i'm leaving right now and i need to see someone today. i got to the office in tears (my neurosurg and back surg both denied me appointments). when the nurse came in to take my stats she whispered to me that my doc "couldn't treat PAIN." that she had a chronic back condition too and sympathized with me. she said i had to go to a pain clinic. so i did. so far so good. they keep me moving and having a reasonably pain-free life. i do painkillers every day and injections once a month. the injections really help.

robaxin is a great muscle relaxer for me -- but your trouble might not just be in the muscles. sometimes you get spasms bc other stuff is happening. the spasms are a way of your body protecting itself. i know it doesn't seem that way. i've had KILLER spasms. you would have thought i was possessed. had to be rushed to the hospital and put on an IV of robaxin in stunning quantities. and that's not to mention the morphine pump.

if you see a pain doc they will try to see you through healing the whole problem. they don't want you to be going there forever any more than you do. give it a shot. you might just need some steroids, who knows. but get the pain treated.

GOOD LUCK!