Back pain alternative therapies?

[historyteach]

I've suffered from very bad back pain for many years -- 7-8 years ago.
It's in the middle of my back, where you cannot reach it.
I was gardening. Trying to lift a load of bulbs. They didn't move; my back did. It is not a disk; a surgeon cannot help. It's the core of my back/body.

Since then, I've been in pain, and it's gotten worse. It goes down my leg, down my arm and up my neck and into my head. On the worst of days, my entire right side is in pain. I've woken in the middle of the night, with my arm in such pain, I honestly thought I was having a heart attack! All of this is from my back injury.

I've taken naproxin. It helped a bit, but never took the pain away. It did, however, begin to hurt my stomach. I went to physical therapy multiple times. I exercised to build up the core. Heat, cold, you name it. Message hurts it.

I started taking Topamax about a year ago for another purpose. As a wonderful side effect, my pain was relieved! I was soooo happy! I told my doc that I would take this med the rest of my life, rather than return to that pain again.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, it began to return. And today, I've been in horrible pain again. My head is throbbing. And it's going down my arm and leg, just as if nothing had ever changed. I'd forgotten how bad it was before. And this time, I've got a new symptom. An intermitent sharp pain in the right side of my neck. Scared me the first time it happened. But, that happened on July 4th. I remember, cuz I was at a party. It's continued, though.

I'm not interested in opiates. I teach school, and would never be able to do so on strong meds, cuz I am VERY sensative to medication.

But, has anyone tried a chiropractor?
How about acupuncture?
I'm desparate. I can't go on with this again.

It may just be temporary. I was helping the nurse and a nurses aide tend to my mom, and it did stress my back. And, I've been through a LOT of stress lately too. Between the two things, that could be the reason for the flair up. Maybe.

In the meantime, any other ideas?

Shalom!

[grateful2b]

Gee Teach. I am sorry you are having that level of pain, definitely acqupressure...and maybe chiro but have you thought about Cranial Sacral Therapy?

[Toomutch]

I am also sorry about the pain you are experiencing. Perhaps massage would help, to loosen you up.

[historyteach]

Grateful,
I never heard of Cranial Sacral Therapy. What's that about?

toomutch,
I'm afraid that a message only hurts...

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it.

Shalom!

[grateful2b]

Teach , here is a good link for fundamental info:
Toronto Athletic Club Cranio-Sacral Therapy

[GrouchoTheCat]

Hi Teach,

I feel for you. I have had a full fusion with titanium nuts and bolts and stuff and the pain before the surgery was truly horrible.

I saw a chiropractor for a long time before I went to the surgeon. He helped me a great deal. For a long time I would leave his office pain free.

Unfortunately, my problems were due to a disk that was deteriorating beyond repair or regeneration. Eventually the chiropractor told me that he just couldn't help me anymore and that is when I went to the surgeon.

My Surgeon is very conservative and before he would operate, he wanted me to exhaust all of my non-surgical options.

I went through physical therapy, and it did help for a while.

I also had about two years of spinal cortisone injections, and I must say that they really did work for a long time.

So... you may wish to consider cortisone shots and chiropractic. Look at it this way, they can't hurt and if they don't work, you can just stop.

Never did the pincushion thing, but I was about to try it!

I am assuming here that you have had an MRI and have had it read by an expert? I mean someone who does back surgery (preferably a neuro-surgeon) as opposed to a radiologist. Even if you had one in the past it may be time for a new one anyway, as from what you report, your situation has changed.

I am not a Dr by any stretch, but from experience it sounds like you have some nerves pinched (mechanically).

I should also tell you that I did the pain pill thing, and eventually had to medically detox from them. Very nasty. My advice to anyone on the pill thing is to avoid it if at all possible. In my case I could not walk without them (heck, I could barely walk with them!) and, yes I would take them again if I should ever return to that excruciating level of pain.

I wish you the best,

Groucho

[jazpoppy]

Teach;

Hi. I have severe back pain also, I do have a herniated disk in my lower back (L4/5), Sacrilitis(sp?), a herniated disk in my neck (C5/6), facet joint arthritis, and spinal stenosis, and arthritis in my right hip as a result of child birth, the other injuries are either from a couple of accidents or just hereditary. I've talked about surgery, but I'm only 31 and the few surgeons I've seen don't want to touch me. My primary care doctor gives me pills (yuck, since I'm a recovering addict, though I DO have someone else holding them and giving them to me as prescribed, its worked out OK for about 2 years now, but I'm SICK OF PILLS). Pill just aren't FIXING the problem, and I'm getting worse. I'm going to start another round of PT and Aqua Therapy (which I've done in the past to no avail, but I found a GREAT place to go, and they teach Yoga for the Back as well). I'm going to start swimming, and do my Yoga and try Tia Chi as adding each in as my back can handle it. I am hoping these many different types of low impact strengthening exercises will help me get most of my flexibility back and I will be able to DO MORE and FEEL BETTER without pills! I am thankful to have the pills, as they are helping me because I have no health insurance right now and all I can afford is to go for pain management with cheap pills (muscle relaxers, one type of narcotic, and a sleep medication). I will be getting Medicaid very soon, so once I have my insurance card, I am going to start a rigid long rehabilitation of my back. I'm on one hand looking really forward to this plan, and on the other hand, I'm scared about how its going to hurt in the beginning and I don't want to have to rest every moment I have off from therapy! Does anyone here have any experience with a multiple therapy approach to rehabilitation of the back??? If so, let me know if you had results right away, no results ever, or results after some time, or a lot of time, you know, let me know how it worked out for you! And, HistoryTeach, have you been able to try an approach like I described here yet? If not, I'll let you know soon (in about 2 weeks I start the first classes in the pool and in the gym) how it goes. I feel so bad for you, 8 years of pain! I've had 4 and I'm really depressed! I want my life back! I used to do Karate, Kickboxing, Tia Bo, Yoga, Pilates, and Weight Lifting. I used to feel so EMPOWERED and I looked great, felt great, and I was in the best shape of my life, according to my doctor, I had the muscle mass of a world class athelete! I was so lucky! Then I fractured my achille's tendon, ended up in a brace for 3 months, when the brace came off, I was picking up a heavy computer and I twisted my back and popped a disk (herniated). That ended my serious bid to become a tournament champion in karate and kickboxing. It even ended simple walking around the block for quite a while. I gained a lot of weight, and I'm still working on taking weight off now! I think things will get better with this therapy! Hang in there Teach! We can both get our lives back, you'll see, we can quit now!

Love

Jaz

[barb dwyer]

Hey teach -

I'm a great believer in chiropractic ... but I'm a dyed in the wool ZEALOT about osteopaths.
They do everything a chiropractor does ... and then some.
They deal with energy flow as well as the alignment of bones and such.
If your'e going to go that route - I strongly suggest finding an osteopath.

The difference (with me) was night and day.
Like mules and horses.
Like squirrels and prairie dogs...
dogs and wolves...
like Parris Hilton... and talented people.

meaning -
they look alot alike .. but are way different.

I wish we HAD one here in Butte.

[nandm]

Teach, I wish I had some useful advice for you but it seems even my alternatives that used to work for me have stopped working this past week. I have been in so much pain that I can not even lay down to sleep. I try each night to lay down in bed but within an hour or so I wind up in so much pain I can no longer lay there. So I spend the rest of the night in the recliner with my back on ice and the TENS unit running. This provides minimal relief but enough to keep me from being in tears (this coming from someone who has not cried in over 15 years). Pain meds and muscle relaxers are only providing minimal relief as well. I made an appointment with my doc on Wed but am not sure what she can do at this point. I have done the injections, accupuncture, and the steroid shots. I am praying I will get some relief soon as this is very discouraging.

[splendra]

I have had all the therapies mentioned with the exception of surgery.

Something that helps me so much that I can do myself is pay attention to my posture keeping my gut sucked in, holding my shoulder up and back. I don't sit for hours on end with out getting up to move around. I like to lay on something firm, on my back, pulling my knees to my chest and rock side to side and also length wise too. Movement is life ya know I love doing Tai Chi the "5 rites" are my favorite.

If all else fails I take some aspirin...

[jazpoppy]

HistoryTeach;

How are you feeling lately? Haven't seen another post since 8-5 on this thread. So I was wondering if you found anymore ways to relieve back pain. Please share with me. I'm up for learning any way to keep from hurting. Pain meds are NOT a cure, in fact they can stop working and hinder recovery (not just addiction recovery, but hinder our bodies from recovering naturally). I want to learn more about alternative therapies too. PM me if you'd like.

Luv

Jazpoppy