A warning from my sciatic nerve

[Signe]

My sister had back surgery about a year and a half ago.  She had stenosis and all sorts of problems with discs.  She was crazy with pain before and the recovery was really hard, but now she's so glad she had it.  She still has a little back pain now and then, but nothing like before.  She's back to doing nearly everything she used to, except for some martial arts classes she used to take.  Evidently, not everyone is as lucky as she is with the success of this sort of surgery, though.  Dodgy backs run in my family, but I'm hoping never to have to go through that sort of stuff.  Geez, can you imagine?  No thumbs or spine?  Might as well be a booger.

[Fraeg]

backs fucking suck

c5-c6, c6-c7, L4-L5, L5-S1 all borked from years of abuse with lacrosse, kayaking and mtn. biking.  The L5-S1 is the worst... and gaming, when i am being honest with myself, sure as fuck doesn't help things.

I do pilates, gyrotonic, and see an extremely good chiro at least once a month.  I am still in pain more often than not.  I have thought of surgery, but every doctor I have spoken to has said to hold out as long as i possibly can before surgery.


take care of your back.  I would in the blink of an eye let someone take a pair of tin snips and cut both my ACLs if it meant i could have my back back.  ACLs can be repaired, but there isn't a single activity that doesn't involve at some lvl your back


So ask for help moving stuff, bend at the knees all that crap

[stray]

Damn, how old are you guys, if you don't mind me asking? Do I have back pain to look forward to or some shit? I'm 31 now. My back *so far, and God willing* is fine.

[edit] I only ask because it seems to be a widespread problem. More than I thought.

[apocrypha]

See my post above. I went through just about the same exact thing. I actually had two bulging discs. The l4/l5 and the l5/s1. They decided that the L4/L5 was causing the biggest problems so when I did get around to surgery they only fixed that one and just shot up the other spot with steroids again.

Yup, identical to mine! I don't think the steroid injections are used much here, at least there's been no mention of it as a possibility - the only surgery any of the NHS peeps have talked about is microdiscectomy, and only as a last resort. Don't know if that means that they don't think I'm suitable for anything else or if it's just a UK thing. I'm hard to freak out with injections and stuff anyway - findnig out about stuff makes it easier for me, I just get interested :p

Now every time my back gets the slightest twinge I dive for the ice packs and get horizontal ASAP.

Defo see someone about it then imo if you haven't already. Classic progression of back probs according to stuff I've been reading - a series of events building in severity :/

take care of your back.  I would in the blink of an eye let someone take a pair of tin snips and cut both my ACLs if it meant i could have my back back.  ACLs can be repaired, but there isn't a single activity that doesn't involve at some lvl your back

True, but I've known enough sporty people with ACL injuries that mean I wouldn't wish that one on anyone either :p

Damn, how old are you guys, if you don't mind me asking? Do I have back pain to look forward to or some shit? I'm 31 now. My back *so far, and God willing* is fine.

[edit] I only ask because it seems to be a widespread problem. More than I thought.

I'm 39 now, the first injury was when I was 32 or so. And yeah, it's amazingly common, something like 1 in 3 will have back probs at some point in their lives. Everyone I speak to has either had them themselves or has a close relative who has :(

[NiX]

Damn, how old are you guys, if you don't mind me asking? Do I have back pain to look forward to or some shit? I'm 31 now. My back *so far, and God willing* is fine.

[edit] I only ask because it seems to be a widespread problem. More than I thought.

I'm 23. My doctor makes fun of me for having more problems than he does.

[Sky]

Late to the thread, was on vacation and only reading the gaming forum and guitar thread :)

My mother just went through sciatica, and she's not out of the woods yet, something still wrong with her leg. Insurance is finally letting her get an MRI...over two months later.

Proper posture can't be stressed enough, I spent a few years unloading trucks and laughed at the pathetic lifting belts walmart makes you wear. I never wore one, always (well...almost always) lifted properly, and I was a lifting machine. Box says two-man lift? Fuck that, hoist it up on the shoulder! Abdominal and lower back strength is critical to a healthy back. Lift with the legs. Stretch alot. When using the computer alot, get up and do stretches every now and again and do some exercises like jumping jacks to get the blood flowing. Squats, even without weights at first, are maybe the best way to learn proper lifting, but get a coach to learn them right, and have a spotter until it's second nature.

Finally, invest in a good mattress.

[UD_Delt]

Yup, identical to mine! I don't think the steroid injections are used much here, at least there's been no mention of it as a possibility - the only surgery any of the NHS peeps have talked about is microdiscectomy, and only as a last resort. Don't know if that means that they don't think I'm suitable for anything else or if it's just a UK thing. I'm hard to freak out with injections and stuff anyway - findnig out about stuff makes it easier for me, I just get interested :p

If you decide to go down the microdiscectomy route and have any questions just ask. That's exactly what I eventually had done on the l4/l5. It was also my last resort. I had already gone through 9 months or so of treatments and increasing pain. I was also pretty severely depressed during the end of this period although I didn't realize that until afterward. The combination of being pretty much housebound for most of a year, the pain, not being able to sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time, and the drug combinations pretty much messed up my head.

[apocrypha]

Started physiotherapy a couple of weeks ago and there's been a noticeable improvement. I've been given one specific exercise to do, a twisting aimed at pushing the partially-prolapsed L4/L5 disc back in a bit, and it seems to be helping.

I can now walk for about 1km, albeit very slowly, and I'm spending a lot less time hugging the floor. Still can't drive (too much codeine in me anyway) and still can't sit for more then 15-20 mins or so, but feeling a lot more positive about it all :)  Also hoping to be able to start swimming before long, start building up some of the ~5kg of weight I've lost in the last 2 months!

[Signe]

Feel better soon before you end up with wheels! 

[apocrypha]

I'm a-lovin that smiley :D

[Sky]

 

Geezer Wars

[Lantyssa]

Any with crutches?

[apocrypha]

Ugh, badly done grey matte :/

[MerseyMal]

So far I've put my back out getting washing out of our front loading washer/dryer and eating macaroni cheese seated in front of the coffee table.

[Lantyssa]

 

Now we find a smiley with it's arm in a sling and we can be the cripple crowd!

[Fraeg]

Damn, how old are you guys, if you don't mind me asking? Do I have back pain to look forward to or some shit? I'm 31 now. My back *so far, and God willing* is fine.

[edit] I only ask because it seems to be a widespread problem. More than I thought.

36 here.. been dealing with it for about 6 years. 

[apocrypha]

Slight necro.

Been some slow improvement over the last 3 weeks, more mobile now, less pain, slowly reducing the painkiller intake. However, had a consult with a rheumatologist today about the possibility of a corticosteroid injection and she said that it was far too serious for that to be effective and has initiated a surgical consult. She said, whilst showing me the MRI pictures (very cool seeing inside your own body btw), that mine was one of the worst cases she's ever seen 

I'm pretty knocked back by this tbh, I was hoping that things were getting better and she'd say something like "yay physio is working, have a steroid injection and let's start working on proper recovery" but instead I've got another 4-6 week wait to see yet another consultant and then probably joining a fuck-knows-how-long waiting list for surgery.

The boredom and frustration are really starting to get me down now, plus I still can't work or drive and my college course work is falling way behind. Fucking bah tbh.

[Hindenburg]

Would I be wrong to think that most people with lower back pain don't exercise regularly and/or are fat?

[Sky]

Don't know about most. My mother is in decent shape for a 60yr old lady, and she's mostly upset by her back/hip/knee stuff because she is /supposed to/ (not "will", of course) cut back on shovelling snow and raking leaves.

She's kinda in your boat, just got an MRI she needs to consult with the doctor next week. She's been dealing with little mobility and a lot of pain for months now and nobody has come up with any way of stopping it. She's WAY more laid back about it than I would be. The person she spoke with yesterday said she should probably go to an ortho, so she's almost to the point of getting to the specialist recommended by the emergency room doctor during the summer.

[schild]

Would I be wrong to think that most people with lower back pain don't exercise regularly and/or are fat?

Athletic injuries or even a twist in the wrong direction by someone perfectly in shape can result in this. Fat folk can have pain all up and down their back. I've been the victim of both types of pain.

Not exercising regularly really has little to do with it IMO, more like "never stretching" could result in more backpain than just not like, doing cardio or something.

[apocrypha]

Would I be wrong to think that most people with lower back pain don't exercise regularly and/or are fat?

While both of those things are indeed risk factors for lower back pain they are not the only ones. I do (did) a fair amount of exercise in that I regularly did yoga (harder work than most people think) and had a very physically demanding job. Also I am skinny as fuck, and am even skinnier now (weighed 72kg, now weigh 65kg after 3 months immobile).

The main risk factors are bad posture and extended periods of inactivity, i.e. sitting in a crap chair without moving for several hours every day. And as Schild said, acute injuries to your back can be the start of it all. I fell over and twisted while carrying a heavy cabinet 6 years ago and that was the start of it all for me. Not doing anything about it and sitting on my arse playing games for hours every day finished the job.

[Ironwood]

Rather than make a new thread, I could just repeat the first post verbatim.

34 and on Monday I threw my lower back lifting Elena.

Fuck me, it's been 3 days of absolute agony.  There's nowt worse than wincing in pain when you breathe in.  Because it's really something you shouldn't stop.

Sigh.

Hot baths help, but the wife won't let me get nubile 18 year olds around to wash me down.

[apocrypha]

Shit man, sorry to hear that. Especially the nubile 18 year olds bit. They should be available on the NHS I think.

Seriously though, you been to see anyone about it? Get some tramadol in ya asap - it's not a pleasant drug but the kind of agony I know you're in is considerably less pleasant. Also, my experience has been that you need to be proactive about getting something done about it. Push for an MRI and a surgical/rheumatological consult as soon as you can!

And be *very* careful about any kind of exercise for now, some of the back-strengthening preventative exercises recommended can make things much worse in the wrong situations. Best of luck with it, seriously.

[schild]

Fuck me, it's been 3 days of absolute agony.  There's nowt worse than wincing in pain when you breathe in.  Because it's really something you shouldn't stop.

Sigh.

I threw my back out one day picking something up in Arizona and ended up crawling back onto my bed. It sucks giant, giant ass.

[DraconianOne]

I threw my back out one day picking something up in Arizona

What was it? A hooker? Typhoid? Enquiring minds want to know.

[schild]

I threw my back out one day picking something up in Arizona

What was it? A hooker? Typhoid? Enquiring minds want to know.

I think it was a videogame or something. It wasn't like something heavy, I just turned my back the wrong way.

[Lantyssa]

This must be the week for it.  I threw my back out last Saturday picking up a super-light aluminum chair, and my roommate through his out while we were visiting his family.

Seriously though, you been to see anyone about it? Get some tramadol in ya asap - it's not a pleasant drug but the kind of agony I know you're in is considerably less pleasant. Also, my experience has been that you need to be proactive about getting something done about it. Push for an MRI and a surgical/rheumatological consult as soon as you can!

Egads!  Not for me.  I'll take the pain over tramadol again.  The stuff made me feel like absolute shit, and the withdrawl was even worse.

[schild]

The only pain management I've had has been varieties of Percocet - which is fucking awesome.

[apocrypha]

Yeah I've been on co-codamol pretty much constantly for 4 months now, which is more or less Percocet - paracetamol (acetaminophen) and codeine, whereas Percocet is paracetamol and oxycodone, which I think is slightly stronger than codeine. I'm on about half my prescribed daily dose now but the improvements that I've been putting down to the physiotherapy seem to have plateaued, hence the surgical consult soon.

The tramadol is a LOT more powerful for severe pain though, and as you say Lantyssa, is unpleasant stuff. I only used it for the first 2 weeks because the pain was literally unbearable, and then once or twice since when it's got to the OMGkillmeNOW stage.

Sorry to hear you've put your back out too :(  Too many people here with fucked backs! Hmm.. gaming forum.. bad backs... could there be some kind of correlation? 

[apocrypha]

Spinal steroid injection on Monday. They sent me a nice couple of pages outlining the possible fuckups that can happen but nowhere in it did it mention the possibility of being turned into a superhuman spinal mutant ninja

Also, was told it would be an 18 week wait for a surgical consult on the NHS    So I've booked a private consultation, which will cost £200 but it's happening in 10 days time instead of 4 fucking months.

[Cyrrex]

About nine months ago I decided to stop being a semi fat fuck (SFF), bought a heavy bag to set up in my basement, and now I go down and beat the fuck out of it every day for 20 or 30 minutes.  Kickboxing.  I used to have chronic but mild back pain from doing nothing more than sleeping in my overweight body every day.  Let me tell you, kickboxing (a surprisingly effective form of exercise, btw) has cured that right up (along with weight loss).  I think I would have to fall off a house to hurt my back.

Fake edit:  I do realize there are other forms of back issues, so I'm not trying to undermine or make light of those issues.

[Sky]

Exercise and being tone is really a great defensive mechanism. I've heard about people getting fucked up falling off a roof, and I kinda scratch my head. I've fallen off a LOT of roofs, whether shoveling snow in the winter or just fucking around. Never been hurt. I guess knowing how to fall properly helps. I was rock-hopping once and fell with my fiancee watching, she got a kick out of it because I ended up falling about twenty times in ten seconds, before I actually "landed". Even though I'm not in the shape I was in ten years ago (peak of my genetic limitations), it's still nice to walk away uninjured from something that would break bones on a lot of folks.

Getting old is going to be a bitch, though. I've always been nigh-bulletproof from injuries, only broke my pelvis once when a log fell across me on some blacktop. After a ten plus foot fall, landing on aforementioned blacktop on my forehead, for no injury. Don't practice swordfighting on top of the monkey bars, kids. (Though to be fair, I didn't fall so much as the monkey bar broke!).

[apocrypha]

Oh no doubt that not enough (any) exercise was a major factor in my disc going POP. Pretty much my only goal right now is to get fit, once I'm capable of starting that recovery. I'm 40 in 7 months time and I am now determined to the point of obsession with not entering my 4th decade as a 65kg crippled weakling.

Schild asked me the other day how I sleep, and my answer was on my left side, badly and in short snatches (no cheap pussy jokes! You know who you are!) between codeine & valium doses. However, we've just discovered, by accidentally leaving the bedroom heater on one night, that the room being too fucking cold was making that a lot more difficult.

Kept the bedroom heater on all night for the last 4 nights and I have slept better than I have done for 4 months! So just something for any of the rest of you with fucked backs etc to try. Of course it may only be us weird brits that are conditioned to sleep in freezing rooms, YMMV 

[apocrypha]

So, had steroid injection last week, injected at the coccyx area to flood the region since two nerves are being compressed. Two days of almost zero pain after that because of the local anesthetic they injected with it, and then back to the usual. Will take a few weeks to have any effect though apparently but all of the medical professionals I've seen have said that it's unlikely to make any major difference because of the severity of my case.

Also had a surgical consult this week. Didn't tell us anything new, just went over the possible risks of the surgery. He said he'd probably have to remove a small piece of bone in order to get all the disc material out and that there's about a 5-8% chance of complications that would leave me worse off than I am now. Scary stuff. Also, thanks to our wonderful neoliberalised NHS, it's a 4 month wait for the surgery unless we can find £8000 to pay for it privately. Yay.

Current plan then is to get me as fit as possible over the next 4 months. Ordered an elliptical cross-trainer (only exercise except swimming that I can do according to my physiotherapist, and I can't drive to the local swimming pool), giving up smoking next week (run out of grass anyway). If we happen to find £8k down the back of the sofa in the meantime then we'll go ahead with the private treatment, but that's kinda unlikely 

[Signe]

This is like my sister.  If she had those shots way earlier she might have avoided having back surgery.  The recovery period was long and rather hellish.  Having said that, it worked.  The horrible pain her  damaged discs were causing is gone.  She still has some back issues but not related to that and a teeny weeny fraction of the pain she used to have and it's not a constant thing anymore.  We have the classic runs in the family sort of back problems.  My father, his sister and brothers, my sister, even her son gets twinges and he's only in his 20s.