Degenerative (adult onset) Scoliosis and arthritis

a reply to: Slinki

I had my MRIs done @ a hospital & was able to request copies directly from them. I signed a form, faxed it & was able to pick up disk & radiology report a few days later.

originally posted by: mikkelno
a reply to: Slinki

Proper exercise oriented physical therapy might more or less alleviate painful symptoms. The deep stabilizing muscles around the spine, the multifidi, will help reduce pain if properly strong.

Is it arthritis or osteoarthritis that you suffer from? The two are different from eachother where arthritis is inflammation of the joints while osteoarthritis is the degeneration of protective tissue.

As a physiotherapist, my advise would be to strengthen your back and core to help in any future or current problems you might have. Be warned that it will almost certainly be a life long process depending on how actively you train and how aware you become of your bodily pain signals.

My back pain becomes manageable when my BMI is in the 21 range or lower, if I even gain 10 pounds the pain returns. I do runners stretches which helps but still often cheat and take Ibuprofen to sleep. Is there a web site that shows the abdominal core exercises? Both my parents went through this, had surgery and addictive pain med cycles so I would like to continue trying the proactive approach. I've had acute back pain in the same general location as the OP after only a light strain. Left me unable to do anything but lie on my stomach with a bag of ice on my back. In my case I think it was swelling near where the nerves go through the hips but I didn't get a diagnosis.

a reply to: Slinki

Gave you a star for using the word wallering.....I use it because my dad used it, sometimes when I say it people don't know what it means.
I can still hear dad when we were little and laying on the floor ,and moving around and dad would be like ..QUIT WALLERING!

I have had back and hip pain for years now. I lost 50 pounds and that helped me a lot.
I did have shots a couple of times in the hip . The shot wasn't to bad ,it was the kind where the doctor had me under the x ray machine so she could see the joint and get that needle in the right place.
Slight burning sensation when you feel the injection but not bad.
It helped a little bit, but not for long . I stopped getting them because they weren't really helping and the doctor seemed like she didn't believe me about how bad it would get at times .
Even now I can't walk around for more than an hour or so before I need to set for a while.
And I may have to give up riding my motorcycle because after a while my hip will really start acting up and it's hard to Waller around while i'm on the bike.

originally posted by: JHumm
a reply to: Slinki

Gave you a star for using the word wallering.....I use it because my dad used it, sometimes when I say it people don't know what it means.
I can still hear dad when we were little and laying on the floor ,and moving around and dad would be like ..QUIT WALLERING!

My mom and Gramma too! It was just one of those "all in the family" words!


ETA
I still waller to this day. Annoys the snip out of my hubby! =D

Once again, thank yo all for participating in my thread. It was good to hear personal experiences and walk away with maybe a little more insight on how to treat my doctor's as people who are providing a service instead of feeling intimidated by them.

KUDOS to all of you, beer and refreshments in the other room.

-Happy Cappy

a reply to: Slinki

Good luck with everything. Having spine issues is miserable and most people cannot relate to or understand the daily struggle that it causes.

originally posted by: ad1220
a reply to: Slinki

Good luck with everything. Having spine issues is miserable and most people cannot relate to or understand the daily struggle that it causes.

Many thanks. I appreciate your sentiment, and I hope others have an easier time of it.

I hope the injections work. They seem to help a lot of people.

a reply to: Slinki

Hi,
Your x-ray looks almost identical to mine, and I also have severe arthritis in my lumbar facet joints..

Along with the above I have some degenerating disc issues causing bulges that press on some of the nerves.

I have had two 'courses' of injections, neither of which helped - but don't let that worry you, as every case is different.
Some people get relief right from the first shot, some get nothing from the first and second, but the third does the trick.

The main thing is - getting the shots was not at all a bad experience, mild to medium discomfort was the worst I felt..

Now, since the shots did not help me, I did end up getting the Radiofrequency Ablasion, which also was not a terrible experience...

I've had it done three times - the first one helped a lot, I had relief for about a year, then the pain gradually came back, so before it got too bad, I had a second procedure, after which I only had about six months relief -
- but then after the third time, it has been several years and so far so good...though it is not 100% pain free, it is a significant amount of relief..

I also have gone thru physical therapy (which I couldn't have done without the Radiofrequency relief), and I can tell you that it is tremendously important to commit to doing the exercises they give you..

Most important of all! The very best thing you can do is know as much about your condition as possible and be your own patient advocate -

- the first doctor I went to was the top orthopedic spine guy in town, highest rated, best reviews, but the first thing he did was start talking about surgery, and he didn't even listen to the full aspects of my symptoms -
- which I had made such effort assessing exactly the type of pains and specific locations, while also studying and researching the anatomy of spine/central nervous system and finding out which nerves were involved in my various areas of pain..

So I went for a second opinion to a Neurologist, who turned out to be phenomenal, he looked at the MRI, listened to my description of my case, and told me his diagnosis - which ended up fitting perfectly with all I had learned from my research and notating of what I was experiencing.

You should be able to contact the office of the Radiologist who did your x-rays and get a copy of the report...and you can find anything you need to know about anatomy online - I actually ended up studying the same materials as medical students..


Sorry this is so long, but I was so struck by the similarity of our lumbar situations that I felt compelled to share as much as I could in case my experience might be helpful..

Best wishes to you, and I will check back on the thread, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

originally posted by: rickymouse
I hope the injections work. They seem to help a lot of people.

Didn't work for me, and I yell you it's scary having that big ass needle stuck into your spine , the needle is the size of the ink holder in a bic pen...

a reply to: Slinki

There are many different hyper-extension machines. Some fancy some plain but they all work if used (key word being USED). I have seen proper use of them almost create a miracle for people with lower back problems. You face forward, sideways, and even backward and work up to a number of 10, 20 50, reps for each way you face or turn your body on the machine.. Start slowly and do maybe 5 of each if that is all you can do..Much better for you back and muscles that drugs to kill pain.. it will take a while of everyday use but within a month I would bet you will see a big difference. Best results I have seen is with a morning routine of 10 or 20 reps (some do 50) which would be 40 or 60 if you do all 4 sides of your body and then again in the evening before your shower and bed time repeat..

This is a fancy one but, a simple search on the internet will no doubt turn up others (cheaper)
youtu.be...

a reply to: 727Sky

Sounds like an effective treatment *IF* you can recover enough to use it before finding the wrong doctor.
Sudden acute back strain is frightening, took me a couple weeks of ice and heat therapy before I could even sit for more than 5 minutes without excruciating pain. And all that time of course people are telling you maybe this is something like a crushed disk that is going to require spinal fusion surgery.

I never heard of the radiofrequency ablasion treatment lostgirl mentioned before, but obviously this would require understanding where the pain points are and that the pain is *probably* nerve inflammation related. If ice and heat therapy doesn't dramatically improve the situation after 2 weeks I guess you could find an RA specialist for treatment in conjunction with physical core stretching and strengthening exercises.

The down side of meds even Ibuprofin is that you tend to overdo and re-injure which you won't know about till the meds wear off.. The good news is that a significant percentage of low back problems can be addressed without surgery and chronic use of pain meds. The bad news is we don't know which cases will respond so maybe reaching out to an RA specialist or even a chiropractor that can rule out things like a collapsed disc would be advisable.

a reply to: Cauliflower

Yes, you are right, it's very important to know as exactly as possible 'where' the pain is coming from...

...part of my "research" for my own case was getting a copy of the radiologist report from my MRI and making sure I fully understood every word of it, along with self 'assessing' my pain in order to be able to relate exactly what I was feeling with the various conditions that were found.

And you are spot on talking about finding "wrong" doctors -

- The Orthopedic Spine specialist I first went to (who immediately wanted to 'go to' surgery for the degenerating discs) never even noticed the severe Facet Joint arthritis!!

!The arthritis so bad that the Neurologist (who accurately diagnosed the 'source' of my severest pain) looking at the MRI said, "If I didn't know better, I'd think I was looking at the spine of a 65 year old woman." (I was 47 at the time!)

a reply to: Cauliflower

I use a website for my programs but it is in Danish and needs a subscription, which my work pays for.
However a Google search for Paloff Press, Dead Bug and Bird Dog will show you exercises that strengthen both core and the small stabilizing muscles in your back. However I can't say for sure if that is what you specifically need as I haven't examined you. A strong core and back is mever a bad thing though!

I would advise on doing those 3 exercises in a somewhat pain free range of motion (very important!). Do 10 repetitions 3 times (3x10) every second day. Also if you sit down a lot, some of the pain might also be coming from the quadratus lumborum muscle and the piriformis muscle. A search on those will show the location on the body. Try thrusting your finger into those two muscles. If you experience pain you have felt before, then you might alleviate some of the symptoms.

I cannot stress enough that you will need proper advice from a PT who sees you in person. Diagnosing is very hard to do on the web.

originally posted by: Slinki
This is kind of where I am now. Taking pain meds before bed, wallering around all night and then waking up in agony.
My family doctor wanted to refer me to a surgeon right away in an effort to brace it to slow progresion. Unfortunately, not in the cards. My problem isn't the curvature. It's what's happening in my lower back due to the curvature, as well as a couple of accidents.

Dang I am so sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how much pain you are in. I hope you get relief soon so you can come off the pain meds. (╯︵╰,)