Just don't give up and enjoy the small things. Beware of chiropractors, despite positive experiences there were also people ending up with lasting and more painful results. One of the best ones changed from very good to pretty bad/ineffective due to his own age. He said that for good results he needed power/force in his hands which was unfortunately fading.
Good relation with the pain therapist but the boxes stay unopened 🙂 She always reminds me when I get operated as she is also the anesthetist.
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As a radiologist who interprets MRI and xrays daily , I want to make this observation :
Most MRI for people over 50 yrs old will show some degenerative changes as this is part of the aging process. However, not everyone with similiar MRI findings will experience the same symptom. Need an experienced spine surgeon who sees a lot of spine diseases to be able to make a judgement and decide on appropriate treatment,
I am of the opinion that patients symptoms need to correlated with MRI findings to decide if a particular MRI findings finding is the cause of patient's suffering.
Most MRI for people over 50 yrs old will show some degenerative changes as this is part of the aging process. However, not everyone with similiar MRI findings will experience the same symptom. Need an experienced spine surgeon who sees a lot of spine diseases to be able to make a judgement and decide on appropriate treatment,
I am of the opinion that patients symptoms need to correlated with MRI findings to decide if a particular MRI findings finding is the cause of patient's suffering.
Good that you mention that. I have had MRI that indicated severe problems that turned out to be not the issue when stuff was opened. Just when I thought MRI technology was pretty definitive.
What also was noticed is 2 specialists giving very contradicting medical advice. From 6 weeks not putting tension on anything to "just do everything the next day, your body will indicate when you go too far". Both thought it to be very funny when I said that 🙂
What also was noticed is 2 specialists giving very contradicting medical advice. From 6 weeks not putting tension on anything to "just do everything the next day, your body will indicate when you go too far". Both thought it to be very funny when I said that 🙂
There's a wide variation, some are more hands on than others. I had a really good one some years back, others I've tried since have been next to useless. Similarly physiotherapists. My current physio (really good) came from a recommendation from my knee surgeon.
It's a bit of a minefield. I would approach with caution and retreat if there's any mention of manipulating or re-aligning your spine.
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I've had at least 5 MRIs (I stopped counting at some point), and they all showed nothing except a spine that looked at lot younger than it was. A good old XRay and then a CT where much better at showing the issue related to the bones. I don't get why doctors have you do an MRI, which is good at showing soft tissue, when they want to see what's up with the bones...
@kp93300
So many stories with complex and difficult paths to find a solution. Treatment does indeed seem like a minefield.
All I can say is at the age of 58 I am too young to feel this damn helpless and old!
I thought I was leading a fairly responsible life by maintaining a regular exercise regime. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke.
My greatest disappointment at this point is the feeling of helplessness that is the result of these problems.
All I can say is at the age of 58 I am too young to feel this damn helpless and old!
I thought I was leading a fairly responsible life by maintaining a regular exercise regime. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke.
My greatest disappointment at this point is the feeling of helplessness that is the result of these problems.
I've come to the conclusion that only I can help. It's my problem. I need to be the project manager, while the doctors are consultants. They know their stuff, and they try to sell it. Don't buy anything that doesn't convince you. It's not easy.
Many people around with similar or worse joint complaints and most not very old. Way too young for the complaints anyway. Some have a newly discovered auto-immune disease diagnosed with it.
When I ask the question very carefully the majority has something in common.
When I ask the question very carefully the majority has something in common.
Yep. I never had symptoms until my cervical spine got banged around. And the banging around did not cause the degeneration.
Tom
I have been dealing with this for most of my life. I had 7 cervical spine steriod injections about 25 years ago. 6 did nothing and one helped for a few weeks. I ended up having C6 removed due to a ruptured disc and fusion done, it helped but didn't totally fix it. My degenerative bone disease has since affected my wrists, left hip and left shoulder. This year I had 1 bone removed from my right wrist and the remaining 7 fused together. Basically I take 800mg of Ibuprofen 2 or 3 times a day when it is bad, otherwise I have learned to live with it.
Most likely because an MRI doesn't have any ionising radiation but in older people this is far less of a concern. And it's usually the older people that present with these issues.
Of course this is a good explanation for why an MRI and not a CT scan. A couple x-rays are nothing.
One other thing to keep in mind is that lots of health services don't believe in chiropractic/bone stuff so won't bother doing diagnostics for things they won't treat.
I just had a biy of a discussion with my vascular surgeon about MRI or CT-Scan (exotic X-Ray) for diagnosing spinal conditions, they see different things and ideally you get both.
I have had both (CT-Scans are hard, i am allergictothe dye they usually use).
The surgeon used one of them to diagnoise my back issues to spinal stenosis. I am now using a 2-wheel walker again (had touse one when i relearned how to walk).
I really need surgery, and it seems the hotspot to get it is Germany. Now i just have to figure out how to afford it.
dave
I have had both (CT-Scans are hard, i am allergictothe dye they usually use).
The surgeon used one of them to diagnoise my back issues to spinal stenosis. I am now using a 2-wheel walker again (had touse one when i relearned how to walk).
I really need surgery, and it seems the hotspot to get it is Germany. Now i just have to figure out how to afford it.
dave
The main argument for surgical treatment is nerve compression. If the nerves are free, the conservative therapy are often better than invasive.
If the muscular stiffnes dominates (as protective mechanism), the local heat can cause improvement of symptoms immediately. My experience are very good with electric heating pad. But acute inflammation will be worse! If the first 3 minutes isn't better with pad, must wait a week or more.
The duloxetin and amitriptyline often are good, but the tricyclic antidepressants (amitriptyline) have anticholinerg side effects (at prostatic hypertrophy can dangerous).
The alpha lipoic acid (thioctic acid) is the secret weapon. It has good safety profile and has a lot of pleiotropic effect (for example, it can reduce the cardiovascular and cancer-mortality). Sometimes it's very good analgetic.
The chiropractor story.... have you tried that?
This thread got me thinking... I've had back pain that was diagnosed as arthritis... a couple of aspirin at night seems to help.
Maybe I should call my Chinese friends and find a good chiropractor. Our city is almost half Chinese anyhow... and the specialist doctor that checked me out was American-Chinese. He recommended physical therapy and nothing else... which has sort of worked. ( Note, he took one X-Ray, then he looked at me and TALKED to me.... that's my kind of doctor).
Good luck.
Oh, honestly... don't joke... have you tried drinking a bit of cognac as a nightcap? I find that a little bit of liquor relaxes me quite a bit.
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My family has a history, so I abstain from alcohol.
I’m just trying to make it to Friday when I get my MRI.
I’m hoping it will provide enough useful information to determine if the injections are a viable option.
My current concern is that with all the ibuprofen I am taking (800-1000mg a day) I am starting to experience some discomfort in my digestive system. Some cramps, irritation and spasming. I’ve taken it for years, but not doses this high. They did have me taking 600-800 mg horse pills back in 2022 when I was reinjured.
I spoke with a pharmacist today who said I should try switching to Aleve twice a day. Supposedly it’s slightly less likely to cause heart problems and having it go through my digestive system fewer times per day might be better.
I’m just trying to make it to Friday when I get my MRI.
I’m hoping it will provide enough useful information to determine if the injections are a viable option.
My current concern is that with all the ibuprofen I am taking (800-1000mg a day) I am starting to experience some discomfort in my digestive system. Some cramps, irritation and spasming. I’ve taken it for years, but not doses this high. They did have me taking 600-800 mg horse pills back in 2022 when I was reinjured.
I spoke with a pharmacist today who said I should try switching to Aleve twice a day. Supposedly it’s slightly less likely to cause heart problems and having it go through my digestive system fewer times per day might be better.
Naproxen in the UK. I've been prescribed naproxen a few times and it always came with something to counteract the negative effects on the stomach. Not sure Aleve is any different in that regard.
Hope the MRI is useful and leads to an accurate diagnosis and some helpful treatment.
All of NSAID's are stomach-killer. The COX2 inhibitors are better (for stomach), but the renal and cardial side effects aren't neglible.
There's a timed release version of Naproxen as well. Has stuff added to it so it doesn't wreck the stomach. Long-term use can wreck the kidneys so discuss with your doctor.
Tom
The relaxing effect may help someone fall asleep. Too bad it doesn't help them stay asleep. Alcohol also changes the sleep architecture (among other things it postpones the REM sleep) so I'm not a fan of alcohol as a remedy for bad sleep.
Tom
Unfortunately, the digestive system is target for NSAID-molecules. At parenteral usage causes stomach ulcer too... At longer therapy will be more tolerable with PPI stomach-protection (pantoprazole, esomeprazole for example).