Hi,

I'm new to this board. I've had back problems for 3 months now. I went to a physical therapist for 3 months and never got a correct diagnosis. I just started going to a chiropractor who seems to have gotten it right. He says I have SI problems. sacroiliac joints are giving me problems. He says that he doesn't see anything serious and that he thinks he can have me feeling good within 3 weeks. He is a very respected chiropractor in the community so i want to put my faith in him. After my first manipulation I feel relief in some areas and more pain in others. I'm so depressed over this. I'm only 26. I'm so worried that this isn't going to work and I'll have this pain forever. My husband isn't very sympathetic which makes this even harder. I guess I'm just looking for some encouraging words from people who suffer from this same problem.

Hi, I almost didn't write b/c I don't have encouraging words regarding my own low back/si problem, and I don't want to upset you, but I am going to write b/c I need to tell you to demand the best care and tests from a specialist right away. Not that si problems usually show up on MRI's, but you will want to have your discs looked at, and diagnostic si blocks can be done, too. I was 28 when I was hurt at work, and b/c I was caught in the horrible worker's comp system, I got lousy, lousy care. But the chiro did help, and still does - but only for anywhere from an hour to 3 days pretty much. I've had si phys therapy, si blocks, and got an si rhizotomy last week. I will tell you how the rhizotomy goes - I should know in 3 weeks they say. Well, I'm almost 30 and it's been 14 months now, and I know that is depressing to you, but I'm just telling you so you will seek immediate attention and make sure that this does not happen to YOU! I honestly feel if they hadn't 'played around' with me for a year I'd be better, and I don't want to see you like that. You - we both - are too young. Best of the luck to you, try to get in w/ a specialist today! We'll be thinking about you!

Oh - I just reread and saw you were w/ a pt already - does that mean you've already been w/ a specialist? Maybe a different kind, then! By the way, out of curiosity, is a lot of your pain in the "dimples" area in the low back?

Dear SI sufferer,

Your hubby needs to take a gander at some of the postings here on this board. Back pain is NOTHING to scoff at or take less than seriously. It can become a life-time problem if left untreated and uncared for. Personally, my primary care physician for my injury is a chiropractor. He is the BEST. But I was lucky....as I hope you are too. Take him at his word...if he cannot help you in 3 weeks, then you need to go to the next step. If he is worth his weight in gold, he should have NO problem sending you to a specialist or to get you an MRI or CTscan or whatever else you need.

Instability of the back is where the chiro will get you if he is going to be getting you (so to speak). If after 3 weeks, you are still not feeling better (you shouldn't be seeing him more than 3 times a week) you may have a more serious problem (herniations, ruptures, tears, etc. etc.). The only way to be sure is to have an MRI and/or CTscan of what is going on inside. Instability (the reason his treatments are not working the way they should be) can be indicative of the 3 reasons I mentioned above and the only way to tell if you have those things above is to have them diagnostically scanned. Chiropractors are not known to be conducive to these kinds of decisions (going to another doctor to perform scans and such). He should have a few good doctors/surgeons/etc. available to him (like a specialist) to send you to if his treatments are not having the right effect upon you. If he is loathe to send you elsewhere for help, then get out of there. Anyone who prefers to keep you in pain because they think THEY can help you is not what you want. You need someone to listen to you when and where it hurts so they can help you, make sure you keep getting the attention and information and help that you require.

One thing you can tell your hubby. You have injured an area that houses the body's entire nervous system. There is no blood going to the disks so healing takes FOREVER. Pick up a tennis shoe the wrong way and you are down for days. My pain had gotten so bad I could no longer walk. My hubby had to hold me in the shower in order to go to the bathroom. It is sad....but lots of times us spineys have to deal with partners who do not understand. It took my hubby a very long time (and finally holding me in the bathroom) to get it. He has never questioned me again.

I even stomped on my hubby's foot and told him I didn't want to hear about any pain (I would have busted his toes if I was wearing heavy shoes) at all while he walked around and stuff. I told him to imagine that same exact pain going on for 24/7...all the time....every day....every night....in every waking moment. Now.....how nice would YOU be? Look up all kinds of information on websites like spineuniverse (just do a search on spine or back problems, etc.)....you can get an understanding of what is going on with your back, your hubby can learn too. Read the postings, do a search on SI on this website and you should get lots of info. Your hubby needs to wake up and smell the coffee--this isn't going away in a week or 2. Just because he cannot "SEE" your injury, doesn't mean you are not hurt. Does he ever get heart burn (you can't see it so how do you know he is in pain?--unless he belly aches about it), or has he ever twisted his ankle or broken a bone? Or has he had kidney stones or appendix problems or ........Well, if he has experienced any of those things--he might have some idea of what our pain is like. Sounds like "he's a maaaaaan" and would never admit to being in any kind of pain (give him the stomp test). Not all guys are like this, but too many are.

Unfortunately, many spineys have lost their significant others because our problems can take YEARS to fix (I've never heard of anyone that got up and out of surgery and went back to their previous life the very next day)--it ALWAYS takes time to heal. Backs take longer than broken arms and such. There is PT and actually a life-change that needs to happen in order for most of us to continue with our lives. Personally, I can't horseback ride or play baseball or tennis anymore since my back problems began. I do other things instead. But you see what I mean?

Support is what we desperately need....at least you will get it at this website. Just don't sit too long while you are here! hehe Try printing out articles and such and read while laying prone--that's what I did for a while until I moved my computer next to my bed (right before surgery when I couldn't walk anymore). Check out the post-surgery tips thread. It has some great ideas for you to use even now (like getting reachers/grabbers, a special pillow to sit on, etc.).
Good luck to you.

S1 sufferer, please get an MRI asap! if you have a ruptured disc or other disc injury, manipulation can possibly do further damage. please get the MRI done so you can get a proper diagnosis. then, if all is ok on that front, go to the wonderful chiropracter all you want. personally, i would not start there; i would start with a doc who sends you for an MRI and gives you a fully explained diagnosis. there is certainly a time for chiro and physical therapy, but i think that at the beginning, before you've had the proper tests done and gotten an accurate diagnosis, is not the time. if you do have a disc injury, i want you to know that i had an L5-S1 ruptured disc that became unbearable, and i had the microsurgery done. i feel like a new person. so don't give up -- there are lots of success stories out there.

dustie

If this chiro did not order an MRI, on what does he base his diagnosis? He should not be doing manipulations when he doesn't KNOW what is wrong...he is making a "guess" and you are the one who could end up paying for his mistaken diagnosis.

Please make an appointment with a spine specialist and have the proper tests done so that you don't end up with more problems than you already have.

Let us know, will you? Good luck.

Carol

Hi,

I'm new to this board. I've had back problems for 3 months now. I went to a physical therapist for 3 months and never got a correct diagnosis. I just started going to a chiropractor who seems to have gotten it right. He says I have SI problems. sacroiliac joints are giving me problems. He says that he doesn't see anything serious and that he thinks he can have me feeling good within 3 weeks. He is a very respected chiropractor in the community so i want to put my faith in him. After my first manipulation I feel relief in some areas and more pain in others. I'm so depressed over this. I'm only 26. I'm so worried that this isn't going to work and I'll have this pain forever. My husband isn't very sympathetic which makes this even harder. I guess I'm just looking for some encouraging words from people who suffer from this same problem.

I started out about five years ago feeling pain in my lower back. I had been going in for adjustments from my DO (a doctor who specializes in *whole body care* but mostly on the back). He never told me that I had a problem with instabilty of the spine, just gladly took my money and adjusted my pelvis.

Five years ago I went to see a Chriropractor as he was giving a deal on first treatments. That was a HUGE mistake. He had me stand on two scales at the same time and told me that I weighed more on one side than the other. He then hooked me up to some electrical machine and did a reading and told me that I was more tense in my shoulder area than anyone that he had ever treated. I was a little apprehensive at this point as I had just taken Xanax and knew that I was not tense, at all. In fact, I was feeling pretty relaxed.

He did an adjustment, no mention of looseness.

I went back, this time he told me to walk it out.

I sent him a nasty gram and told him that he was a charlatan. I notice now that he only does OWCP cases or accidents as that is where the money is.

Anyway, I had an accident at work last June. I filed a OWCP claim, it was approved for a back sprain and I went back to work. I had a nagging pain in my back but had closed out my claim.

I saw two different DOs. One offered me the patch and did an adjustment. The other kept doing adjustments but I knew that something was not right. I got on the net and researched my problem. I have come a hundred miles since I started.

I ended up scheduling my own appointments. I set up my own MRI and Xrays. When I called they were booked up for three months. I also scheduled Prolotherapy as my back was not stable and I knew it. Nothing on my MRI suggested this but I knew my body. I could do, what I refer to as unlocking my hips" for years, when I danced. This streteched out my ligaments. Ligaments don't go back to their shape without help.

I had Prolotherapy done twice. It hurt like he@@ but was worth every dollar that I paid in cash as insurance doesn't cover it but now my ligaments are back in place. When you stretch out your ligaments it pulls on your back. Same as if you have tight ham strings, that pulls on your lower back.

I thought that I would be pain free but I still had pain. I had arthritis in my L4. I had solved the L5/SI, not cured, but better. I take arthritis medicine now.

I still have a nagging pain in the dimple area of my back. It feels like a while hot poker and nothing even touches the pain level. I can actually feel a knot back there. I have an appointment with the Neurologist next week.

I just wanted to share with you what I have gone through to help you to understand the long, walk or crawl for some of us, that it takes to get some answers or solutions.

I had to pretty much diagnose myself and find answers on the net. The MRI that I ultimately had done reaffirmed that I had problems in my back. Had I not set up the appointments on my own I would still be waiting for them. I had to bypass the whole insurance process.

If your significant other doesn't understand, and how could they if they have never felt it, take a steralized pin and stick it in a sensitive spot on his body and tell him to multiply that by about a million. Or pull a body hair from his nose or face. That pretty much did it for my husband until he injured his neck.

Neither my MRI or my husband's MRI told the whole story. You need a complete work up, not by a PT or a Chiropractor, but by a back specialist.

I would then move onto tests, EMG, discogram if that is what is needed, X-rays, and a physical.

While all of this was going on I lifted or twisted and injured something in the left side of my back. It is the right side that is giving me problems. I immediately laid on ice for twenty minutes and it went away. That was acute pain. It sounds like you might have chronic pain. That is a whole new ballpark.


I would NEVER have a facet block or an epidural shot. Read The Burton Report. They will try to give it to you to diagnose your problem, refuse it. Refuse all steroids.

There is a site that deals with what is referred to as common pain. I read that today. It was very insightful. It deals with pain and how pain works in the body. After reading it I had a whole new respect for people who endure this pain and who don't put a bullet to their brains.

The body is a wonderful, amazing thing and can heal itself if given time, in ideal circumstances, but the planets must align, I think as mine has not healed itself.

Print out The Burton Report if you can find it and read it in bed tonight.

good luck,

back pain is the worst thing that I have ever had to endure in my life!

i want to append a comment that I made, look up central pain, not common pain

Hi - I have had back problems for most of my life, and recently learned that I probably have SI. The SI problem has been a problem for 22 years. I have gone the route of having a chiropractor adjust my pelvis, only to have pain again in a couple of days. The only thing that worked was when I had an MD give me exercises to strengthen my thighs using weights, he said that since my back couldn't carry my weight well, that my thighs could if I strengthened them. This worked very well, but of course I eventually got bored.

I have learned a lot about stretching the back and the main muscle of the pelvic girdle and that helps too. I do treat myself with antiinflammatories for about a week when it starts to be a problem.

I am in massage therapy school now, and have learned from a PT instructor that since my big problems began after the birth of my first child, sometimes when the ligaments relax in pregnancy they do not go back properly. She encouraged me to see a chiropractor who specialized in SI, and a key word would be nutration. I have not looked into this and can't speak for it, but am planning on doing that for a "real fix." For me, I would be happy if I could function with minimal pain, I am not expecting a "cure." I do exercise and mostly lead a happy life while paying attention to my body for signals that pain might be coming my way.

Hope this helps!

lovepatt

Hi all
Just wanted to sympathize/moan as well.
My SI is totally out of whack. My chiro said I keep spraining my back b/c things are so instable-has anyone else been told that too?
I am no longer seeing him right now as my insurance only gives me 10 visits and I used 5 a few months ago and am waiting till July when I have my baby to go back and try to readjust things again.
I never had an MRI but did have xrays which showed a curvature in my tailbone which seemed to be dismissed by the radiologist that i was lying wrong-which is baloney b/c I stayed where they put me. I also have bursitis in my hips and tendonitis in my knees that I believe are caused by the SI problem. I have two other children and the last one was when all these things (plus fibromyalgia) seems to really start up full force.
SI problems were bad before I was pregnant, and pretty much stayed the same thruout (I'm at 7 months now) If I lie down, I can barely move my leg or get to standing when I want to get back up and the pain is so bad esp. when I first lie down I actually do my Lamaze breathing to try and get through it without crying.
The only thing that seems to help is moist heat since I cant take any pain meds right now.
My sister is a pt, I have done chrio, pool therapy, etc. to no avail. SI joint problems are so frustrating-I cant even pick up a jug of milk without hurting myself. Anyways, just wanted to say, I sympathize and wish there was at least some answer to help us out-most docs dont seem to have one.
Wishing you a pain free day :)

product tramp:

You mentioned looseness. Have you looked up loose ligaments? That is what keeps your back in place. The only way to get those ligaments back in shape is with Prolotherapy. Surgeon General had it done and it worked for him. :)