Hello! I'm sorry if this turns out long, but I have no one else to turn to. About 5-6 years ago, I took a nasty spill on a patch of ice. It didn't hurt at the time, so I stupidly didn't go to the doctor. I went to work *waitressing* that night, and kept on working for about a year, until I decided the pain was so bad, that I went to the ER. An Xray showed a compression fracture of the L1. I was out of work for 6 weeks. I then went to my GP who ordered Physical Therapy. My insurance ran out on that not long after I started going. Then I was told to go to an Orthopedic Surgeon. I believe I went to 2 of those. Went to a walk in. Another doctor, and finally, a neurologist. None of them did me any good, really. I was told by a few it was just strain from waitressing. I was in such unbearable pain. One of them ordered an MRI, which also showed mild disc dessication. I was always just sent to PT. I finally gave up because my insurance was running out, and none of these "doctors" were doing any good for me. It was always "let's give the girl some pills, and shove her out the door". Not long after the whole ordeal, I lost my job & lost my insurance.

My stepdads cousin is a Chirpractor. I was desperate, and he gave me a break, knowing I had no insurance. However, he did not do any tests. Not even an Xray. He had me do things such as push on his hand with my feet, etc., and told me I had a muscle imbalance. He told me the old fracture wouldn't be causing me such pain, and that they were common. He said I had the imbalance because I was using more of my right side than my left. He also told me my nerves in my back would one day rot, and my back would go numb. He cracked my back quite a few times, and really didn't do any good.

Fast forward to today, a couple of years later - and my mom convinced me to go to her chiropractor. My whole family goes to her. When I went, she did a full orthopedic & neurological workup. I also told her my knees and shoulder/neck have been hurting for years too. My shoulder/neck area tingles quite often. She took an Xray, and told me I was all misaligned. Now my question is, would that cause unbearable pain, and my neck/shoulder area to tingle? She told me nothing was wrong with the discs, but the MRI years ago did show dessication. The problem is - my insurance will only pay for a ocuple of months, and she's telling me it may take up to 6 months to fix the problem. She barely touches me now, because my body doesn't respond well to adjustments. She hasn't even touched the shoulder/neck area or the knees.

I forgot to add - I can not sit or stand for long periods of time, at all. I can not drive for more than maybe a half an hour most of the time, and when I have layed on the hardwood floor, because I have heard that it good for you - I have shooting pains all in one area in my lower back. I have to have somebody lift me from the floor. And lately, when I bend over a little bit to put my nephew in his crib, somebody has to help me up too. Wow, it's all just so depressing sometimes. Especially when you've been to like 8 doctors or so, who really haven't helped you!

Hi there. The fracture may never have healed properly or has calcified, meaning you may have spurring sticking out and irritating the nerve at that level. The degeneration of discs can cause awful pain for some. Over 90% of us spineys suffer from the dessication of the discs. You may now have a bulging disc somewhere.

Chiros are not well favored on this particular board. Most have done more harm than good for majority of us. Many like one of the ones you saw.. did no testing on you, told you had issues. This current one you said did a "full work up on you". What exactly was that? First off, and Xray will not tell her squat as to the health of any of your discs in your spine. And that fact you had a fracture, the least to be done is a CT Scan of that area of your spine.

Also note.. majority of Chiros are not doctors. They can not prescribe medications to you, and I might be wrong on this one so anyone correct me if I am wrong.. they can't even order an MRI or a CT Scan. A chiro could cause you harm by manipulating your spine incorrectly.

The fact you've had a spinal fracture, I would not put my trust in a non-doctor (aka - Chiro) to treat me, especially since you continue to be in so much pain.

In the past you said those doctors gave you pills, PT and sent you on your way. This is the first initial common practice for treatment of degenerative discs as frustrating as it may have been. Usually medication and PT are what is needed to help the patient deal with disc aging and PT can strengthen the back and core muscles to protect it and also reduces pain. It helps many people and surgery is most often NOT needed and people regain normalcy and go on with their lives.

Surgery is a last resort. Most surgeons are not cut happy these days and will try mega non-surgical ways to help their patients before surgery is offered, unless it's very clear that surgery is needed immediately.

YOu need to see a orthopaedic spine surgeon for proper diagnosis and treatment. You can not afford take your spine for granted. You sound like you might have a bulging disc pressing on a nerve in your lumbar spine. So you really need to be seen properly. I think with an MRI you will know alot more about what's going on in your spine.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

Hi there. The fracture may never have healed properly or has calcified, meaning you may have spurring sticking out and irritating the nerve at that level. The degeneration of discs can cause awful pain for some. Over 90% of us spineys suffer from the dessication of the discs. You may now have a bulging disc somewhere.

Chiros are not well favored on this particular board. Most have done more harm than good for majority of us. Many like one of the ones you saw.. did no testing on you, told you had issues. This current one you said did a "full work up on you". What exactly was that? First off, and Xray will not tell her squat as to the health of any of your discs in your spine. And that fact you had a fracture, the least to be done is a CT Scan of that area of your spine.

Also note.. majority of Chiros are not doctors. They can not prescribe medications to you, and I might be wrong on this one so anyone correct me if I am wrong.. they can't even order an MRI or a CT Scan. A chiro could cause you harm by manipulating your spine incorrectly.

The fact you've had a spinal fracture, I would not put my trust in a non-doctor (aka - Chiro) to treat me, especially since you continue to be in so much pain.

In the past you said those doctors gave you pills, PT and sent you on your way. This is the first initial common practice for treatment of degenerative discs as frustrating as it may have been. Usually medication and PT are what is needed to help the patient deal with disc aging and PT can strengthen the back and core muscles to protect it and also reduces pain. It helps many people and surgery is most often NOT needed and people regain normalcy and go on with their lives.

Surgery is a last resort. Most surgeons are not cut happy these days and will try mega non-surgical ways to help their patients before surgery is offered, unless it's very clear that surgery is needed immediately.

YOu need to see a orthopaedic spine surgeon for proper diagnosis and treatment. You can not afford take your spine for granted. You sound like you might have a bulging disc pressing on a nerve in your lumbar spine. So you really need to be seen properly. I think with an MRI you will know alot more about what's going on in your spine.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

Thank you so much! Yes, I know many people benefit from PT, and doctors normally give out pills. It was just frustrating because half the doctors I saw didn't do anything BUT tell me it was strain from waitressing, hand me pills and send me on my way. My current Chiro did Xrays, of course - and then range of motion tests. Such a nasty sound to turn your neck a little bit, and hear a crack. When I bent backwards, the pain just soared through my lower back. She told me the spine was just misaligned, and saw the collapsed vertebrae. She told me it did heal. I don't want to waste my time. My insurance will only conver so much until the end of the year. I've been going for 3 weeks, and am still totally the same, painwise. I know it's not an overnight thing, but I was hoping to feel even a wee bit better. A bulging dic you say? Would I need to get a referral from my GP to go see an Orthopedic Doctor?

You probably would need a referral from your GP. Be sure to emphasize that fall on the ice. It sounds like you're young and when you're young, the medical field assumes a little PT and some anti-inflammatories should do the trick. If you're thinking there is a chance it's something else, you'd be better off knowing sooner rather than later. This is not to scare you, but so you can get the proper treatment. It may still mean PT, but the therapy will be more focused. Or there may be other recommended treatments and strategies you can do at home to protect your back. I'd hold off on the chiropractic until you have more information because it seems like it's not helping you. Use your insurance while you can! Perhaps look into ways to extending it - a different job or ???

Good luck and let us know how you do.
- Margaret

Margaret is right on. YOu need to get a referral, if that is the way your insurance works, to a good spine doc and get this looked at. PT is the normal start of any type of treatment because it is the first and easiest route to take and usually will have some results without having to do any invasive proceedure.

Please leave the chiro and get thee to a doc so you can ultilize your insurance benefits and find out what is really wrong and get going down a path of healing. It's no fun suffering. I know. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

let us know how you fare.....

Well - life has been grabbing me away for a while, but I'm glad to see some people responded, and I thank you! :) Honestly, I have gone back a few times since my first post. I know I shouldn't. I'm just too much of a chicken to tell her I don't want to go back. She's so darn pushy. But she's so rough. :( I feel like she's just jumping up and down on my back! Everytime I go, she asks me how I felt after her last adjustment. Even if I tell her worse, she goes harder on me. Sometimes I feel like she's just frustrated that she's not getting anywhere with me, and she's taking it out on my back! My brother gives me the schpeel about how if you think the Chiropractor is helping, it is. "It's all in your mind". She really helped him with his problem, I guess. And to the poster who said I sounded young - sadly, I'm not. I'm turning 29 soon! Anyways, I go back for a re-exam on Tuesday, so I'll see then. I can't move my neck to the side as far as I could when I first started going. When I move it to one side, I get a stabbing pain in that shoulder blade.

My dear....

Here is your choice...you can keep going back because you are "too chicken to tell her that you don't want to". Or you can allow her to keep working on you and possible end up with her doing permanent damage to you. You said that you can't move your neck because of what she has done. Is that not warning enough? Who is doing the re-eval? Not her?

I would be running as far away from her as I could get. It's real easy. You cancel the appoints and say you can't return. End of discussion. She sounds likesomeone who is waiting to do longterm damage....and on your neck,..from there you get full paralysis...............

Stop seeing the chiropractor. Do some research and find out where there is a practice in your area that specialized in spine disorders. I did PT early on with no success and once I got going with a spine specialist they didn't make me do PT again since it didn't work before. They started with epidural injections and once that wasn't working we talked surgery in which I did have 3 months ago.

Any doctor worth a grain of salt in the spine industry won't waste your time or theirs with silly theories about your problems stemming from waitressing. Being on your feet a lot probably didn't help, but it's not the reason for your pain. Sounds like you have a deteriorated disc that need tended to. Have you had any injections yet? That's the first thing you want to do. You may find great relief from that. You definately need some medication for the pain. It's okay to take them if you need them!

My biggest mistake in all the years I've been dealing with my back was seeing a chiro for about 6 months. I could just kick myself for wasting time and money on something that probably did more harm then good. Chiro's have no business helping people like us with serious injurys. They are maybe only good for general aches and pains. All this crap about tension or pain on this side or the other because of this or that is just a bunch of bunk. Their approach is too simple for serious back issues.

Please stop seeing the chiropractor.

Erika, everyone has already said this, but I'm going to say it too..."NO" to the chiro. I don't care how aggressive she is, just don't go. Period.

Have you ever tried to find an OSS? That's Orthopedic Spine Specialist. He has a fellowship in neurosurgery, and limits his practice to the spine only. In my humble opinion, I think they are usually better than neurosurgeons in that they are friendlier and less "stuffy". The neuro's I have seen have never wanted to take time to explain things or sit down and talk...just tell you to do this or that, take this pill or have this surgery and then just like that, they're out of the room leaving you with a mouthful of questions.

I've had 2 OSS's and both have been wonderful. My first one retired, turned his practice over to another one. My first appointment with the new guy was a dream. He sat and went over my records with me, and talked TO me not AT me. To this day, when he comes into the room, he pulls up a chair to talk with me and I wouldn't trade him for the most famous neuro in the world! Anyway, you might want to try and find one; they aren't difficult to locate.

Again, please don't go back to the chiro. She could put you in a wheelchair forever because she simply isn't trained and because she wants to keep you coming in time after time. X-rays aren't worth a hoot in spine cases. It just isn't worth the chance.

Best of luck....and please keep posting.

Carol

Here is my suggestion, go to your primary care physician and ask for an MRI. Ask for a referral to a neurosurgeon or spine specialist, your doctor should know who the best in your area are, and take your MRI there and get a proper diagnosis. Do not let anyone pop or adjust your spine.

I know this chiro stuff always starts a big debate here and this is my opinion ok.

MOST chrio's can't even prescribe medicine, why is that? Because they aren't doctors. And you are having a serious longterm problem....this isn't a little sprain or something. Our spines control our whole bodys, it holds every nerve, everything that makes us work OR NOT WORK. Do not let anyone adjust your spine. Even most surgeon's try not to ever do surgery unless absolutely necessary. Your spine is a very important thing. If popping it helped alot, they would probably be telling you to have that done or doing it themselves.

When I first injured my back 18 years ago, the top surgeon in our area said DO NOT EVER LET ANYONE POP OR ADJUST YOUR BACK UNLESS YOU WANT TO END UP WORSE OR IN A WHEELCHAIR. AND it wasn't for his financial gain either, he refused surgery and said I was to young. I hated him for it then because I was in so much pain, but it lasted another 18 years before going through the same surgery...fusion.

We all get tired of them treating the symptoms instead of the problem. But, back surgery is major and you want to avoid it as long as possible if you even need it. We all go through many rounds of pt, steroid injections, meds, rest etc.

Hang in there and get yourself a MRI and know for sure what's going on in there by an expert.

hugs vette

Thanks for the responses! Any advice helps. :) I'm the type of person who gets talked into anything, really. So I hope when I tell them I'm not going back, I can actually not get sucked into staying. I'm just going to have to be firm, no matter how hard she pushes. She's so darn pushy. I hate it. I know I shouldn't have, but I went back just for my re evaluation. I feel worse then the first day I went in, and this is 12 visits later. People keep telling me "Well, you've been in pain for years, and she is readjusting you, you are bound to be in some pain". Ugh. My range of motion is worse, yet she claims I have improved. Just because I felt fine today, means nothing really. But that's what she went on. I had no clue I was going to get an adjustment - I almost cried on the table. I came home in 10 times more pain than I went in with.

Oh well. I guess it's back to the drawing board. I had a gut feeling. I've been through 8 doctors, an Xray, MRI and I believe a CatScan. I thought it rather odd that she could figure out everything that was wrong from a single XRay.