Thought on back pain treatment.

May sound strange but my Tempurpedic mattress resolved decades of back pain.

Pilates

Baclofen.

While the extent of my spasms are way less than they used to be (I went from wanting to die to just being inconvenienced), the frequency has ramped up a lot. According to “the best doc in town” I’m just going to have spasms for my whole life and nothing can be done.

Yoga helps. Physical therapy helps. Muscle relaxers help. All that said, I spend almost an hour a day stretching. I’d kill for some stem cells shot directly into my spine.

Your best bets are exercise more and weigh less. Docs can’t do much about back pain.

Go see a PT before you elect to get injected with potential snake oil. Degenerative changes at your age are normal and something a PT has seen a million times.

Since you're in Katy, I suggest going to Reese Chiropractic. It's more of massage for athletes and injury recovery than it is what most people consider Chiro. There's kind of a blend of about to be divorced women that work out a ton, and a bunch of people with joint and back pain that clearly don't work out at all.

She suggested a Zinus mattress, and a new pillow, and it solved nagging issues. Tell her and whomever is doing the rehab work on you what hurts, where, and they'll go digging for the root cause. And oh, do her people dig.

Had a sudden case of sciatica shooting down and cramping my left leg after a night of PS4 Mortal Kombat while sitting on a hard office chair. Freaked me out as I had no idea what was wrong. MRI showed L3-L4 are screwed up. Went to PT and lucked out with a very knowledgeable older man who told me about the (Robin) McKenzie method or extension stretch exercise, similar to a Yoga pose. You can find his books on Amazon which cover the back, neck, and hips.

There's a video of it further down on this link. It's amazing how effective it is. You can't over-arch your back according to the PT/book. I was initially told to do it every 2 hours per day. Over the last couple years, when I've skipped and muscle cramping/sciatica creep back, it can be reversed if you get back into the exercise. The PT also emphasized you have to maintain good posture or it'll interfere with the exercise progress. It's a very good means to avoid surgery for some back injuries. Best of luck!


LINK

I had a physical job and my back was hurting a good deal as well as my right hip and leg. When I retired I took it easy for a couple of weeks and it eased up until I push mowed the lawn. My right hip lit up the next day and I was at square one again.

I went to the hip doctor and my hip was bone on bone and I wound up with a hip replacement. I figured that was what was causing my back problems. But during my recovery and walking my left hip started wearing me out with pain.

Come to find out I had a herniated disc in my back pressing on the sciatic nerve going down that side. I’ve always said I’d never let anyone cut on my spine, but I reached the point to where I had no choice. I slept in a chair, not recliner, just so I could get up to pee in the night or get up at all.

I had surgery to repair it and the pain is gone now and after several months of not sleeping in a bed it was great to lay down and sleep.


I’m sorry for your pain and hope you find the solution. Look for second and third opinions if necessary. The only way to understand this is to live it.

I had heard about regenerative therapy but I was past that.

I have an issue with T4 and T5 in my back. Degenerative issues.

Acupuncture helped. It was so bad and nothing else was working. All they would do is offer more pain pills.

It took three treatments and my back and neck were pain free. It lasted about six or so months until I had to go back again.

That's all I got. I hope you get some help.