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Hi Mr. B: I too have alot of back pain, lower back mostly but I have scoliosis and have neck pain also with headaches. What have you tried so far? I have always been told that back surgery should be avoided at all costs unless nothing else works. I went to PT, that helped for awhile. Then I stopped doing the exercises and all the pain came back. Recently I got cortisone shots in my neck and back. Helped the neck alot. Not the back much. I just bought an inversion table, took 4 days to put it together and I am getting up the courage to use it. Most people say it really does help. I would never do back surgery, ever, but that's just me.
I am fortunate to have a health nut for a daughter and she makes me go to the gym with her 3 days a week. I used to have back aches but since starting the back workouts, I don't lay awake at night anymore. Sore at first, but it sure helps me.
Two posts, other than the OP's posts, and two people are helped by exercise. This makes a lot of sense to me. We should all be doing some strength work (weighted workouts) after age 50, whether we have back issues or not, as it will help us avoid getting them. I go to a class where the instructors make sure the work is well balanced. Here is what I mean by balanced: If you work the biceps, you should work the triceps (and vice-versa). If you work the hamstrings, you should work the quadriceps (and vice-versa). If you work the back, you should work the chest and abs (and vice-versa). After age 50 (more or less) we start to lose muscle mass, and weight work helps counter-act that loss, as well as keep the tendons and bones strong. I cannot say this is a panacea, and weight work may or may not do the trick for the OP. But of course if there are already back issues one should be careful and probably work under the direction of a physical therapist (who is likely to know a lot more than the average gym instructor). You may ask what good is muscle strengthening if the problem is with the spine, that is, with the vertebrae, which are bones? Well, there are muscles which support and hold the spine (mainly but not limited to the erector spinae and the quadratus lumborum (spelling uncertain on the latter). So strengthening these muscles helps the spine tremendously.
Back fusion operation.
Cost assessment, operation and aftercare. Anybody know of any information.
I have never heard of one single case - not one - where pain was relieved by a back operation.
I would ask around - people who have had the procedure. You will see for yourself, it is generally useless.
Unfortunately, I do not have any holistic advice to "spout" off to you about this. Other than, I would certainly find a chiropractor that I trust and have him give you a full assessment or if you do not trust chiropractors, an osteopathic doctor.
I would also do some serious, and I mean serious, investigation on naturopathic and holistic options that will keep the problem from getting WORSE from this point on. You don't want to end up in a wheelchair and addicted to pain medication just to get through the day.
Back fusion operation.
Cost assessment, operation and aftercare. Anybody know of any information.
I have had several lower back fusions due to degenerative disc disease in the 1970's, and then several more in the cervical spine as the result of a serious accident in the 1990's.
In no case did other forms of treatment provide relief from the pain or allow me to have a normal life. This may be the case for other folks, but for me it exacerbated my pain in some cases and the degeneration became worse while I was taking the conservative approach. The worst mistake I made was not going to top level doctors in the beginning.
After three years of pursuing conservative treatment, I was no longer able to work, and one day was unable to get out of bed...and worse to even reach the telephone only about two feet away as the pain was excruciating beyond anything I had ever experienced before or since, and that includes a heart attack. I was alone, and it was a weekend. I lay in agony, in my own urine and feces until someone came home two days later and I was taken to the emergency unit.
After surgery, which in the 1970's involved huge incisions, etc. etc. I recovered, could work again, go out, dance, etc. and had a very normal life, and most of all it was 95% pain-free.
At the same time in the 70's a co-worker had a similar problem, though he was much younger, mid-twenties. After all the assessments and attempts at conservative treatment, his condition was so painful, so often that he could not work. He had just gotten married, by the way. Surgery was the only option as the damage had become severe -- but he was scared out of his wits by the thought of it. He is now well beyond middle age, has spent his life at home, then in a wheelchair, became fat as a hog and has never worked since his mid-twenties. His wife has supported them, and they have never had children. I understand that he lies in bed after all these years like a beached whale, railing that the doctors don't understand his pain or they would give him even more painkillers.
My cervical spine surgery as a result of an accident in the 90's was a whole different medical world from the 70's. Despite multiple cervical fusions and a metal plate it was duck soup. I was out of the hospital two days after it was done, and recovery was steady and successful.
And nowadays surgical techniques are even more minimally invasive and much better - if surgery is needed, and recovery is quite quick. It is not unusual to leave the hospital a day or two after lumbar surgery now.
You can search the net and get a wealth of information; however, an assessment by an orthopedist and a neural surgeon are what you really need, with an MRI and xrays, etc. Not all spine degeneration ends as horrifically as mine or needs surgery - consult a doctor first. But I would also emphatically say, do not diddle around with other therapies before having a thorough medical assessment - find out what is going in your spine from competent orthopedic specialists before doing anything. Back pain, and I think especially lower back pain, can come from a myriad of causes, and having degenerated discs that do not cause pain is common, so this needs to be sorted out carefully.
In my experience the costs of spine surgery were very expensive in the U.S. I had to take loans to cover what my insurance would not pay.
However, now there a many, many excellent spine clinics in Europe and Asia that are much more affordable than what is offered in the U.S. Sometimes U.S. insurance companies will pre-approve treatment at hospitals abroad that they are familiar with because it costs them less. If you are on Medicare this isn't an option, of course.
I have alpot of firends that had back probelms rela6te to disc and fainally had surgery to get rid of the pain. with most they tried everyhting and nothing work over htree months and seldom relived the pai after that. All fianlly hadf surgery because of the contstant pian and now they say it was relly a blessing because it got worse and worse.Never really hearde of any disc roblem be solved for long anf not gettting worse with time from other treatment.
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