Recently Diagnosed

I would be open to talking to someone. Just not sure how bad it is. Ive had pain for years but no one ever even ordered an mri until now. The Rheumatologist that did couldn't believe it.
So, just learning

I respectfully disagree about the chiropractor, provided the one chosen is careful and thorough. My chiropractor who I've seen for years went to adjust me after I was unable to move after a trip and I was in so much pain after the adjustment that she refused to treat me until I had x-rays done. Then she had a 3-month plan ready for me when I saw her next, including being put on a traction table that I'd never been put on before. The traction table allowed me to start moving better, though I'm still in a lot of pain. I still get a little relief from being put on the traction table and see the chiro every week when I haven't had injections.

In the meantime, I've also been seeing a spine specialist who tried PT, the medi(c)al branch block, the injection in my sacroilium joint, and the spinal epidural. None of these have helped my pain. I went for a nerve study and will speak with the spine specialist tomorrow, but have been told that chances are the only thing left is to speak with a surgeon.

@januaryjane I hate to call out your neurologist about stenosis and urinary control issues, but stenosis may cause it even mild stenosis. I went through it myself. This is why you need a spine surgeon’s opinion. Neurologists don’t do surgery and focus on pain management and diagnosis of nerve problems. I realize driving is inconvenient, but it is worth it. I saw several spine surgeons within 2 hours of my home, and none got the diagnosis correct. I went to Mayo and that was a 5 and a half hour drive and that was really worth it. I got my coordination in my arms back, I got my energy back and stopped the progress toward disability. You’ve already been living with this a long time. Wouldn’t it be worth finding out if surgery can fix this? I can tell you, I was scared, but I figured out how to cope with that and the surgery wasn’t as bad as I imagined and I wasn’t in horrible pain. I even chose not to take pain medication because it nauseated me and I could manage without. I have no regrets. Incontinence symptoms can become permanent if spinal cord damage occurs. Your doctor doesn’t know when that permanent damage will happen, so earlier intervention is best. There is a waitlist for appointments with good surgeons and you may want a few different opinions. You need information to make an informed choice.

@msrobotics My comments about being careful with chiropractors is to be cautious about manipulation on damaged discs. Many other people read these posts and may not know they have a bad disc. It’s good that your chiropractor asked for imaging. My point is that you don’t know how weakened a disc may be until it fails. Some indicators might be the disc has lost height or some instability that allows the vertebrae to slip past each other a bit. All I was doing was turning my head and my disc ruptured. Muscle spasms can cause a lot of shifting of vertebrae and realignment takes the pressure off. There are gentle ways to do that. If a disc ruptures, you are on the way to more problems. It may be not so bad, but it may be bad and cause pain and get worse in time stimulating bone spurs to grow. Electric stimulation of the nerve roots in the problem areas may help reduce pain. That helped me with reduced pain for a week prior to my spine surgery. Regardless, patients need to advocate for solutions and educated choices if there are deficits or disabilities that may be able to be improved through surgery or physical therapy. When physical therapy fails to help, it may be time to consider surgery. Insurance companies often require physical therapy to access how significant the problem is. As a patient, the choice is yours. If you don’t have surgery, you need to know what may happen and how fast your condition may worsen or if the condition will become permanent. Disability affects the entire family when you can’t take care of yourself, and may cause financial hardship if family members can’t work or caregivers need to be hired, or modifications are needed to the home to accommodate wheelchairs, etc. These decisions can be scary, but not making a decision also may have consequences. Again, this may not your story and you have the choice in what you do. My parents were in wheelchairs and I had to take care of them which was exhausting and it kept me from holding a job when I was the only one taking on the responsibility without help from siblings. That was suddenly thrust upon me when my parents couldn’t manage on their own.

Thank you for clarifying your position on chiropractors. The response I responded to made it seem like you didn't think chiropractors were good for anything.

@msrobotics If chiropractors are doing things similar to what a physical therapist does, I agree that there may be a benefit. I have to write my responses knowing that people will have different degrees of conditions and there isn’t a one size fits all response that is right for everyone. Some people have undiagnosed spine conditions that they are unaware of and a correct diagnosis relies on patient advocacy and honest and complete communication between patients and doctors. Mayo has chiropractors on staff who are listed as doing myofascial release which is what my physical therapist does with me. They can’t fix a structural issue when there is significant compression of nerves or spinal cord. With arthritis and bone growth, there may come a time when better alignment does not help ease up the nerve compression and irritation and it becomes a surgical decision. My physical therapist was buying me time before my surgery, not by my choice, but because surgeons were missing the correct diagnosis and wouldn’t help. I would have had surgery a lot sooner if I had found the right surgeon earlier.

I have cervical spinal stenosis arthritis

I think rubber bands red and yellow made osteoarthrits worse.

Can you please explain what you mean by red and yellow rubber bands?

First, best wishes for getting the help you need…. Personally, I have found enough relief from my osteopath (DO and MD) , hands on, that pain is manageable…gentle exercises done regularly also have helped me a lot . Even simple exercise brings on endorphins. My goal is to do the best possible without surgery or harsh meds. My body had enough to deal with , having recently had colon cancer.

@jackiet I'm guessing this may refer to the stretchy bands that physical therapists give to their patients. They are color coded for how much resistance they provide for doing exercises.