Hi, @geneo

Good work. Would that everyone could find pain relief as you have. Welcome to Connect, and thank you for telling us your success story. Have you shared your formula with anyone who has tried it and had the same great results?

Jim

Hi Geneo,
Sounds like I have similar symptoms and diagnosis to you. Leg pain is horrible and I have both stenosis and scoliosis. Can you tell me more about the types of lower back exercises you are doing? I just started tumeric and don't have a Jacuzzi but have a bath tub and I know that ice does help. But am interested in your lower back exercises. Also, why did they tell you that surgery was not an option? I have been told that the only surgery they could do for me would be a fusion and a rod in my back from lumbar to my neck and so I am not at all interested in that. Shots never work for more than a few days. I was looking into the new Burst spinal cord stimulator but don't really like the idea even though some say it helps. Wondered why they ruled these things out for you. Sounds like you found something better but just wondering since we have similar diagnoses.
Thank you and good work.
Gail

I can't say which of the four items that I do has the most benefit or it maybe just time,it's been six months from walker to cane to normal the excersiizes I use are on the Internet, you tube,I do ones that do not hurt.and the Ice pack that I made using water and salt,which takes the ice to a much lower temperature is an immediate relief.

@gailg @geneo I too have scoliosis, cervical spondylolysis, cervical compression fracture at C7, lumbar degenerative disk disease, spondylolisthesis of lumbar region, lumbar canal stenosis & bulging lumbar disks. Whew, that seems like a lot now that I have copied it from the doctor's report. I had excruciating pain for about 3 months until I had a laminectomy of my L5-S1 on December 22, 2016. After that all the pain on the left side of my lumbar, hip, leg, knee and foot was relieved completely. I am very happy with the results. My disk had been impinging on my spinal cord, so they cut off a small amount of the disk. It was outpatient & I have a small 2 inch scar.

However, the chronic and heavy pain on my right side involving my L4 was going to require a major surgery with rods and pins, which was not something my surgeon or I want to do. (By the way, Gailg, my understanding is that they cannot put a rod from your lumbar to your cervical area because you would not be able to move or bend. I hope your surgeon knows that.) In my search for alternatives & pain relief for my remaining problem on the right side, I joined Mayo Connect. One of the posts here reported on a technique, ART, which sounded interesting. I researched ART, Active Release Technique, and decided it was worth a try. I'd already done 3 mo of Physical Therapy, and acupuncture to no avail, as well as pain medications (Baclofen, Gabapentin, Tramadol), of which I only take Tramadol now. ART is done by chiropractors who get special training in the technique. It involves very deep muscle massage at the same time they are moving your body part they are working on. In my case, they worked on the large muscle/ligament (?) in my right groin, my right side sciatic nerve, IT band, and calf muscles. They don't do bone manipulation which is their normal area of expertise. The muscle work is VERY painful at the time they do it, just on the edge of being unbearable. What they are doing is working to release the muscles and nerves that have gotten bound together due to some trauma, even from surgery. He told me it would take 6 sessions over 2 weeks, so I said yes. To my complete amazement, I felt better after the first session. At the end of 6 sessions I was nearly pain free! It's been 3 months and I am even better than I was at the end of my initial sessions. I see him once a month now for a tune up. I can now walk and go up and down steps completely without pain. Yesterday at my pain doctor's appointment, he discussed how to taper off the Tramadol now. I feel so great and I want to shout it to everyone who has back pain. I know everyone is different and this might not work for you, but it's worth a try. I do still have pain that awakens me at night, but I can handle that. I hope if you try ART, you'll let Mayo Connect know if it works for you.

Thanks, Gail B Ledesma

By the way, I was in a wheelchair for 2 months before I had my laminectomy in December, 2016. I had to retire from my consulting contract, which involved traveling every week. ART has allowed me to be active again, although I have stayed retired. I have T2 diabetes and for the first time in years my A1c was below 7.3, at 6.6! My doctor is so happy as am I. It's because I am more active now, going somewhere and walking each afternoon in a place I enjoy being. This I also attribute to ART.

Is ART the same as what a masseuse calls deep tissue massage ?

@gailg

I'm an advocate for spinal cord stimulators. I had a Burst DR implant in June, and I've had around 80% pain relief (though it's kinda hard to give a specific %). To put it simply, my feet don't hurt nearly as much as they used to. I was between 6 & 8 pre-surgery, and now I usually rate the pain 0-3, with higher pain, up to 5, when I have to stand on a hard surface for very long, or walk through stores for a couple of hours. It's had a positive effect on the depression, as well. Another plus is that I'm slowly tapering off morphine and Duloxetine.

The implant has a week long trial, which gives you a sense of how much a permanent implant will help. It was pretty dramatic in my case. Almost no pain after several years of misery!

With the new Burst DR, you don't feel anything. like the vibrations that were anywhere from annoying to very disturbing with the previous stimulators.

Of course, it doesn't work for everyone, but it surely helps many.

Jim

I'm still having slight pain in the morning and by noon it's mostly gone, I don't take any pain pills for quite awhile.I also stopped lifting any heavy Wts. Over 25 pds I'm thinking that I probably had these spinal stenosis and arthritis of the spine and doing shoveling snow that I mote then likely had a bad case of inflammation and at my age it takes longer then 3 months to feel better with me it was gone on six months,I'm still not 100 % but I'm a very lot better and I will watch what I do physically
I will still beep in touch. One other thing my MRI looked terrible.

@geneo

I had 4 surgeries this summer, and it really messed with getting the yard cared for, not being able to lift 10 lbs and no bending or twisting. 25 lbs isn't very much, is it. I'm sure sorry that your MRI looked terrible. Was it a spinal MRI?

How do you handle the constant health issues? Does it make you feel depressed or give you feelings of anxiety? I don't remember if you said how long ago the back pain started. I had two compound fractures - T12 and L2, if I remember correctly, and my back hurt a lot for more than a year, but now it only bothers me when I over exert. My mother and all 5 of my siblings have had serious back problems. I don't know how I escaped, just thankful that I did.

So, what did the terrible MRI show you?

Jim

It all started last March,after shoveling snow,then it got worse I could not walk unless I was bent over or used a walker, I was told by my Orthopedic surgeon that is a classic symptom of Spinal Synosies,of which an MRI showed that and disc deteriations and Arthritis.I took the disc home went on "You Tube" and learned how to look at the images. I then compared it to a healthy one and was able to see most of the problems. I saw a lot of bone spurs and discs that looked like they went thru a wringer. Apparently I had this for a long time but why now did it start hurting and my guess was the snow shoveling. It took 6 months to finally start to see improvement, see my other introduction as to what I did to help stop the pain.