@vdrgwr I'm sorry you are still having pain. Many of our members have talked about how acupuncture has helped them through some of their pain.
You may also want to check out the following discussions as they will have members who will understand what you are going through and talking about some of the things they have done to cope:
– Back injuries & Treatment, Introduce Yourself, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/back-injuries-treatment-introduce-yourself/
– Surgical solutions to chronic cervical/back pain, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/surgical-solutions-to-chronic-cervicalback-pain/
– Back Surgery – https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/i-have-had-3-back-surgeries-with-negative-results-in-addition-the/

What kind of surgery did you have on your back?

I embrace a lot of alternative therapies but I only really came to use them when drugs stopped working or only gave me partial relief. I know it's an out of vogue suggestion but narcotics do work and stopping your pain even for a short time gives you a window of opportunity to take control of your situation. Drugs ended up being an incomplete answer for me but for years they gave me a life. When the time came to move to a pain pump, which by the way is my main source of relief, my oral narcotics were cut down very rapidly, like over night. I had no withdrawal symptoms at all. That's because I never used my narcotics to get high and therefore my brain was never flooded with dopamine which is what causes addiction. To anyone using narcotics: titrate your med slowly to make sure you use just enough to make your pain something you can live with. Now it's time to hit the gym and the NuStep machine. I'll be going back later for an hour long Healing Touch session with an RN who is giving away 100 sessions as part of her training. Lucky me.

You sound like me same symptoms I went for almost 6months in P.T.before I started to feel better ,water aerobics in a warm water pool helped me also ice @heating pad ,moist one Dr.said to get.Exercises slowly,quite when your body tells you,you can hurt by overdoing.I bought a backbrush that had pad on ,put muscle rub on it for back ,tight muscles aTens unit relaxes them ,some suggestions that helped me

@vdrgwr

My wife has had two shots in her sciatica nerve, with only a few days of relief. She has an appointment for an EMG, then with the spinal surgeon and depending on what the EMG shows, will have surgery. It can't be too soon, as far as she's concerned. She has spinal stenosis in a few places, and the surgery would be to scrape the bone to give the nerve room, and not be squeezed all the time. I hope it will be the answer to her pain.

We have several friends who have had the same surgery and are very happy with the outcome.

Jim

I didn’t know what to expect when I signed up for my first Healing Touch session with Christine. I knew it involved energy work and I’d been practicing Qigong for several years so it interested me. She had me lie down and cover myself with a soft blanket. She said she needed to prepare herself and she went and stood by my feet. Before she touched me I could feel my feet tingling. I’m very sensitive to energy moving in my body. I wasn’t watching what she did but I felt her touch my foot and then my leg. She then moved one hand further up my leg. It was odd; I could still feel the first touch as if she had 3 hands which I was sure she didn’t.
During my second session 2 weeks later my feet did the same thing as in the first session. In addition each time her hand touched I felt a connection between that spot and a spot in my brain as if the two spots were sharing some sort energy.
After each of my two sessions I was very relaxed and invigorated. I experienced an increased sense of wellbeing and decreased levels of pain. My mind was very focused and clear. It was not unlike the way I feel after my Qigong teacher works on me. Both systems work with a set of points in the body that are common to Yoga, Thi Chi, Reflexology, and Acupuncture although these point may go by different names. Christine told me that Healing Touch refers to the Chakras,(sp.?).
These points and flows of energy have been understood by many cultures and are used in many forms of Healing. Healing Touch is the most recent to find its way to me and my efforts to heal myself. Maybe next time I’ll ask more about how it works. First I wanted to know if it works and it does for me.