There are problems that have just started, lurking beneath the surface where you have not yet felt their pain. You may go years, occasionally feeling some soreness and stiffness, just to have it go away on its own. Maybe you feel a twinge, take a pill, and it all seems like it’s going to be okay.
Then one morning you get up, accidentally drop your socks on the floor, bend down to pick them up and you can’t get back up. You are having so much pain that you barely manage to make it to your bed and hang on. You start taking pills like crazy until you manage to pull out the yellow pages and find a nearby chiropractor.
On your visit to the chiropractor, he explains that your spine is showing signs of wear and tear, that your problem likely began years ago. “What? I just bent down to pick up my socks. My problem started this morning.” The problem with believing that your problem is new is that you will also likely believe that your pain should go away quickly.
You are likely forgetting about all the times you felt warning signals and quickly dismissed them or medicated them away. You don’t realize that you haven’t been able to touch your toes in years, you don’t exercise regularly, and your job entails you sitting for extended periods of time. These were all factors in the building of your spinal problem, long before you ever felt your first symptom… the back pain.
The back pain ended up as the final result of the years of build up on your spine. Now you can either go for stronger drugs to cover things up, or you can begin to undo the years of ignoring the warnings and work to build up a healthy and normally functioning spine. The good news is that it rarely takes nearly as long to put your back together as it took to make it bad in the first place.
There is a point of no return. There is a point when you’ve ignored and dulled the warning signals for so long that the degeneration in your spine and the bulging of your spinal disc have eliminated some of the more conservative treatments. There is a time when your only choice is a spinal surgery or injections to stop the pain even if they aren’t fixing anything.
What can you learn from this? When the back pain hits, take a good look at when your problem began and not just when your symptoms began. Seriously evaluate what its going to take to get your spine back to a good place and pain-free. The longer you wait in taking the proper steps, the more difficult the journey.
Philip Cordova
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/your-back-pain-just-started-but-your-back-pain-problem-began-long-ago-384795.html
Back and Neck Jerking and Pain Problem.?
Hi, okay so one night I’m getting ready for bed and my right rib side started to hurt and my low abdomen. I went to the doctor when it didn’t get better in two days and she said I had a urinary tract infection and pulled rib muscles. No idea how I did that one, but ok. She gave me an antibiotic and a muscle relaxer.
A week later my abdomen was better, but my ribs hurt worse so I went back. She thought well maybe it could be a nerve pinching me in the back and hurting my muscles around to my side. My back right between my shoulders were very tender to touch so I agreed. She gave me another muscle rexaler and 800 mg of Ibuprofen.
Another week goes by. My neck starts to jerk some, like a muscle tic, usually to the right, occasionally left side. I went grocery shopping for about 20 minutes and I suddenly got a pinch in the very middle of my right shoulder blade and right side of my neck. I got really dizzy and felt I was going to pass out so I had a friend drive me home.
Within 15 minutes of arriving home I was having a horrible attack. On my lower left side of my back, just under the bottom of my ribs I felt like someone was pressing thier foot into me and pulling my spine sideways. It cause my back to jerk uncontrolably and made my whole upper chest jump over and over. It look slike I’m having a seizures, or tourrettes, (neither of which are in my family) but I’m perfectly concious and aware of people talking to me. I find it hard to breath cause of the pain, and it leave me exhausted when it’s done. I have spine bowing, spine jerking, neck jerking, muscle spasms, and severe pain. Often my right rib will have a burning feeling to it and is still tender.
A day later I slipped on the tile in my kitchen and hit my head. Unable to get off the floor without pain my family took me to the ER. They did a X-ray of my back and a Ultrascound I believe on my gallbladder. My spine looked fine, and my gall bladder was "on the upper side of normal". Basically it was a little inflamed, but no stones. They told me to get an MRI done on my back later becuase they couldn’t do one then. They gave me a steriod for inflamation, hydrocodone for pain and a stronger muscle relaxor.
I made an appointment with a spine doctor and he sent me to get the MRI done. I just had it done, a few day ago, but I ahve to wait till Tuesday for the results.
I have these violent jerking attacks if I am on my feet longer than 30 mins to an hour maybe or am really active, like coooking. So far I’ve had one maybe 2 to 3 times aday. I get only about 4 hours of sleep a night becuase of pain and jerks.
I had another violent attack and my family was so tired of dealing with it called an ambulance and sent me to another hospital. They gave me valium and told me they couldn’t do anything. They did a scan of my brain however and found nothing, so I had to get out. They also wanted me to follow up with a Neruologist in the morning. The one they recommended turned out to be out of town for the next week becuase of Thanksgiving.
I’m so tired of dealing with this. I’m horribly frustrated, tired, and beginning to get depressed cooped up here in the house with this. I jerk almost all the time now, mostly in my neck and my back aches like I’ve been on a permenant work out machine for weeks. I only know stress and over activity make it worse. Ice helps the neck, but not the back. Heat doesn’t do anything. Sometimes my boyfriend massages my shoulders and that helps calm the jerking some, but other times it’s way to tender to touch. Like if he barely touches it my who body coils and spasms.
So far the best theories are problem with a disc, like a buldge or hernniation, pinched nerves, or nueropathy in my back. (of which I have a family history of but more in hands and feet).
I’ll know more after Tuesday, but the wait is driving me crazy.I’m so tired of this, please if anyone has any advice, or something similar I’d just like some answers.
With pain radiating like that it sounds like a disc problem pinching a nerve. You can’t get on track for a cure until they can see exactly where it is from the results.
This is not a cure but go to your local pharmacy and buy one of those little battery operated TENS machines that come with two sticky pads. Identify the painful area of your spine and put the pads either side (if you can’t find it it will be where the sticky pads ‘hurt’ worse when switched on).
This will send out impulses that block the main pain signals and hopefully allow endorphins to get to the site and help the spasming muscles to relax and cause you less pain.
Here in the UK those little TENS machines cost under £20 or $30US, and i often find it beneficial when I have a bad back and it also means i need to take fewer pain killers. You can put the TENS machine in a pocket like an ipod and wear it when walking and just turn it on when needed.
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