I am curious if anyone on here has had to have back surgery? I am fighting a battle with a bulging disc in my lower back that is pressing on my sciatic nerve, physical therapy helped, but the VA has cut me off on physical therapy. I saw a doctor who wants to trim and clean up the disc, but I have requested to know if there are other options. Just curious if anyone here has faced the same issue?

Dave B

My boss loaned me an inversion machine and I had relief within days. I talked to the orthopedic surgeon who was ready to cut on me. He said he had one at home and actually wrote me a prescription for one. Mine is called Total Back System, you can find it on the internet. You only hang upside down 90 seconds at a time. Saved me from having back surgery! They run around $300. I still hop on it once in a while to let my spine stretch back out when I am hurting.

I will look into that!

Yoga can help too. See a real Guru.

https://www.teetertv.com

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

Up until last spring, I used to do power lifting and olympic lifting. However, as I got older (54 years old now) I became less flexible putting more pressure on my lower back. I ruptured a disk in my lower back in March 2012. Since I did not have numbness or loss of motor control, I elected not to have surgery - it was a 9 month recovery process, though. This past summer, the pain was terrible, and I would have to walk for a half hour each morning before I could even bear to sit down. Now, I can do "normal" activities and started jogging, biking, and light weight lifting. I talked with a lot of people who have had back surgery, and half of them had complications, so I decided the risk was not worth it. Unless it is imperative to protect from nerve damage, I would recommend not having surgery unless you are convinced that you absolutely, positively, need it. Four years ago, one of the American olympic lifters competed in the olympics after having surgery on a ruptured disk so it can be successful! They waited until the surgery could be done without a large incision. However, if you do not need to compete physically, surgery always comes with the risk of complications.

A few years ago I had a micro disectomy and the stenosis relieved in my lower back to relieve the preassure on the nerves. While waiting for the surgery I could hardly sit or sleep because of the pain. Vicodin was my life saver. Two days after surgery and I was on advil and a month later nothing. It was very sucessful for me but have heard about diffrent out comes. Recently I have heard about laser procedures for back surgery being much less invasive. May be you should look into that.

Art

Over the past 20 years I have seen somewhere north of 8000 back pain patients in my clinic and feel that I can present a fairly rational and balanced opinion on this issue.

Our approach to care is chiropractic first, drugs second and surgery last. This has proven to be about the mose effective, economical and safest treatment plan available. It works.

A couple of points up front. Spinal surgery is not a "simple procedure". It is dangerous. Stats will show that about 1/3 get better, 1/3 show no improvement and 1/3 get worse. If you talk to 10 guy who had back surgery 5 years ago about half will tell you that it was a mistake. Google the AMAs position on the epidemic of unneccessary back surgery and longterm outcomes. Note there is an ICD diagnosis code of"failed back syndrome" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_back_syndrome

Surgery is an option but it must be your last option. Always rememeber and never forget. Once that blade touches your skin all the bets are off. If you get up in the morning and say "I can live with this" you should put surgery off until you have tried every alternitive. When you loose bowel or bladder control or do not care if they operate on you with a KBar and soldering iron and it will quit hurting...then you're there.

Excercise and spinal strength is critical in maintain spinal health. Check with a top PT for insight on strengthing the core.

Unless you have tried chiropractic you have not tried everything and you should. Depending on the extent of the disc bulge, chiropractic may be in and of itself the answer to your problem. From our clinical experience (some 300,000 patient encounters over 20 years), you will best be served with a technique call "Activator" or instrument adjusting. This does not involve any of the twisting or "popping' some identify with chiropractic. It does not stress the facet joints of the spine or the annulus of the disc. It is very very safe and very very effective. We do not recommend the "side posture" manual lumbar manipulation for treatment of disc heriation. Please do not allow anyone, DC,MD, DO or PT to "pop" your low back at this point.

If that does not get you where you want to be the next step in our office is "non-surgical disc decompression". It is a process similar to lumbar traction but has been demonstrated to be much more effective. We do it a bunch and see outcomes where 3 out of 4 disc heriations are withdrawn into the spine and allowed to heal...1 out of 4 show damage so profound that surgery is inevitable.

Regarding "inversion therapy". Here's the deal. It is a form of axial traction using body weight the "stetch' the spine. Mechanically, this form of axial traction pulls the natural curves from the spine and that in and of itself can cause problems. More important, your body has evolved to upright posture over the past 10 million years and the vascularity in your head is designed so. If you get upside down your head is subjected to not only your intrensic blood pressure but 6 feet of static head pressure...blood pressure then is more than double...as long as there are no vascular weakness there is not problem. However, retinal bleeds in the tiny blood vessel in the back of the eye are fairly common...weakness in the brain will be catastrophic. No bueno.

Generally speaking, conservative care will resolve sciatic and mechanical low back pain within a couple of months. Many times within a couple of days.

Epiduaral injections are the next step in this gradiant. AMA states they provide "some benefit to 50%" of patients" but will be worth a try.

Pain killers, anti-inflamitories and muscle relaxents will prove to be ineffective ofer the longterm....the label on the bottle says "temporary use only".

Anyway, as you probably know TriCare does not cover chiropractic unless you are active duty and on a post, camp or base where chiropractic physicians are on duty.

It will cost you somewhere around a grand for at chiropractic treatment plan that has a very high rate of success. Before you consider surgery, do yourself a favor and do it.

Please contact me at: yrusik@ yahoo.com if you have any other questions.

Privileged to serve

Byron

I want to see the video of you in a leotard or yoga pants.....

Byron

second one they nicked my ciatic nerve and ive been worse then ever since them and wont let them touch me again unless i couldnt walk. Before my first surgery my surgeon told me the typical success rate with back surgerys. Hes a family friend and didnt need my money and tried to talk me out of it but i had it in my mind that i wanted to lead a good normal pain free life and insisted. he said that 1/3 back surgery patients get total relief, 1/3 stay about the same and 1/3 will go down hill. I now have a electronic stimulator inplanted in my back to block nerve pain that doesnt do enough to justify having that done either and eat narcotics on a pretty regular basis. Ive got a running percription for oxycodone. If i had to do it all over again id have stuck with the theropy till i couldnt walk!

The information is very valuable, and I shall put it to good use.

Dave

I forwarded this to a friend that is suffering. I think strength training the pool PT saved me from two knee surgeries. Same for my dad and his back.

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops