OT back pain

I am only 27 and doc wants to take disc out of back. He says it is the best option but I dont know if I trust him or not.He also says it will take at least six weeks recovery.Any of you guys went though this before?

i think i would get another opinion

Try a back support for a while. Works for me. mine are all shot.

Never had that operation, but I would 1. get a second opinion 2. try a chiroprator, I don't think you would have anything to lose by trying a chiropractor. Some article in the AARP magazine said people reported as good or better rewsults with chiropractor. SIL who is a lot older than you is in very bad shape now from back operation. Cousin's wife has had 2-3 operations, still has problems. On the other hand, friend age 70 had a succcessful back operation, so far. His wife had a neck operation and pain has returned. None of the above were caused by injuries AFAIK, but one woman was a nurse and they have to do a lot of lifting of patients in awkward positions.

Best wishes.

KEH

It was about 18 years ago that I was diagnosed with a herniated disk, laid me up in bed most of 2 weeks. Took an informal poll of people I knew or met who had had surgery and it was about 50-50 whether or not it helped. I went through a regimen of physical therapy (mostly abdominal work) and did not have surgery. So far so good. I need to be careful what I try to do, but I usually say that I do about 95% of what I ever did and the remaining 5% I probably should not have been doing anyway.

Your situation may be entirely different (probably is), but the second opinion is a real good place to start.

Good Luck,

Kirk

Same option was given to me about 10 years ago.

I've got a high tolerance for pain, but begged Nancy to shoot me and put me out of misery.

Slept (laid) on a sheet 2 x 8 x 1" plywood for several months at night.

Shuffled from pillar to post and cried a lot.

Had no desire to be cut on, so I went to a chiropractor and got straightened out.

No more back problems, repeat no more back problems.

Speaking only for myself, surgery would be a last resort.

First off which disk it does make a difference. I had one removed L5-S1 and have never been the same as to the point I'm retired because of it. First off see another doctor if not 2 and see if all agree and even then go as long as you can with out surgery because once done you will never be the same. Oh and 6 weeks try more like 6 months to recover and if you have it done DO AS THE DOCTOR SAY and do not do any thing he say no to

The neighbor went to a hospital in Royal Oak, MI and a had a back specialist surgeon/doctor work on his back to remove a disc. He never walked again and has to have a catheter. He is a paraplegic and won a 15 million settlement with the doctor and hospital. Even with the money life is a big burden for him and all that money still won't allow him to walk again.

My advice is to be very careful about who you let work on your back as it can turn out worse than it is now.

Dont do it, get a second,third,fourth,fifth opinion.

what kind of work do you do? trucker driver? I used to drive truck,now I drill water wells even with the heavy lifting I do, my back is a lot better than when I drove truck. good luck

Try an inversion table. Dad was not getting any relief from his back doctor-tried steroids, got the impression the Dr was 'guessing' what else might work. So, he figured he could do some guessing of his own, and bought an inversion table-for the price of a specialists visit. Made a huge difference! Used to use it every day, maybe twice a day, now uses only when he feels it coming on. Greg

Why take it out --- did the Doc say it could not do Fusion, that works better then taking it out,

ask other Doc's about Fusion, it does work,,,

Without going into specifics I have been involved in thousands of claims involving back/neck surgery cases and would not have the surgery unless absolutely necessary. When I was asked I would have two questions for the person: 1. Do you sleep at night. If you can get some sleep 3 hours or so wake up and go back to sleep then wait. 2. Do you care if you are alive or do you want to die? If so then why not try it you really have nothing to lose. You will need to change your lifestyle. As a general matter lose weight if you are over weight and walk as much as possible. Walking is the best medicine. Take supplents like fish oil or flax seed oil. Low body weight and walking really help. Most important pray about it and seek God's guidance. If you wait they will perfect disc replacement surgery which will be a good choice when it is perfected.

Need more information. Where does it hurt, how long, how bad ? What conservative management like PT has been done ? Does the Dr. recommend a laminectomy or fusion ? What kind of Dr? I had a back operation when I was 24, L5-S1. That was in 1984. I had been miserable, I could have left post-op and went dancing, completely pain free. I can say this, the longer that disc pushes on that nerve the more permanent disability you will have. If I was you, and if and you can't work and your relationships with loved ones is getting strained I would forget about the snake oil salesman, the PT, the Chriopractor and would climb on that Doctors operating table the next time it is empty.

First thing, get 2 or 3 more Dr.'s opinions(specialists). I'm 57 and have a regular pain in my lower back. I've been to the chiro and he says all is fine, but when I get off his table, the pain is still there. A friend talked me into buying a used inversion table. Amazing what it will do for you!!! I used it every day for a couple of months, and now just use it whenever my back really bothers me. I start out the day standing straight up and by the end of the day, I'm stooped over. I'll go to a surgeon someday and have him look at it, but I'm not ready yet. Till then, I'll just hang upside down for a while. Chris

I've been through two back surgeries and It never did any good for me. Before you commit to that look into "Pain management" ask your Doctor or go get the information elsware this procedure is done by anestheoligest(sp?) It is the only thing that has worked for me,and the best part is no cutting......HTH.......Jim

Get another opinion. He may be right, but if he is wrong there is no going back.

When I was 17 an orthopedic surgeon told me that I needed a hip replacement. Said that it was degenerating and causing me unbearable pain. There was no way on God's green earth that I was going to try that. Went to a chiropracter and it turns out the hip was fine. The source of my pain was my back. I litterally crawled in for that first visit and walked out of his office after the first adjustment. There have been times over the years where I have needed to go back. Usually due to me lifting something I should known not to try. 30 years later, I still have my hip, no surgery, just a few chiropractic visits...

I can not promise you that, but it is worth looking into.

A word of caution if you see a chiropracter. Some are very good, and some are not. The difference is night and day. Ask friends and family who they have seen and what their results were.

Good luck!

I am a dairy farmer and mechanic when I have time. Problem is I wake up at 5 am work all day and dont get back in the house untill 10 or 11 pm. I do that 7 days a week.Doesnt give the old back much rest at night.

Well guys thanks for all the advice. Sounds like I need to find a better chiropractor and see if they can fix me up some. It really is not the pain so much as I can live with that mostly.But it has been affecting some of the things I need to do everyday.I am a dairy farmer and work from 5 am to 10 or 11 pm seven days a week.One doctor told me I need to quit working so many hours but that is not an option for me.Believe me surgery is my very last resort. I might need to travel a few more miles from home to find a good chiropractor. Thanks again guys.

Everybody is different. The best you can do is listen to many stories and then make your own decisions.

I've had two major back and neck surgeries. Also a few other injury-related "repairs" with many steel plates and screws. My back pain started when I was in my 20s. When I was in my 30s it got real bad. I went to many Voodo-docs, Chiropractors, etc. and all did nothing for me. Finally, my back got so bad, I could barely stand or walk and the severe pain was constant. So, the surgeon wanted to remove two disks that were pressing against nerve roots. As a mechanic, that made NO sense to me. If my original OEM disks, when full-size, collapsed, why would I do better with them removed or trimmed and made smaller? Well, against my own common sense, I got the operation anyway. They cut out most of two disks. I came out of surgery feeling like a new person. All pain gone (not counting incisions). But, as soon as I went back to work three months later, my back went bad again - and even worse then before (as I was sort of prediciting). In this case, I was correct, and the surgeon was wrong. They rushed me back in, cut out some of my hip bones and stuck them into my back and neck to fuse the joints where the disks had been. That was in 1991. It took me a year to mostly recover, and another year to get as good as I ever was going to get. I've been doing heavy work since then, and, more-or-less, have done pretty good. Not great, but much better then before the surgery.

If you have collapsed disks, there is a reason for it. If you do NOT do heavy work, and it's just a case of weak disks that you inherited from genetics -then maybe removing some of them is a good idea. But, if you lug stuff around and turn big wrenches, - and got a bad back from heavy work - I doubt "trimming" your bad disks is going to help in the long-run. Fusion is a much better long-term fix in many cases. But, like I said, everbody is different. For me, getting my first "disk removal" was a big mistake.

Is it in your lumbar (low) back or in your cervical (neck/upper back). The lower disks are the loadbearers and much more problematic. I had a C5/C6 fusion 5 years ago and I'm much better than before the operation. I have severe limitations but rarely severe pain. I now have two herniated disks in the low back , and they are not amenable to surgical correction. Where'd you get this Dr. ? is he board certified ? Is it a work injury and this is the Ins. Co. Physician ? How many diskectomies has he done ?

I've never had back surgery, but I don't think 6 weeks recovery time is realistic. More like 6 months. Definitely get some other opinions.

If you are seeing a chiropractor, are they doing decompression? If not, ask about it.

Every back problem is different. If you had a MRI which gives a pretty good window for Dr. to make a good decision. But stay ahead of the pain, because you will do anything to make the pain go away. Trust me on this one.
In my case surgury was the only option.
Led

I AM ALSO A DAIRY FARMER.At age 40 I developed severe lower back pain. (L5 herniated disk) went to a chiropractor for 4 months. he was of no help. (In all fairness, what I had he could not have found or helped) when the pain got to bad I went to the doctor. got the MRI. Got sent to the surgon, He examined me and said " the MRI has not made it to my computer yet. by your range of movment, it does not look too bad, go home, when I get the To view the MRI, I will come up with a treatment plan, If nothing works, we can resort to surgury." before I got out of the clinic I was paged to return to his office. He Said" I've seen your MRI, and what I can't figure out is how you are still walking round" I was in surgury by 5 the next morning.
Recovery was 6 months, I still can have problens If I over do it. Dr. says I have to limit my lifting to not over 50 lbs. I break that rule, but if I breake it too much I pay for it. But I made some changes around the farm that really helped. 1. I milk in a stall barm. I got knee pads and knell on one knee, don't squat. 2.shorten the small square bales, lighter and more of them. 3.Large rounds and a loader spear when you can. 4. got a small lawn cart > $100.00 , built up sides and a tail gate/ ramp to make a calf trailer that I pull with the atv. get the calfs fron the maternaty pasture and deliver them directly to the newborn pen with no lifting. 5. got a pallet fork for the skid loader. it saves a lot of lifting. built a calf crate on a large pallet for moving calfs around the farm or to sell. put the calfs in the crate and lift it in the truck. use your imagination, you will come up with ways to save lifting.

I could not agree more. I have had back problems for 10 years now, comes and goes a time or two a year. When it comes it is so bad it leaves me in tears. I have milked cows since I was 12 and my greatest concern was not being able to continue. Now at age 35 I have been told from the most recent x rays and radiologist report that I have degenerative bone disease and arthritis in L4 and L5. The problem that I keep encountering is that L5 slides back and becomes painfully out of alignment with S1. I have found a chiropractor that I can literally crawl onto his table and in 15 minutes I am above 95% restored. He has been in business for 44 years and does not use the twist and crack method. He has a table that you lay on and he applies slight weight pressure to just the right point, he steps on a pedal and a section of the table falls an inch or two. In 4 years of seeing him there has never been any pain from an adjustment. I had been to 2 other chiros before him and they both made me cry by the twist like a pretzel move.
I grew up with a family heavily involved in the medical industry and thru them have really learned that a good D.O. and a chiropractor can do wonders for a person. The Lord made our amazingly complex bodies. Sometimes it takes a common sense natural holistic outlook on medicine to keep us going, better than pills and surgery could ever do.

Never been there myself but have alot of family that have. The best thing I can say is get as many second opinions as you can afford. Don't let the first butcher at the local band aid station go to cutting on your back.

Dave

DON'T go get another evaluation.
Walt

Sounds like the only thing you need to cut is your doctor and some of your hours. Maybe make up a list of all the things you do during those 18 hoursx7 and and do some organizing to try and manage your time a little better. Getting some help will probably be cheaper and more rewording than some quack slicing and dicing. Look at the way you dress also. Good shoes are worth their weight in gold. Do you wear bib overalls or suspenders? I can handle bibs now and then, but a day in suspenders has me screwed up for several days. I haven't tried the inverter bed but can see where it could be practical. And, like someone else said, EXERCISE. Swimming is good for the back when you have the opportunity, but situps and some other stuff to strengthen your upper body and keep the muscles flexible will help.

Good Luck

Dave

Get another opinion. You sound too young for surgery.
I have a 5 level lower back fusion. I did it 5 years ago when I was 54.
I had no choice at that point I could barely walk. The surgery was a large improvement but by no means am I pain free.
My doctor is a neurosurgeon. You need to see one of them not an orthopedic guy.
Bad advice from the ortho guy early on created some of my issues.
So go see another doc.

All above is good advice. Also get that big wallet out of your back pocket. Has helped a few. Been fightin it for 30 years. Move and work slowly. Heating pad is your friend. Exercise specifically for back. Plywood and no pillows sometimes. Experiment. You are the best judge of what helps. Fighting it for 30 years. No operation, no drugs. Kidney belts limited use. Pray if you haven't tried the Great Physician.