Back pain and chiropractors

[ubergaz]

For a good 6 years now I have been suffering from back pain, gradually getting worse.
I get two typs of it depending on the activities I do. When I am at work the top of my spine gets gradually more painful and begins to click every time I move. It is incredibly annoying but I can put up with this as it is probably due to the fact that Im sat at a desk for 9 hours a day.

The second pain is much more worrying however. It is the lower back pain and it's becoming quite debilatating. It also began about six years ago, when I started playing a lot of cricket and hockey, both sports that are heavy on the back. After, for example bowling 6 overs i wont be able to bend over at all. I get a pain like two knives being jabbed into my lower back either side of my spine and it is awful. I used to do lots of running and athletis but I simply can't do it any more because of this pain. I have missed the cricket this season to try to rest my back but I've just been for a run and the pain is still there.

If I come home from work and lie on my front you should hear my back and neck cracking, it's like Krakatoa. But I have got to the point where forcing my back to crack is the only way to relieve the pain.

I am worried as I am applying to join the police and if they find out what kinda shape my back is in they aren't gonna touch me the a 20ft Barge pole.

So has anyone else on here experienced this type of pain and may be have some suggestions?

Also, has anyone ever been to chiropractors and are they any good and what am I looking at paying?

Any help would be massively appreciated as Im only 22 and I am pretty darn fit and this shouldn't be happening to me

[weezy]

I know exactly what your going through ubergaz, im a similar age to you and for the past two years i have had lower back pain. I trained as a dancer and had been dancing since i was tiny, when i graduated I was dancing professionally and my back just got gradually worse. It started off just aching then all of a suuden it just went really bad and I could hardly walk. That put an end to my dancing career. I have had physio and seen an osteopath. I would say oseopathy was the best treatment as the pain started to ease off. However at £50 a go I could't afford too many sessions. That was about a year ago. I started dancing again in Feb this year and since then the pain has moved to the top of my back and I wake up every morning with a stiff neck. I also have to click my back every day to relive the pain.

Do you find excercise makes the pain worse?

I go to the gym quite a lot and the exercise doesn't hurt at the time but once I get home and sit down for a bit thats when the pain comes, gettting out of a chair is horrible, I feel like an old lady.

I would love to have one day when it didn't hurt.

When I can afford it I am going to see a chiropractor. I think it will be a similar price to the osteopath at around £50 a session. Also they charge you extra for xrays and scans etc. I was in London when I was getting treatment so it might be cheaper in other places?

I would definately try and see some one if I was you. They might not be able to get rid of the pain totally but from my experience it helps to ease it a bit.

[ubergaz]

When I am actually doing the exercises and up and about I feel great. But when I get in the car to drive home afterwards it hits me and it's awful. I think the chiro is the only way to go but as you say, it looks like it'll cost more than I can afford.

If only I had a dad with a bit of money and over 9,000 posts on a reputable message board

[Shambles]

If only I had a dad with a bit of money and over 9,000 posts on a reputable message board

You talking about "H" on the shack?

[Shambles]

Also, has anyone ever been to chiropractors and are they any good and what am I looking at paying?

Send a PM to Lin. I'm sure a decent chiro session - which will sort you out for a long while if it's a chiro problem and not drink/kidney related - will cost around £50.

[lin]

The chap I used was based in leigh but he's dead and his daughter is crap, not to be recommended at all.

Start with the phone book for them, there's one on Newbrook Road near your dad, a sports injury clinic, they might help.

[ubergaz]

I'll have a look, gotta wait for a bit though as due to the pathetic amount you get for paternity pay I am gonna have a cruddy pay this month.

And it is nothing to do with drink/kidneys. I actually drink far far less than I used to and this all began well before I even started drinking.

[Freaky]

ive suffered with really bad lower back pain since i was about 20, im 40 now and feel about 90, anything i do makes the pain much worse, standing makes me feel like ive got a ton weight round my shoulders pressing down on my back, when i walk i get the same thing but with an added extra of when i put my foot down on the floor i get a shooting pain from my lower back up my spine.

ive been the doctors so many times and had that many different types of tablets that i just stopped going as none of them ever ever worked, he sent me to see a specialist once (his words) all he did was press my back twice with his thumb and sent me away, then sent a letter to the doc saying he found nothing wrong, recently i went for another xray and they found one of the bones or discs at the bottom of my spine is narrowing, like its been worn away were the docs words, so he just gave me more tablets that dont work.

so it looks like im forced to live like this for the rest of my life as he more or less said there is nothing he can do, oh he said to excersise it to losen up a bit, but jesus the pain im in when i even try literelly has me in tears, ive often sat crying like a baby the pain has been that bad.

shit went on a bit there did i sorry, only really ment to say that this chiropractor sounds ok, bit pricey tho, i think it would be worse going and the pain going away, then you cant afford to go back and the pain returns

[topspeed]

Quit alot of back pain is caused by slipped discs, my dad has got a slipped disc when he was in his 20s he is now in his 50s ,his army jeep he was in turned over. he uses some kind of back belt when the pain comes back.

[wonkyfox]

I have a herniated disk in my lower back which puts pressure on the two sciatic nerves running down the backs of my legs..the only thing which seemed to work for me, after laying out hundreds of pounds to chiropractors and ostiopaths, was a good physiotheapist, i got a better result, with him in a few weeks, than all the others put together..best advice....go see your doctor, and demand to be sent to a specialist..you are far to young to have this kinda back problem...good luck, hope this helps!

[wizer]

i don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't think there are any cures for back pain. Once you have it, that's it for life. I have also suffered lower back pain since my teens and now in my mid twenties it is almost unbearable. I have tried all the pills, remedies, treatments, etc, etc ... nothing works for me. I currently see an osteo who is very good but can not cure the problem completely. It seems Iwill spend my luife compensating for my back.

[Freaky]

i don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't think there are any cures for back pain. Once you have it, that's it for life. I have also suffered lower back pain since my teens and now in my mid twenties it is almost unbearable. I have tried all the pills, remedies, treatments, etc, etc ... nothing works for me. I currently see an osteo who is very good but can not cure the problem completely. It seems Iwill spend my luife compensating for my back.

well after spending the last 20 or so years in agony im afraid i have to agree with you, and as i get older its getting much much worse, i to have tried everything, all the belts, back braces, matresses, cushions, pillows tens machine, etc etc plus all the tablets off the doc and not a single thing worked

[tbops]

if any of you are in the midlands theres a place called wobern near wolverhampton. theres a gent there called derek potter i think he has a clinic manor clinic it may be called. he sorted my back out a treat after i fell thrugh a floor years back. hes an honest gent and charges 35 quid a session if htere nothing he can do he will say so. After about 1k of spending with bupa with my dad only for them to tell us he had a slip disc and needed an operation this bloke derek pooped the disc in and within 2-3 weeks the old man was normal again.

i can digg the number out if needed but its about a 3-4 month waiting list

[Livers]

I'd also recommend seeing your GP and asking for a referral to a physio. I used to see a chiro for lower back pain and for years paid £20-25 per 10 minute session. He was good at relieving immediate pain but long term, it wasn't doing much. After a few years I went to see my local physio and she made me do exercises that were the complete opposite to the chiro. My backs been much better ever since and while it's not 100%, I'm far happier with it now than ever. I'd recommend you buy a book called 'Treat your own back' by Robin McKenzie as the exercises are based on his work. Obviously it's no guarantee but it is another option if you want to give it a go.

[Freaky]

i forgot to ask, has anyone ever tried accupuncture???

[purpleanimal23]

I've tried acupuncture and it's pish to be honest. In the short term it aggrivated the problem (Sciatic nerve). I was told this would happen for the first 3 sessions then things would improve after that, I went for 8 and didn't fancy it anymore due to the paoin it caused. However it apparantly isn't the same for everyone.

Just waiting on an appointment now with a physio and going down that route

[wizer]

I have not tried Accu yet, but will probably end up investigating it. I'm actually going to buy that book Livers, I'm still pessimistic about a realistic cure tho. After 10yrs of pain you could call me desperate.

[Freaky]

suppose it IS different for everyone and its at least worth each person giving it at least a shot, its amazing how many people suffer with bad backs.

as i said in my above post ive sat and cried like a baby with the pain and aint ashamed to admit it, has any of you been that bad that you cry???

rang the library to try get that book aswell but they aint got any left in the system, so think ill buy it aswell, seen it for £5 odd on google earlier

[weezy]

as i said in my above post ive sat and cried like a baby with the pain and aint ashamed to admit it, has any of you been that bad that you cry???

Mine has been that bad that i have cried!!!! i used to avoid sitting down because the pain was sooooo bad when i stood up again.

I do find that lying on my side with my knees tucked up to my chest really helps to ease the pain, although you can't spend your whole life lying down!!

[herbinator]

Wow read this post as its so relevant to me at the moment first let me say i empaphise with all the people who suffer with bad back especially the young lads i cant imagine what id have been feeling had i got the problem in my twenties.
My back has started to play up on a regular basis for the past 4 years thank god im not in constant pain........ that is till my latest flare up about 2 weeks ago the lower back, left of the spine and down the side of my left thigh (sciatica methinks) i was in so much pain it was difficult to go to the toilet it has eased to a point where im up and about after about two weeks.
Although it still aint right just have a niggly pain all the time at the moment its making me quiet miserable but im going to invest in the book to treat your own back and hassle my doctor to send me to a specialist i hope i get some relief and you others suffering do to.