So in the past year I've been dealing with some back pains until the last few months its gotten much worse. I realize Im avoiding doing many things and am even picking things up with my feet to avoid bending over.  In the past month, things have gotten much worse.   Im miserable walking 2 minutes to the subway.   Then, about 2 weeks ago I was sent to the hospital by my doc because I was in such severe pain.  Breathing hurt, and I couldnt find any position that would make it better.  Pure agony.

The ER found I had a severely herniated disc in the l5 region and stuck me on 60mg of predisone / day for 7 days.   I felt so much better.  Even my skin looked better and I picked up some much needed weight which I've had problems holding onto.

Since going off though, I'm back to how I felt about 3-4 months ago.

I'm going to PT and find it useless.  Basically stretches and heat/electric therapy.

I should also mention that I have this constant feeling like I bruised my tailbone. When I feel around that area, the tailbone isnt the issue, its almost like the area around is inflammed or infected.  I've also noticed that my neck area is clicking, grinding and quite often has a very achy pain until I bend my head back and forth a few times.

I'm thinking maybe I have an autoimmune condition on top of my actual herniated disc problem that the steroids helped too.

So I'm not sure what I can do to quickly get in shape for this year and ride better than I did last year.  Last year I noticed I was nursing this ache.  I"m pretty afraid to fall hard and probably wont even ride my board for awhile because board spills are so much worse than on skis.

Hopefully someone here has some good ideas....my PT , docs etc havent been very helpful...

Sorry to hear about your problems. Obviously your doctor should be your best source of information, but I'll share two thoughts:

!) I have a torn rotator cuff. PT did nothing to alleviate the condtion. Then I tried accupuncture. After 3-4 sessions the tear was much less painfull. After about 4 years, accupuncture didn't work as well. You might want to try accupuncture.

2) Stem cell therapy might be an option. I know that it allegedly works on many things, but I don't know about herniated disks. The downside is that most insurance plans don't cover stem cell therapy yet. More information is here  http://www.regenexx.com/

It is difficult to find unbiased information about the procedures. I did consult with an MD about it. He was the (retired) head of joint replacement surgery at a major university hospital in Chicago. He has a very good reputation. He has something to lose by getting people to use a procedure that really does not work. On that basis, and on that basis alone, I believe there is likely merit to the procedure.

I did not use the procedure on my torn rotator cuff becasue it appears that skiing (pole plants specifically) seem to alleviate pain. In off season an elipitcal trainer seems to produce the same result. The MD said to not do anything as long as skiing and use of an elipitcal trainer provides the desired result. I like doctors that say "you don't have to use me."

Good luck!

You might want to go to a GOOD chiropractor, I emphasize "GOOD"!   Where do you live?  I go to an amazing chiroprocter in Northern Virginia!

We are fortunate to have one of the finest hospitals in the world, Johns Hopkins. I suggest you take this more seriously and find a specialist at Hopkins who can fix your problem before it gets worse.

I am *very* sorry to hear about your problem. i am not a doctor or anything but if  a week of predisone gave you relieve that is rather indicative of an immune system problem. The weight gain is a normal side-effect of predisone but the skin clearing means you have an underlying issue and the blown disk is a by-product of the problem. It might have degnerated from years of inflamation due to your body fighting itself or "something".

Are you a big red-meat eater? You might try cutting back on that. Even though some people say it is snake-oil a Kangen water  system might benefit you. Anything to reduce your body Ph and make it less acid.

Just my opinion but Chiropractors are useless, especailly in this situation. This is *not* an  alignment problem - and that is all they can correct - maybe on a lucky day with the planets aligned right. The disk herniated because it degenerated on one end more than the other and displaced itself under compression.

The tailbone/coccyx pain might be referred - you didn;t indicate you had any damage to it. i actually do have some damage to it due to an ill-fated inline skating accident when I pulled a bad flatspin 360 and landed off axis and damaged my pelvis and coccyx. You can actually have the whole shooting match removed but again I see this as a side-effect of the condition - it may be that the sciatic nerve is inflamed and that is giving you trouble. Does your groin or hamstring insert (the place where your leg and butt come together) have a burning sensation ?

Messed up my back at age 17 coming up short on a pole flip landing on rock hard refrozen 30 years ago.  Had various intermittant problems around the same region here and there ever since.  Anything from stepping off a curb I didn't see to just plain pulling something bending over to put the boots on.  It hasn't stopped me from skiing, but it can cut my day shorter than I'd like it to be.  Last week I took my kid and scout troop to defy gravity, trampoline place.  The compressions started hurting after about 10 minutes. But, since we were there for an hour I kept going back out with the kids and did some back flips for them. I did try to stretch out and loosen up for a few minutes before stepping out in to the springs too.   I'm still a bit sore today in a compression, bottom of the step. don't want to drop down a flight of stairs too sharply kind of way. Part of me believes that if I could be more active jogging cross country I could get in better shape to handle the compressions, but I really did just finish a couple months of solid working out coaching a U12 soccer team so it's probably not going to ever get any better regardless.  Guess that is just a part of being 50.  There may be some kind of surgery in my future that could help.  A chiro certainly couldn't hurt.  My wife sees a pretty good one from time to time.  Who knows though.  I feel your pain for sure..

Back problems are horrible.  I had a back condition (that was due to a gross misalignment about fifteen years ago).   Went to a sports physician and the first thing he asked me to do was to take my wallet out.  Which of course, I pulled it out of my back pocket, thick, fat, full of notes, photos, credit cards etc.,  His reply was - You have the cause of the condition.  We treated the symptoms and I had therapy for three months.   I have never carried my wallet in my back pocket since and have not had any more back problems.

Hi. I don't post here much, but I would like to chime in to say please do yourself a favor and find a good Pilates studio and instructor.  Try it for at least a month and see how you feel.  I have three herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, mild bilateral facet osteoarthropathy, and spinal stenosis.  I tried everything for the miserable back pain I had felt for years, and now 3 1/2 years after starting Pilates, I've never felt better, and (knock on wood), have not had back pain (or sciatica) since then.  And, my skiing and other athletic activities have never felt better, with much great flexibility and core strength.

Give it a try, and best of luck!

Keith

I don't know much about your condition except you said the PT was worthless.  I don't necessarily disagree but would encourage you to try a different PT.

I've had impingment in my shoulder and have gone to three different PTs over the past 15 years.  The first two were worthless; the third was golden.  The key was her attention to detail when I did the exercises.  I was using my upper trap and not my lower.  It took a lot of coaching for me to recognize when I was activating the part of the muscle that needed the help.  The other PTs just let me sit there doing the exercises wrong and so I never improved.

Bottom line: PT may or may not be the key to helping your back, but it is worth trying a different PT before ruling it out.  I see Kim McKay at Pivot's Gaithersburg office.

My back is starting to get better again.  Hope it heals up and recovers stronger than it was before the trampoline shennanigans.  I'll probably be going back to that place in late December cause little sis wants to go now that brother told her how awesome it is.  I will take it a little easier and only commit to 30 minutes personally and watch the kids for the other half hour next time.  It is a tough balance when we get older, use ot or lose it... but over use it and also lose it.

Why, oh WHY?!take a chance on re injury just as ski season cranks up???

The Colonel

The Colonel wrote:

Why, oh WHY?!take a chance on re injury just as ski season cranks up???

The Colonel

 

 

Tramp crosses over well to skiing for me, especially since I still like to hit small and medium jumps in the park..  There are lots of ways for us to try to get in better shape for ski season.  Unfortunately, sometimes we end up doing the opposite.  I shoveled some wood chips and mulch around the yard and dug a small irrigation trench yesterday.  No major back pain today so it appears I am on the mend and getting more fit.  Thankfully, it appears I haven't made things worse as I had initially feared. But, definitely need to try to avoid over doing it again as Thanksgiving weekend is right around the corner.  I'm hoping that will be my first outing this season.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.  I live near PIttsburgh if anyone has any recommendations for a good back specialist.   Things were looking up for a bit then the pains kicked back to where they were about 2 weeks before I was tossed to the hospital.  I do feel like a good stretch would help.  A few years ago when this started to act up a bit, I bought a teeter hang up but found no relief and after 29 days took it back.

WIth everyone going on that I should be doing, I have very little urge to go skiing with the limited terrain. If my back were not painful like this, I know I would have already had my stuff loaded up for tomorrow.  Sigh.  I'm only 43.   I wish I had taken it easier when I was a kid/young adult.