Degenerative Disc Disease

[PorkPieHat]

I do have pain killers (vicodin) but they don't do much. I can get maybe 4 hours of sleep if I take 2 before crashing.

Everyone I know that has had surgery still has issues, but as one physical therapist told me, "a lot of what causes the problems in the first place are still in place after the surgery, and guys don't stick to the regiment of stretching and exercise afterward like they should, so taht's why it recurrs." Makes sense to me, but still scary.

I have had some form of back pain pretty much my whole adult life. I worked on cars for many years and spent 5+ hours a day bent over; probably not good. Runs in the family too, which is probably even worse.

At this point my sports function is limited to coaching pop warner and little league, so that effect would be minor in the overall scheme.

[cbloom]

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I do have pain killers (vicodin) but they don't do much. I can get maybe 4 hours of sleep if I take 2 before crashing.


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You should talk to your doc; you can get epidural injections for pain; you should also perhaps get a steroid injection.

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Everyone I know that has had surgery still has issues, but as one physical therapist told me, "a lot of what causes the problems in the first place are still in place after the surgery, and guys don't stick to the regiment of stretching and exercise afterward like they should, so taht's why it recurrs." Makes sense to me, but still scary.

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No matter what you do, the #1 thing will be the rehab. It will literally be like 30-60 minutes a day every day. If you do it, you can get better. Depending on your state right now you may or may not want to get surgery before rehab but in any case the rehab is what will determine if you really get better or not.

If you feel like you aren't getting enough good advice from your doc, find another one. University teaching hospitals tend to be the best. It's worth paying a little more.

[kyleb]

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You should talk to your doc; you can get epidural injections for pain; you should also perhaps get a steroid injection.

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Also, this is good advice. See if you can get corticosteroid site injections (better known as cortisone shots) to help manage the pain, reduce inflammation, and possibly increase your chances of healing. These helped the pain in my shoulder before and after surgery significantly.

[PorkPieHat]

I am 6'3" and 205, not sure how much I'll be able to lose. I have been able to do some core work (crunches and such) but more would help I'm sure. My cardio fitness is terrible due to all this, however.

I was reading that sometimes they can inject glucosamine instead of cortisone, has anyone tried this? I don't care which one I have to get, as long as it works. People I know have both good and bad to say about cortisone wrt back pain. Most say it does not last too long, but at this point I'll take a week and be happy.

The chiro that I know is not a nutjob 'subluxations caused the death of Princess Diana' kind of guy. He has a sports medicine background as well (might have been a PT or something before, I forget). He wants to see the MRI as well, so if nothing else it will be one more opinion to weigh.

Right now my main goal is get the pain to stop, but then get this all 'fixed' and be back in shape by little league next year. My son will be 12 and it might be his last year, I'd really hate to miss out on yelling at him to stay down on grounders and stop throwing freakin curve balls, lol.

[kyleb]

Oh, hm, you're not overweight. I see.

Glucosamine and joint fluid supplements take well through the GI tract; I'm not sure injections are necessary or worthwhile. Less needles = better.

Keep us updated.

[cbloom]

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People I know have both good and bad to say about cortisone wrt back pain. Most say it does not last too long, but at this point I'll take a week and be happy.


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The problem most people have is they expect the wrong thing from the cortisone. (there are also other steroid injections you can get which may be better depending on your exact problems). They just get the shot, feel better for a while, don't do their therapy, and then the pain comes back the same as before.

The steroid provides some pain killing, but mainly reduces inflammation. This stops all the swollen tissues from putting pressure on the nerve and makes some more space where things can move around. It's just a temporary effect, though, and if you don't do anything else, the vertebrae don't move on their own and the problem will come right back. Basically the steroid gives you a month or so of "breathing room" where you can use exercise/chiro/PT/etc. to adjust your spine into a position where you aren't putting so much pressure on your nerves. If the steroid wears off and you've got your spine in a better position, the inflammation won't come back.