Low back/spine arthritis

[spyrosmom]

Wondering if any of you have any experience w/ this. Either yourself or friend/family. DH has been having some pretty nasty low back pain (runs in his family) been taking prescription pain killers for a while with no luck. He had an MRI a while back and has a bulging disc. We went to the Dr yesterday for an epidural and a cortisone shot. (side note - the epidural made his lower body go numb for a bit, so I got to call him numb nuts ) Anywho, the Dr had a hell of time getting the needle in, had to try several times. The Dr did another set of Xrays when we were there and said "this is bad" Don't like when the Dr says things are bad and it just kind of slips out. That means things are bad. So, DH has some very nasty arthritis in his lower back (Dr says can be genetic - thanks dad) and his vertebrae are basically rubbing against each other. Said the cortisone is only a temporary fix, which we knew. Possibly looking at surgery in the future - scary! We don't know yet if the cortisone is giving any relief bc he is still sore from the poking and the digging, Dr said may take 3 or 4 days to feel relief.

The issue is, this affects both our lives. I don't like having a hubby who doesn't feel well, its no fun to hurt all the time. He likes to garden and such, so he still does it, but I know it hurts him. Damn man won't just sit down and chill. And it puts him in a bit of a crabby mood - heck I'd be crabby too. The pain killers really don't work.

So, any of you know of any good at-home ways to help relieve the pain. Any successful doctoring going on, treatments we may want to ask the Dr about? I know they have a WD-40 like injection they can use for knees, do they have the same thing for the back? I can't think of what it is called, and didn't think about it until we left the Dr yesterday. Any ways to make him feel better? Wine works, but he can't carry a bottle around with him

Nan

 

[Jane A]

Nan,

I'd like to offer up a suggestion, but it may be beyond practical use for you -- I don't know. I have an acquaintance who has the same kind of thing going on in his neck -- vertebrae actually rubbing against each other. He has visited a clinic in Germany where they do a procedure that replaces the disk. The procedure is not approved in the U.S., and of course it's tremendously expensive and not covered by insurance. My friend's planning to have the procedure done only if his pain gets worse.

If you're interested, I can try to get more information. I know this is a long shot, but just in case you have relatives in Germany or something, I thought I'd mention it to you.

In any case, I hope he can find relief.

 

[pixie9]

Physical Therapy can be very helpful and non-invasive for this problem. My DH treats people ALL the time for problems like this and many of them come back from it much stronger. He also sees patients who had invasive procedures (including the disk replacement in Germany) and are just as bad or worse than they were before the procedure (they usually feel better for about 6 months to a year and then the problems inevitably come back). Usually these people were never offered therapy (because many doctors don't want the competition) which, IMO, should be the very first step you take - surgery should be the last option. If I were you, I'd give this a try before I try ANYTHING invasive (and that includes injections!)!

 

[carol@obx]

My husband has a similar problem, where they have diagnosed him with spinal stenosis. He went through a number of epidural like you described (including the multiple poking). The shots like that helped some but we recently went to a pain management clinic where they do epidurals guided by an x-ray. This allows the doctor to go further down the spine (since the cortisone travels up the spine not down). My husband claims that this helps much more and actually went for his third shot last week. The last epidural (unguided) he went to was the worst. The doctor had difficulty finding the right spot, my husband felt nauseated and dizzy afterwards (they kept him a sitting up, hug your knees position for about an hour). The guided ones took about 15 minutes each and was well worth the 7 hour round trip.

 

[pixie9]

Again, and not to put too fine a point on it, physical therapy should be the first step for those diagnosed with Spinal Stenosis. My father is a good example of someone who did not receive PT before undergoing surgery for this problem and ended up having to have more invasive procedures. There is good evidence out there that suggests invasive treatments (including injections) are not as good as PT and for those who do have a good outcome from surgery, their outcome is similar to those who just had PT without the surgery. Of course many docs won't tell you this or they flat out may not know. Just information for thought.