My, this topic has touched a nerve, so to speak. You guys have given me, if nothing else, hope that there are several potential treatments beyond opiates and surgery. I have an appointment with a physical therapist on Thursday that I was going to cancel, for fear it would be too painful. Now I've decided to give that a shot. 

Chiropractic treatment is certainly worth a shot, too - "walking out pain-free after 30 minutes" sure sounds attractive; it takes longer than that for the Percocet to kick in.

I've also put turmeric on my shopping list. Maybe I can just go to the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet every day for a few weeks...mmm, now that's a therapy I could cope with!

I always knew that getting old would suck. I just didn't expect to be so young when it started.

Don't trust a chiro. There are good ones out there bad there are far more bad ones. Work with the soft tissue before you start screwing around with the structure. You'll be surprised what a good physiotherapist can do for you. Bonus... if you get referred by a specialist any good insurance should cover it... or some of it.

Also put some pineapple on your grocery list. It has an enzyme called bromelain (sp) that is supposedly a natural anti inflammatory. You call also pick up an extrat version at most health food stores and pharmacies.

Good luck, dude. I live with this hell every day. It ain't fun. Cheers.

I always knew that getting old would suck. I just didn't expect to be so young when it started.

 
Best quote from Bitflipper EVAH!!!

Beepster

Also put some pineapple on your grocery list. It has an enzyme called bromelain (sp) that is supposedly a natural anti inflammatory. You call also pick up an extrat version at most health food stores and pharmacies.

A lot of turmeric supplements are paired with bromelain these days because they have found that they strongly compliment each other. Bromelain is also good for dissolving scar tissue on tendons, good if you suffer from anything like tennis elbow. It's also very good at breaking down protein, good to eat after a meal anyway. 


I'm not really sure about the effectiveness of turmeric in extract form versus spice form, although I suspect the extract that you get in pill form is a lot more concentrated. It can be pricey though. Jarrow Formulas do a good one. 


Another thing that might work is a magnesium drink called Natural Calm, it has fantastic anti-stress and relaxation properties and might just take the edge off, especially at night. 

I'm sorry I don't have any good suggestions, Bit, but I wish you luck with your back problem.  

Keep us posted. I hope all goes well. I'm not sure if you are having nerve pain (right on the spine or shooting pains) or if you're having muscle pain. If you're having muscle pain, regular massage therapy can really help. My wife gets muscle spasms from stress and desk work. If she gets a massage bi-weekly she is MUCH better. She does the hour and a half massage when she does it.
I have had good results from chiropractic if my shoulders get messed up. IT seems to help with muscle pain but for nerve pain... nothing but meds have helped me.
Also my wife has literally no disk left between her bottom two vertibrae. The doctor looked at her MRI and told her she shouldn't be able to get out of bed, but somehow it isn't pressing on a nerve except for now and then when it does. A few months ago she did something and it started to hurt with sciatica shooting down her leg. She was really a mess. She made an appointment with a new doctor at the same center I use. He just came over from Emory and is very good. He put her under the flouroscope and gave her an epidural. He hit exactly the right sopt and the novacaine gave her immediate complete relief, then the steroid took over and she was completely over it in a couple of days... I wish it was that easy for me. Epidurals really help some people with nerve pain. They also have something called a "radio frequency treatment". They identify the nerve that is giving the pain and use radio frequencies to burn the nerve away. It will grow back but sometimes it grows back slightly different and is no longer a problem.
So massage, chiropractic, epidurals, or RFT could be an answer but according to what sort of pain you are having. Also, nerve pain can cause muscle pain because you may "favor" one side or the other because of the pain in the spine. Does it hurt right on the spine in a spot or is it just the muscles that hurt? You could just be having muscle spasms but I doubt it. You need the MRI but you can also get someone to slowly move down your spine, right on the vertibrae and press. See if they hit a spot or spots where it hurts. If it does, you have a disk problem and nerve pain. If it is just swollen muscles that hurt in your shoulder and neck or in your lower back it could just be muscle spasms but like I said, a spine problem can cause muscle spasms.. so see if the spine bones or disks are tender anywhere... if not, I would go full bore for PT and massage and muscle relaxers.
Bottom line, it is your body and you need to educate yourself and have a say in your treatment.

The best for you!

Julien

Bit, also coming to this thread very late.  Because of my RL situation, to even be able to read a computer screen, my nose has to be only a couple inches away (even when using various screen magnification tricks).  My posture has been very bad, as a result, and that has caused a fair amount of lower back trouble.

One thing that I found to help in my sitaution is to wear a lower back brace - just the inexpensive Ace bandage kind.  It helps keep the spine more stable, and has improved things quite a bit - "ideal" will never happen, but "more livable" is a definite plus.

Inversion table Bit. 15 minutes a day at 45 degrees.

I was just listening to an old SonicState podcast, and the main topic was chronic back pain. Of the four participants, every one of them said they'd had terrible back pain. I wonder if it might not be endemic to people who sit in front of computers all day.

My pain starts in the lower back and radiates downward, all the way to my shins. Sometimes it's quite extreme, 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Fortunately, those episodes are brief. Most of the time it's a sharp pain in the back and a dull throb in the legs. So based on everyone's descriptions, it's classic sciatica caused by a bundle of nerves being pinched by the spine.

I like the sound of massage. I wonder if my insurance will pay for the "full body" massage they offer up the street; the place with the dark curtains, the neon sign and parking in the back. I believe they also sell educational videos and adult novelties, so they must be a reputable, full-service establishment.

Thanks again to everyone who offered information, advice and sympathy!

Inversion Table Bit. 15 minutes a day at 45 degrees.