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honest-to-goodness back pain

WNYRollin

WNYRollin

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
135
alright, so im a 22 year old male with no medical history. i have never been to a hospital, never been to a doctor other than check ups. only had narcotic pain killers prescribed following dental surgery.

anyways, i am a very frequent mountain biker and lately my minor back pain has gotten significantly worse. this happened last season and i went to the chiropractor (my mother is a massage therapist and she works with one) three times which had little to no noticable effects.

i was curious what a general practicioner would do. i am willing to get x-rays and whatever it takes to see if there is a real problem. i'd rather solve it than mask it with medication, but until that occurs, would someone prescribe me something other than 800mg ibu or 500 mg naproxen, etc? NSAIDS give me no relief anymore, after routine use following 20-30 mile rides for quite a while.

i feel that telling a doctor, "NSAIDS just dont work, i need something 'better'" just seems sketchy, especially considering my age. i am being 110% honest saying that i want these pills for nothing put true pain management. to be fair, yes i have used hydrocodone recreationally a handful of times in my past, but that is all.

doing my daily routine is sometimes near impossible with the levels of recent pain.

any help would be much appreciated. thanks.
 
if eerything you say here is true, then why not tell your doc exactly what you told us. You have pain. NSAIDs don't work. No one expects you to live your life in pain.


But of course, its for the doctor to decide.
 
yep, its all true. scouts honor.

i guess i'm just paranoid, living in a small town where everyone knows everyone, having just started a new, successful career, and the like.
 
I would guess that the doc would do a few ballence tests, etc. X-ray, and perhapse an MRI. Physical Therapy is the normal rout for this sort of thing.
 
I had the same problem you have. Super rank back pain that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I was prescribed all the usual anti-inflammatory shit and none of them worked...I finally got my hands on some Vioxx (which is banned now) which worked wonders. I don't recommend going to the chiropractor until you have had an X-Ray at least sometimes they can cause more damage instead of helping you (for me it took an MRI to find that I had a herniated disc). I have bad days and I have been trying to find a good replacement for the Vioxx, lately I have been taking Oxaprozin 600mg; it's not bad. As for your rides, I'm a free-ride biker who didn't want to give up riding because of the pain either, however when I decided to take a break and let my back heal it made a huge difference in the amount of pain I had to deal with. Hope this helps...?
 
You can start by looking at these:

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1998/03mar/kronisch.htm
http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1998/03mar/kronpa.htm

You can go to a doctor and he can do an MRI on your back and likely determine exactly how your back is being strained. But short of actually doing surgery on your back all he can really do is 1) give you specific advice on how to modify your habits to prevent the injury or 2) give you pills. I strongly recommend you try the advice over the pills, as you need your back and all of its vertebrates, muscles, ligaments, etc. to last the rest of your life i.e. you need to take care of it.
 
I had back problem too, I started doing some back exercises, and the pain went away after a few months.
 
I had a major back injury about six years ago. The pain was constant and I couldn't straighten up all the way. Wasted a few weeks with a chiropractor until I could see and orthopedic surgeon. He did an MRI and couldn't actually see any damage and told me that it was most likely a microspopic pinch on a disc. He put me on NSAIDs and told me that one day I'd wake up and the pain would be gone. He was right! About four months after starting the meds, I woke up one morning and went into the kitchen to make coffee and realized that my back simply didn't hurt anymore. The meds work but it also makes sense to do abdominal exercises to strenghten your back and avoid activities which could make it worse. If I were you I'd see an orthopedic surgeon ASAP and forego the general practitioner.
 
^ I agree. I would skip your PCP altogether and go right to a specialist. Where is the location of your pain? Lower back? Pain does not always equate to tissue damage. The severity of pain from lower back problems is usually not related to the extent of physical damage present. Does the pain get worse throughout the day? Is it relieved by rest? Does it hurt more in certain positions?
 
StagnantReaction said:
Hopefully this is what everyone should try first.
Click to expand...

Oi....or not. Being stoned and trying to get through everyday life doesnt sound very practical to me.

Did the back pain come on all of a sudden? Or gradually over time. Maybe something is out of alignment, I have that type of back pain. After seeing a doctor, if its nothing they can pinpoint maybe doing yoga and other back excercizes would help to strengthen and support your back. I really cant offer better advice since I dont know what exactly is causing the pain. I just know my back is out of alignment and it hurts! And I dont see anything wrong with just talking to the doc and saying some meds dont work for you.
 
I have back problems due to my bad habit of bad posture.
I highly recommend getting a good alignment at the chiropracter(sp?), and getting stronger in your back and stomach muscles. I need to take that advice myself more seriously
 
shahab6 said:
I had back problem too, I started doing some back exercises, and the pain went away after a few months.
Click to expand...

Yeah same here, i had lower back surgery a few years ago and had a LOT of pain in my lower back and ankles (siadic (sp?) nerve) and asked fellow BL'ers what i could do. They recommended I ask my doc about options for my back, since ibuprofen wasn't working as well as it used to. I did this and my doc got me setup with physical therapy and it has done wonders! I recommend you ask your doc about physical therapy options, it has done a lot more for me than any painkillers or ibuprofen ever did. Good luck man, there is no pain like back pain :\
 
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