Has anyone ever had IDD therapy done to relieve neck and back pain?
July 28, 2008 11:59 pm Back Pain Therapy
phatty_alpha asked:
I had an accident about 5 years ago and have had horrible pain since. Docs say my MRI and everything are normal but I HURT!! Chiropractors don’t seen to help nor does PT or massage therapy. Looking for other alternatives.
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I had an accident about 5 years ago and have had horrible pain since. Docs say my MRI and everything are normal but I HURT!! Chiropractors don’t seen to help nor does PT or massage therapy. Looking for other alternatives.
Ready To Build A Real Internet Business
August 1st, 2008 at 10:01 am
I have a different type of chronic pain problem and I can truly sympathize with your situation. One thing they have learned about chronic pain is that if the initial pain from the original injury or insult is not treated aggressively early on, the nervous system “rewires” itself to continue sending pain signals long after the injury is gone. So sucking it up early on and gritting through the pain is actually the wrong thing to do. It needs to be addressed aggressively early on or you end up like you and me.
Once chronic pain becomes established, you have to work hard to get it to subside and its going to take time for it to go away. The key is to do whatever it takes to keep the pain down and to jump on it immediately when it starts to get bad. I tried a lot of therapies - some worked, some didn’t, but the one thing I learned with all of them is even the ones that work often take a long time before you show improvement when you are dealing with a chronic situation. So persistence pays off. I decided I could not live the way things were and so I tried everything, didn’t dismiss anything and even spent a lot of money and flew a long distance (in pain) to consult with a specialist in my type of pain. It was worth the trip.
I would stick with physical therapy and massage therapy long-term if you can - although it takes a long time, these in the end helped me a great deal. These are not overnight fixes but I have seen slow but gradual improvement with both. If you don’t feel your PT or massage therapist is working for you, try another one. Try acupuncture. Try biofeedback (this one helped me a lot). I found one treatment recommended by my PT called Watsu (which is gentle massage while floating in a warm swimming pool - it was very helpful). Heat from rice heating pad that goes in the microwave was a godsend for me on bad days. All of these things are supportive care to keep the pain level down as much as possible all the time with the long-term goal of getting my nervous to stop sending pain signals all the time. I also use medication when needed, but as little as possible so I can maintain my job and life (not always easy to balance the two). I am even willing to use small doses of pain medication to make exercise possible because I know in the long run I’ll be better off if I maintain some level of fitness - my doctors and PT agree with this. If you work hard at keeping the pain levels down, you will gradually have fewer times when it is intolerable.
I feel I’m about 75% there in terms of healing - it has taken 2 years of hard work, some travel and some money out of my own pocket (not just the insurance company) every day to get to this point. Never give up, keep an open mind, try everything and keep at it and be persistent. It can get better. Good luck.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
Look up
rsd or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. I suffer from severe chronic pain and go to pain management. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but try drug therapy. I have spent countless hours in physical therapy, massage, accupuncture, energy work, relexology, meditation, essential oils,etc. There are a few good days and mostly bad, but just keep on keepin on, because if you let it overtake you then your life will be more miserable. People who don’t suffer from chronic pain don’t understand. They think you are a hypochondriac. Talk to your doctor and try taking methadone(for long-term pain control) 30mg every 8hours, and Norco for breakthrough pain. I have tried numerous combinations of medicine, and contrary to my arguing with my doc about taking methadone, because I had only heard of it for drug addicts, it works better than anything and it is very inexpensive.
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 am
I have chronic pain due to an injury 20 years ago. I began going to a pain management clinic, and they have changed my quaility of life. They focus on ur pain, and ur pain ONLY- in addition, they do give interventions to help alleviate the pain, such as trigger point injections and tens units, just to name a few things they do. In the meantime, try taking up to 800 mg of ibuprophen every 6 hours (good anti-inflammatory) and utilize a product called thermacare, which omits heat to ur pain site with deep penetration, and lasts for a period of 8 hours. Please check into this. You will never regret it. Take care and good luck!