Back Again! Back Pain Support Thread

[PavlovtheCat]

Only right I start the new one seeing as I was responsible for the last one ending so abruptly !

This is a support thread for people with back pain (that does not even cover the description of hell that back pain causes). It's for all types of back pain, for long term posters with chronic pain (including those on the upwards journey to recover), short term advice through tough acute episodes and all the in betweens.

We moan, winge, share successes, guide each other and hand hold through the maize of a million medical routes and options, treatments, investigations. We internet shop as a form of pain relief, drink wine, take strong painkillers, eat cake and we go through lots of heat packs!

We don't always have the answers but we do have a lot to say about it all

Here are the links to our previous threads:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/1871592-The-Back-Story
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/1992406-The-Back-Story-Continues
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_health/2023274-More-Terrible-Back-Stories

I love the feathery ones. Do you get them from a local shop or buy online? I have seen a lot on eBay but didn't want to end up with fakes. Do they come up with your normal size? Or are they smaller bigger

Oh, they're lovely, matilda. Wish I could wear the toe-post ones too.

pretty fitflops

Uk Fitflop store. Loads of styles. I'm a standard five which is perfect.

Although the Gabapentin has helped my SI pain. My back pain is still there and I have new pain Central spine where I assume my disc has prolapsed. It's a dull ache but tender to touch. Is it worth asking for a new MRI to see if it's worsened? And how do you get diagnosed with SIJD? Xray? MRI?

P,s I have ordered one pair of fitflops and tempted to order another!! Oh no not another addiction

Salivating:
m.fitflop.co.uk/womens/womens-sandals/chada/womens-aztek-chada-pebble/883945440083.html

The ones I wore today: m.fitflop.co.uk/womens/womens-sandals/womens-suisei-pebble/883945470394.html?start=115&cgid=womens_sandals

ok. I am trying to like flit flops. I really am. They are not doing it for me. The only ones I almost like are almost £100. I am not spending that much money on a pair of sandals. I am buying some birkenstocks and just not going to walk anywhere much. that'll sort the problem out.

I have got 'stuck' three times today, first time when i bent to put water in the cat bowl. I was stuck on the floor crouched, in tears as I had locked into position. Happened several times. Pain levels high, medicated with Pimms x too much and 100mg SR tramadol. Not helped at all but enjoyed the Pimms anyway I can't even take diazepam due to amount of alcohol but will probably take some codeine. I think this is a 'flare up'. I am a little worried.

Hope everyone has enjoyed their Saturday and has had some good sun. Despite my pain, had some nice sunshine at a BBQ. But my feet hurt from standing too long as I can't sit for long as it feels like my vertebrae is pushing down on the one below (and the pressure as well as pain feels a bit like I am going to use my bowels, sorry tmi) then I get stuck getting up as my back locks.

The back locking - is that the muscles locking or the vertebrae clicking in the wrong place do you think?

Msdj, wait 'til you get the first pair of fitflops & check they fit okay before ordering any more!

Good question about diagnosis of SIJD - I don't know the answer, though. I've been told - by GP, chiropractor & now radiographer who did my nerve block (bastard!) that my pelvis is rotated to the left; & I can see & feel this myself. But don't know if that's SIJD - also, Queen posted a link (somewhere upthread) about how SI problems are often a result of disc prolapse, especially if the prolapse is at L5/S1 (mine is). Where is yours?

I love those fitflops too, Just, but can't wear the toe-post ones. Mine are uglier but incredibly comfortable -have some positano ones from a few years ago & another style called Bon, I think.

Another painful day here so far, made worse by watching Hull City lose the FA Cup Final. Neither DH or I have ever been into football, but our boys are & have supported Hull for about 4 years, so we've taken them to various matches (all deadly boring ones, actually). Found myself getting ridiculously over-involved today, though - & sitting for too long during it. Oh well. Have also had lovely York Brewery beer which has acted as a muscle relaxant! Your experience with the pinot noir yesterday sounded gutting, pavlov - hope you've made up for it since.

X-posted with you, pavlov - see if you've on the Pimms! I'd have thought the getting stuck was primarily muscular? But I guess if your muscles are going into such a serious spasm it must have a protective function, so there must be some slippage of the vertebrae? Or maybe I'm talking bollocks.

Our cat keeps saving all her litter tray shits for when I'm in the house on my own, so having to spend too long on my knees too. Why she can't sodding well go outside I've no idea.

Check out the blackstrap

loon not even drunk unfortunately just nice slow but steady sipping of it through the day. Not too strong, just lots of it. Too much to drive, so got a cab back from my friend's as DH was watching footy, but not even feeling tipsy, boo did feel nicely happy though, I do like a glass or few of Pimms

DH thinks I will be fine to take the diazepam as I have not had anything to drink for 2 hours and he doesn't think I drank that much I might ask my pharmacist friend as I am in quite a lot of pain and can't really move without that locked feeling.

My disc prolapse is at L3 L4.

I'd definitely go for the diazepam, pavlov, & take it regularly tomorrow too. The locked feeling sounds horrible, & a muscle relaxant does sound like the most obvious thing to help.

Oh, that's a bit higher, isn't it msdj - I guess the SI dysfunction is more likely a separate issue then? Hopefully someone will be along soon who's a bit more knowledgable about how it's diagnosed.

Hello I'm new to this thread and am suffering a lot with sciatica a lot. I hurt my back in August at lifting and it improved w physio but then it happened again in jan. got pregnant in feb, back was better but some light leg pain. This has got a lot worse in the last 6 weeks (now 13 weeks pregnant). I can't walk or stand for more than 5 mins and use crutches for my commute to and from work. I have tried 3 Osteo sessions but it's not helping. Can anyone please recommend what I could try next? I'm really worried about the next 6 months and just want to get some improvement. Thanks

WWW3MA - try a women's physio who also has some muscular skeletal expertise too. The Pelvic Partnership are good, just google them for contact details. It's more about PGP but they have recommended physios and osteopaths and info on more general stuff like pain relief with more knowledge about pregnancy and breastfeeding while treating pain. These are mostly private but some areas have NHS women's physios. Your GP will advise on medication too - Codeine is very safe but NSAIDs like naproxen may not be. No idea about nerve pain medication like gabapentin and amiltripiline.

I know there are question marks over MRIs and think I've seen CT are being safer, do a little research and see what you are happy with before asking if you can have a referral, in fact a referral to a neurosurgeon or consultant may be a good idea.

I was told that pregnancy and breastfeeding can make disc herniations worse, which probably happened for me. It's best to really understand your condition as it's not going to get easier. I'm not sure if there are implications for birth - I'm told not to strain on the loo so birth mustn't be good either!

Heat, showers, extra pillows, massages and drugs are what helps me. Plus very gentle and careful stretching to help the tight muscles. And resting which is rarely possible. Just remembered that a sacroilliac belt may be useful too, your physio may have one.

Sorry things are bad Pavlov, it's awful when the big spasms happen. I'm sure the diazepam will be ok. You can also up the tramadol to 200mg if needed at bad times, just ask the GP. Tramadol did nothing for me even at 200mg SR twice a day but codeine is fab.

Still overdoing it but had a nice day out with a friend. I'm not doing well at loving the comfy shoes but realising I may benefit from finding some as I'm really noticing the foot pain, even when I haven't been walking.

Thanks for the reassurances about GA, addiction (can't wait to get off the opiates) and that having little people is tough anyway. Poor things get a raw deal with me, although I'm sure I'd struggle even without the back pain.

possibly too late now but I wouldn't risk the diazepam and the alcohol.

Thanks Queen v helpful

And SIJD seems to be really hard to diagnose. There are examinations but scans don't seem helpful. I think it's just the injection into the joint which is thought to be a definitive diagnosis. The pelvic partnership may be able to advise on that too as pregnancy is thought to cause some cases. With Matilda's relatively successful SI injection I think I'd opt for trying that over the spinal ones. The SI joint is the epicentre of my pain, the thing that keeps me awake at night. It does seem that some herniations can cause SI pain so I have teen hope surgery may be helpful.

Those fltflops look nice Matilda if you have pretty feet to show off. I have a couple of pairs of earth sandals which seem to help my back. They are different to fitflops but are also supposed to be ergonomic - putting the weight further back on the foot. The ones I have give reasonable coverage of my feet which need to be hidden, whilst taking the weight off the (painful) toes.

Pavlov - feeling for you. Pinks sounds a good option.
I would love to buy the Alessi cat bowl with the sticky-up tail so that I don't need to bend quite as low when refilling. Can't justify stupid-amount on anything I can't wear though! Lol

Pavlov - feeling for you. Pinks sounds a good option.
I would love to buy the Alessi cat bowl with the sticky-up tail so that I don't need to bend quite as low when refilling. Can't justify stupid-amount on anything I can't wear though! Lol

morning all, interesting reading about the SIJD, my disc prolapse and vertebral issues are at L5/S1 and sometimes the pain is deep within that area and also my pelvic region. Makes sense that it could affect the pelvic joints given how we change the movements of our lumber spine to adapt to pain. I still have some ball of foot pain. A school friend's mum is a podiatrist and we were talking about shoes etc as she had a nice pair of birkenstocks on. She said that me using the crutch may be contributing to the foot pain as I am changing the weight distribution of my body on my feet, and the pain is the same side, but that i may have it without the crutch as I have changed how I walk. I didn't ask too many questions as I didn't want to seem like I was trying to get a podiatrist session from her but I will ask her what I can do to help. She recommended some other shoes too, call MG something? I will go google, they look like they will be very comfy, but they really are not attractive.

Welcome WWW3 (sounds like my house right now). Sorry i don't have specific advice for pregnancy and back pain, but certainly there will be others who can help, queen has given some good advice already.

denial loon I didn't take the diazepam. I know it's a very low dose and it would most likely be fine, but, some lots of my clients who have violent offences have done so following alcohol and diazepam use together, it can cause a chemical reaction that can trigger violence (i suspect you have to have a propensity for violence already there though). I have to remind myself that we are not talking about a few Pimms and 2mg of diazepam here, but 10 pints/bottle of vodka/2-4l cider and 30-50mg (sometimes much more) of diazepam but it still makes me worried that the mix might turn me into a nutcase I slept reasonably, little bit of pain but not too high, with just 30mg codeine.

I am finding that increasing the tramadol is not really helping very much, it's not really stopping the pain enough. loon you are right that I need to take more than 100mg in one go. I much much prefer codeine for pain relief, but can't take it for long without it making me a bit irritable and really blocking me up. But, I might take some of that today instead of tramadol. When I took the SR last time, I used to take 100mg at night, 100mg in the day (had awful night pain and for some reason it didn't stop me sleeping then) and topped up with 50mg normal release tramadol up to 400mg as I need to, along with codeine. But, I was off sick for a lot of that time, I can't take that at work and I was in much more pain than now.

Hiya gals, sorry have been away from posting as had busy week. Monday had meeting about ds's school offer in the SEN system- where they said he needed to go to special school and resource base (mainstream school with about 50% time in a separate area getting higher level of support) could not meet his needs. This was a shock as up til now had been agreed with nursery teachers etc that he was doing well, progressing lots. Long story short it turned out the observation this ws based on had been on the FIRST DAY he had changed key-worker (he was flipping in love with the guy and we were sad he had to change) , and couple with paperwork at the nursery not being up to date and the statement had taken a year so he had moved on quite a bit since then ( i had been advised not to be too precious about the details/ accuracy of this as it would stall the process at any point and they woud do follow up at 6 months as he was nursery age). phew, sorry lots of writing! we asked for a second opinion and it got sorted totally after tht on wednesday huge relief but very scarey to see how easily things can go wrong in that system
whenwillwe3 - I had PGP (the condition formerly know as SPD) in 2 pg's and much worse in the 2nd. Most important thing would be doing any exercise to try to retain core strength- I did aqua aerobics as not able to do anything else, sounds like u will be same as you have crutches etc. I found it made pain much reduced the day after. Also do pelvic floor exercises whenebver you can- I used my commute to do my pelvics, about 4 rounds :) They do have belts- but I was advised by a physio that once you start using it your owm muscles work even less, so try to manage without as long as you can. I took paracetamol and codeine in the 2nd one after much confusing advice from docs if it's ok or not- simple thing is that if you are in alot of pain ALL the time that is not good either. Try to taper it down as you come up to due date was the advice. Are you referred to physio- if not get them to do it now. Always sit down to do any dressing like shoes, socks. Lie on left side with a small pillow between legs to put pelvis in neutral position in sleep. Basically avoid any movement that makes you put legs far apart or onto one leg. Some people think elected caesarian will avoid strain but actually it is worse for the condition as the stomach muscles have to recover totally. I feel this is why i had much worse spd second time as first was ecs and then had two year gap- advised ok but prob needed longer to get stronger due to the cs. so try for a normal birth but dont worry if you need a cs- it's not the end of the world but means you have to work bit harder after to get strong. I used a tens machine in both and found it very good- i think i was getting pains from the spd as well as from the labour so it helped a bit with that. And avoid any even slightly heavy lifting- i think a full kettle was given as an upper limit!
hey evryone alse, hope you are all having a low pain day in this sunniness. That locking up sounds horrid pavlov - I have never experinced that at all. My dh has had a terrible back pain last couple days- trying to help but it's all so diff when it's another person. I begged him to have a phone appt with doc to get proper meds for it as he had severe tooth ache recently he was taking 30/500 codeine and running out so was worried he'd be in pain iover the weekend. The doc gave a script foe 500/8's! said if he took them regularly it would be anough to deal with it. He could have gotten that otc for god's sake. he had to work filming yesterday holding heavy camera all day and could hardly walk in between. He said moving made it feel a bit "un-kinked" but he was in pain all day and still taking 30's as had not run out yet. But today/tomotrrow not surewhat he'll do.