For bout a month now, I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office, an orthopedic, and now a physical therapist’s office. I’ve had x-rays of my hips and lower back, a CT Scan of my spleen since I’m just getting over mono, blood work to rule out a couple of things that run in my family like lupus, and an ultrasound of my kidneys to see if it was a kidney stone like my doctor originally thought.
When all of that was ruled out, I was sent to an orthopedic. The orthopedic said that it sounded like my facet joints being inflamed due to the mono though it was rare for my age, and my muscles were tightening in response which could have resulted in my siatic (not sure how to spell that, sorry) nerve being pinched by them. I was told physical therapy for two week, twice a week, my muscle relaxers and an anti-inflammatory.
When I saw the therapist, at the end of the session, she said it sounded and seemed more like a disc problem to her. We told her that disc issues run in my family which they do, on all sides. I go back to therapy this Wednesday and Friday, and then the orthopedic on Friday afternoon after therapy. If I’m not feeling better which I haven’t been, then I go for an MRI.
I’ve been on 3 different pain killers which I’ve been told to stop taking them now to prevent getting an addiction to them. I can only sit in the computer chair, I’m home bound from school (a teacher from the county comes to me), I can’t bend in any way, I can barely get dressed, I can’t even lift my left leg up to put a sock on. I’m a 16 year old female, I’ve always had minor back problems, at least the last few years I have, but nothing ever quite like this. My dad seems to agree with the therapist, and I’m just worrying a lot. The pain goes from the lower left side of my back, through my butt, down my leg to my foot and back up, just on the back side of my leg. For a few days the pain was just to my knee and back, but it’s started going down farther. I’m currently sleeping on the couch before I can’t lift my leg to get in my bed (it’s a higher then normal bed), and this has been going on for the last month or so like I stated above.
Is there a doctor on here or someone that’s gone through something similar that could maybe give me an idea of what exactly this could be because if it’s a disc issue then I’m basically looking at surgery and missing a lot of the last 9 weeks of the school year which the 9 weeks starts tomorrow and I’ve already missed basically half of this semester.
#1 by sophieb on February 13, 2010 - 8:24 pm
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I don’t know where to start, so I’ll just jump in in the middle and with both feet. First if I were a medical professional I’d be asking you if you hurt hourself recently like stretched before the pain began, or twisted your leg somehow or tripped or fell down a stair or two. You have to first rule out whether it’s a muscular, bone or nerve problem and each doctor does their own thing.
If you had a pull, a muscle spasm, a neck or back problem the first person I’d go to is a chirporactor. He can realign you and then you take it easy for a couple of weeks and the pain will go away.
Now if it’s something you think runs in your dna that you’ve inherited then that’s for the doctors to figure out and they will take lots and lots of tests costing your family lots of money and all they know is what it is not.
I can’t remember right now which is the better the CT scan or the MRI but one sees better than the other what’s wrong so you really don’t need both, and both are expensive. And you don’t need either if it’s a pulled muscle all you need is realigned.
Here’s what you do, for an injury put cold packs where it hurts to bring down the swelling and take Advis (if you’re of age to do that, one Advil AFTER a meal and see if that stops or slows down the pain. If it does then you merely hurt yourself doing some exercise or something. It’s when the Advil and cold packs don’t work that perhaps there is a tear or something more major done to the ligaments and you need to take bed rest for a short while.
I go to chiropractors because I don’t like medication. Chripractors can feel your bones and down your spine and can tell if things are or arent alligned properly and they can fix it with their hands. Chiropractors want to be at the same doctor level but in some states they still aren’t considered doctors, but no matter they still do an excellent job.
Doctors on the other hand give medication instead of immediately fixing things and they prescribe exercise which may exasorbate the problem.
try one or two appointments with a chiropractor. NEVER tell them you’ve seen doctors or you’ve been receiving treatment elsewhere or they won’t work on you.
#2 by Ron again on February 13, 2010 - 8:28 pm
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I was having the [all most ] the same troubled. There is a nerve that runs up thu the back side and I was told my low rise tight jeans was pinching the nerve.LOL