I am a competive high level gymnast…i have gone to docters and chiropractors and they dont help…i take medicines and tons of crap…my back has been hurtin for nearly four years now…i have been in and out of a back brace during this time…yet my lower back still kills me…about 4 years ago i hurt my back and they said it was because my hips are uneven by 8mm, then my back got better by the next season…then my back started hurting again and we went back to the docter and they said i tore a ligament in my back…i went to physical therapy 3 times a week for 3 years and then stopped but my lower back pain keeps comming back!!! gah any help?
#1 by gapsusie on February 22, 2010 - 2:46 am
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acupuncture
#2 by Rick Olderman, MSPT on February 22, 2010 - 3:22 am
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There is a lot of confusing information available about back pain. I like to keep things simple by using a quick little test. Try this out. It’ll literally take 1 minute.
Lie down on your back for 30 seconds with legs extended out, resting on the floor. Now bend your knees so the feet are sitting flat on the floor near your behind for 30 seconds. Which one feels better? If your back pain diminishes with knees bent then your spine has excessive extension stress acting on it. There are simple exercises to correct this. If your spine felt better with legs extended then you have excessive flexion stress acting on your spine. Again this is easily correctable.
Chronic pain results from a cycle of issues. Anatomical problems feed biomechanical issues which then affect movement habits that reinforce the original anatomical and biomechanical problems. Fixing back pain requires attention to all three levels. It’s quite simple to correct though and outlined this in my book. I’m very successful treating chronic pain and it is likely this information will be the key you’ve been missing to fix your pain. I’ve also posted this test on YouTube, if you’re interested.
#3 by Jon T on February 22, 2010 - 9:27 am
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I also have a bad lower back from a protruding disc. When it first happened I was walking like Monty Burns for at least a week!
I went to a physio and was given a program of strecthes to do twice a day (takes about 20 mins in the morning and evenng.) It can be a nuisance doing them, but it has generally kept the pain at bay and has allowed me to go on playing sports.
The physio said I basically have to keep doing the stretches forever, or my bad back will keep coming back whenevr I lift stuff or do anything strenuous – annoying, but at least it seems to be working.
#4 by Searcher on February 22, 2010 - 2:05 pm
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I can feel your pain my friend. I hurt my back lifting a patient in 1994 and have been in constant pain ever since. Two low back surgery’s later and still pain. They put a pump in my abdomen that infuses narcotics and anesthetic right into my spinal column at the point of injury. I also take pain meds and antidepressants everyday. My prognosis is of no help to you other than maybe it will allow you to see that it could be worse. Good luck with your gymnast endeavors. Hopefully your pain won’t become debilitating and you can learn to live with it.
#5 by krizzae2 on February 22, 2010 - 3:06 pm
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Do you experience high stress levels on a regular basis, by any chance? It sounds like you’ve definitely had some physiological problems as well, but I would investigate the possibility that stress or depression is making your backache chronic. I don’t think it’s likely, but I would at least try to rule it out when everything other treatment is failing… sometimes you never know what may help. (I’ve had chronic lower back pain before than wound up being caused by stress and depression, but I thought it was an injury.)
#6 by peeper on February 22, 2010 - 9:51 pm
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So sorry you have to suffer. . .I know what it’s like! The spine is so very complex – I’m sure you’ve realized this after seeing so many medical professionals. I don’t know if it’s possible to heal it once it’s injured – it’s easy to lose hope and get depressed in this kind of situation. Check out Dr. Ming Chew – the Ming Method – this might be just what you need.
#7 by Liz on February 23, 2010 - 12:18 am
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I had back pain such as yours for many years and finally got rid of it using Zeolite. It is all natural and safe for even infants and pregnant and nursing mothers. I found out my pain was due to mercury toxicity. When the Zeolite removed the mercury from the cells in my body, I had no more pain and have been pain free ever since! Bone and joint problems have been traced to heavy metal toxicity. I am also an athlete, and have noticed that my muscles are more flexible when Zeolite is in the system. Happy and Complete Healing, Liz.
#8 by Dream Maker on February 23, 2010 - 3:55 am
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Hi there! If I were u I would go see a spine specialist or orthopedic doctor and get an MRI to get to the ROOT OF THE PROBLEM!!! I suffer from severe scoliosis and am in chronic pain. I go to pain management, had the epidural shots in the back, EVERYTHING just about!! Anyway, I hope your back is not too bad and you can continue your gymnastics!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!
#9 by Spoiledb on February 23, 2010 - 5:43 am
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Many times lower back pain can not be cured, it can only be treated so you can manage. I know this isn’t a lot, but you seem to be so passionate and I wish you the best. I am sorry you have to go through something such as this.
#10 by rose on February 23, 2010 - 8:49 am
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Back pain is something you usually have for life. I would suggest you get an MRI to see exactly what is causing the pain. That is the only true reading you will get. Then go from there
#11 by buster34 on February 23, 2010 - 11:19 am
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Same problem here until finally I just had my lower back removed. Can’t tell you how much better I feel. I don’t even miss it, either.
#12 by gwen p on February 23, 2010 - 1:48 pm
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I too am a chronic pain sufferer. I am sorry I cannnot answer your question but I pray for you to find the answers you need.
Good Luck.
#13 by prius200 on February 23, 2010 - 4:31 pm
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You need to see an orthopedic dr. who specializes in the spine and get an MRI to see what is going on with your back.
#14 by Akmed on February 23, 2010 - 7:09 pm
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Get just a little bit shaved off of one foot. That should make your hips even.
#15 by Eve on February 23, 2010 - 7:38 pm
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Once you have back pain it’s usually with you for good. I hurt mine around 19 and all these years it never went away. It wasn’t always present but the minute I went and did something athletic it would start to throb and if I overdid it, it would “snap” and I could not move for weeks and it would be months, MANY months before I was pain free. But I never am pain free. You have to learn to live with it, with the pain, and just try not to injure your back.
You probably have a compressed nerve somewhere in your back and it won’t be evident unless you go for an MRI and they do a thorough check of your spine. The nerve won’t show but any spinal abnormality will.
It’s no wonder being a gymnast that you’ve gone and injured something. I probably hurt my back doing stuff like that when I was a kid too. They made us do all kinds of stuff in gym (trampolines, bars, wooden horses and flips, etc. etc.) and all I ever did was hurt myself on that ridiculous equipment, probably why they don’t have it at all in the schools anymore too!! That would explain why the pain so young when I’d never really done anything to injure my back that I was aware of.
#16 by Richard C on February 23, 2010 - 9:34 pm
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One of the problems in treating gymnasts is that they are too flexible. Female gymnasts in particular have overstretched the spinal ligaments to a point that they no longer work to stop excess movement. That means the vertebrae are subject to forces that normally would be stopped by the ligaments. You undoubtedly are in great shape and what normally would work for the average person is not going to work for you. I cannot tell you to stop the gymnastics but unless there is a scholarship or Olympic aspirations it might be in your best interests to stop. Flexibility and strength are not problems to you as they would be for the average person. The differential of 8 mm is too small to worry about most people have one leg shorter than the other. You wrote that physical therapy was ongoing for three years and then you stopped. Did the pain come back after you stopped or was it continual? If it did stop during therapy go back and have them work on you some more. If not then you may need to try another therapist. Sit down with that person and tell them what is wroing and what has been done. One last thing there are injections that tighten up the ligaments called sclerosing injections. If this is something that has not be tried you may want to look into it. Maintain your strength as this is going to become a great asset to you.
#17 by heogog on February 23, 2010 - 11:07 pm
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You have probably done a number of insults and injuries to your lower back as a gymnast.
It’s unlikely that you have only a single cause of your lower back pain. As a gymnast, you are probably in pretty good shape, and you have no doubt done routines with sprains, strains and the like.
Lower back pain is a problem for humans who stand upright on two feet. The lower back seems to take a great deal of the blame, too.
Once you injure your back, it can take a long time to heal it, but if you keep doing gymnastics, it’s not going to heal, it’ll only get worse.
The real issue is will it every go away completely- answer- probably not.
I caught a 250 pound patient in 2006 and my life has been misery ever since then. I have tried a TENS unit, acupuncture, PT, epidural spinal injections, Reiki healing, aqua therapy and medications to make the pain go away.
If I go to work and have really hard days there, after about three days, I’m maxed out in pain.
I’m very sorry that you have joined the band of back sufferers. Your prognosis is just as cloudy as the rest of ours.
#18 by Linda F on February 24, 2010 - 5:30 am
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Ask your doctor if you can be referred to an orthopedic surgeon. I had a lower back problem and went to therapy 3 times a week also. They gave me shots in my back which I thought I was going to die from the pain. Then a discography which is injecting dye into your back to look at your disks. Come to find out I had a herniated disk. So then it was time for surgery. The removed the disk put a bone donors bone on each side of were the disk should be screwed each side down with 2 screws and I’M STILL IN CONSTANT PAIN. I had surgery on March 13, 2008. I have to sleep in a recliner, walk with a cane, Cant go to therapy because of the pain.
#19 by Amateras on February 24, 2010 - 12:11 pm
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If you haven’t had an MRI of the lumbar spine, now is the time. My husband went through something similar and was misdiagnosed repeatedly until they discovered a ruptured disc at the L5-S1 level. If they’d caught it earlier, it would probably have stopped at herniation and he would not have an inoperable extrusion (broken piece of spinal disc) near his spinal cord. Unfortunately for us, his disc degeneration was caused by a very aggressive form of disc degenerative disease that has since taken 8 more discs over the course of the past 4 years and he has been unable to work at all. The one think I know, however, is that none of his other discs have actually broken. He has annular tears (cracks) in the others, however the disc they missed is by far the worst of any of them, and causes him to lose feeling, strength and sometimes use of his legs. If the PT has not been working, then it is time to aggressively persue a diagnosis until you are certain that what is going on cannot be made worse by ignoring it.
#20 by mmene on February 24, 2010 - 6:55 pm
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Have you heard of prolotherapy? It is possible that it will cure you for good. It is not something that most doctors are familiar with though it is only practiced by M.D.s with specialized training. I have used it many many times to treat pain and ligament injury in different parts of my body with great results. In my case I have a congenital ligament disorder and I am constantly facing pain so I am very aware of the condition and I am equally aware that most doctors are ignorant about ligament disorders and low intervention treatments from my life experiences.
Since I don’t know where you live I can’t recommend a doctor. If you email me and tell me I can try and find out. I got my treatments in the Boston area but there are doctors in many places. In addition you can check out http://www.getprolo.com to find a doctor. There are a number of other things you can use for ligament injury but I won’t list it all right now as I believe that prolotherapy is probably the best for your situation from the little that I know.
Other things that I strongly believe will help you are pilates and yoga. But I still think that ideally you should start our with prolotherapy.
As a final note let me say that I believe that a lot of medicines that are traditionally prescribed for this will make you better in the short term and worse in the long term. Anti-inflammatories can bring down inflammation but it is well known that they do not heal ligaments. They are just masking pain but not dealing with its causes.
Good luck and let me know if you need more info.