Bastard back pain...

Emp_Fab

I'm in fucking agony today.  (Yes, it's another thread where I moan about my various ailments..... Hi Fretwired !).

I'm teetering about on two walking sticks and have taken enough ibuprofen to numb an elephant.

I had a modersickle crash in '93 and damaged my lower spine.  Then the bottom disc prolapsed and I had emergency surgery.  Since then, whenever it gets cold and damp, my back hurts.  It's been aching for weeks now and I'm getting well pissed off with it.  If I move around, it hurts like hell, if I lay flat it stops hurting but then when I try to move it hurts a shitload more.

mike_l

I get like that, not the back, but the rest of me, where I've had fractured/broken bones or damaged ligaments/tendons from playing rugby.

Headphones

While happy to be sympathetic to your plight (though not enough to offer to rub anything), this statement always raises my interest:

          "whenever it gets cold and damp, my back hurts"

I've heard it so often I'm sure that there's a real effect here, yet I'm intrigued as to why.

The bones, cartilage, icky stuff are all encased in nice "person stuff" (skin, blood, fat, fluids) so are very effectively isolated from the cold in normal life and are already in a very wet (blood, etc) environment.  So how does the humidity/dampness and temperature (within reason) cause the effect?  Does it occur when swimming/bathing?

As a non sufferer (so far...), this is largely academic interest (no gloating, honest!).

chillidoggy

Emp_Fab said:

I'm in fucking agony today.  (Yes, it's another thread where I moan about my various ailments..... Hi Fretwired !).

I'm teetering about on two walking sticks and have taken enough ibuprofen to numb an elephant.

I had a modersickle crash in '93 and damaged my lower spine.  Then the bottom disc prolapsed and I had emergency surgery.  Since then, whenever it gets cold and damp, my back hurts.  It's been aching for weeks now and I'm getting well pissed off with it.  If I move around, it hurts like hell, if I lay flat it stops hurting but then when I try to move it hurts a shitload more.

Jesus Christ, why don't you simply admit it: You just can't face laying that laminate flooring, and while you've been prevaricating, Pugsley's been and pissed on it again!

Aaaaannnnd.....................I've just been out to start the garage door sealing project, and spent a couple of hours digging out the shit between the garage floor and the block paving, mixing up, then filling in the gap with some concrete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mind you, me back's hurting now. Think I'll have to go lay down for a bit.

digitalscream

I can sympathise. I've had back pain ever since a car crash about 13 years ago, but not serious enough to warrant surgery. My wife, however, had a roller derby accident last year, which resulted in an inflamed disc - the NHS totally misdiagnosed it, and she ended up having emergency surgery where they found that the disc had ruptured and caused severe nerve damage in the spinal column (also, she flatlined on the operating table). I'm basically her helper-monkey a lot of the time these days, and when we're both having a bad day it takes about 20 minutes for me to get out of bed, shuffle round the other side and find a way to get her out of bed without crippling the pair of us.

I'm 36, and she's 39. I really didn't think this is how it'd be for another 30 years or so...

Both our backs get worse in the cold weather as well - I strongly suspect it's something to do with the muscles tensing up in the cold and pulling stuff out of position, but I ain't no doc.

viz

Bad luck, it can ruin your day, a bad back. Or your month. Hope it gets better soon. Numbing an elephant does remind me of a joke though.

Emp_Fab

digitalscream said:

(also, she flatlined on the operating table). 

Shit man !  I'm trying to imagine how they would handle that with a patient who is face-down on the table.  How do they get the defibrillator paddles onto the chest ?  Bloody scary that is.

They gave me my burst disc in a little bottle of formaldehyde.  God knows why..... I didn't ask for it !  I still have it upstairs somewhere !

TTony

Emp_Fab said:

Then the bottom disc prolapsed and I had emergency surgery.  Since then, whenever it gets cold and damp, my back hurts.

I had one of those.  Luckily I got to see the nice Mr Surgeon man rather quickly (BUPA) who did all the scans & diagnoses, and showed me all the pics and even a 3D model or two, and explained how he could stick a sharp knife into my spine to cut off the offending prolapsed bit, and everything would be well again.

I was relying on cocodemol (sp?) and diazepam (sp?), just so that I could get out of bed.

Fortunately, the nice Mr Surgeon man's list was full for a couple of weeks (so much for BUPA) and I had a choice of popping the pills, or, ummm, errrr. or something else.

Went to see my very effective physio, out of desperation more than hope, just something to help the pain a bit until I could have the Op.

2 years later, my back is better than it had been for years - decades - before the prolapse happened.  No surgery, just physio.   A lot of physio, mind.  Probably 30 sessions altogether, and I still go once a quarter just for a quick check & manipulation.

In a huge co-incidence, someone I was working with at the time saw the same surgeon a week after me.  Same diagnosis.  He had the op.  Then he went back 6 months later to have the op again because it didn't really work the first time around.  He never got above "75% better". 

Find a decent physio.

Emp_Fab

I'm not on Bupa, and I can't afford to pay for private treatment.  I was going for a massage once a fortnight some years ago, but had to knock that on the head as it was too costly.

TTony

Emp_Fab said:

I'm not on Bupa, and I can't afford to pay for private treatment.  I was going for a massage once a fortnight some years ago, but had to knock that on the head as it was too costly.

Part of the point was that BUPA would have steered me down the surgery route, and I'm glad I didn't.

Physio costs me £35/session.  It was a big chunk of cash initially, but £35 every 3 months now is worth every penny.  The trick is finding a decent physio.  Your GP should be able to refer you to one, but whether you get a choice, or whether any are any good ... I couldn't say?

chillidoggy

Maybe it was the wrong kind of massage?

chillidoggy

In the wrong area.

chillidoggy

Sorry, what I mean is were you getting the right type of massage for the ailment, not were you having THAT type of massage.

holnrew

I have back problems from a car accident too, likely a minor slipped disc. It traps a nerve which hurts my testicle, was misdiagnosed as an actual testicular problem for a couple of years, couple of sessions of physio sorted it out just fine. I'll never get that time back though, and it's responsible for my mental health getting so bad, but never mind.

I can highly recommend a foam roller. I'm thinking of getting another, longer one.

Emp_Fab

I don't need to stick anything up my bum thanks.  Especially a long foam roller.

...or have I misunderstood ?  

:-O

TTony

Emp_Fab said:

I don't need to stick anything up my bum thanks.  Especially a long foam roller.

...or have I misunderstood ?  

:-O

Interesting word (or phrase) association.

Perhaps it's a psych rather than a physio that sir will be needing ...

ToneControl

I had a steel rod screwed into my spine, and about 6 vertebrae fused when I was 14 - 5 hours op, 5 weeks in hospital, plaster cast from hips to ears for 7 months, pretty serious. This was to stop scoliosis getting worse.

Anyway, all OKish until late 20s, when I had a major car crash (and a drunken lifting injury), since then it's been dreadful. lots of disc problems and tingly fingers, but no surgery. my lifesaver has been chiropractors. First time I went, my lower back had locked for 3-4 days, I was in agony, and could not stand up straight. I went in, and was back to normal within 5 minutes. Every time I seize up now, I get over to my favourite one.

Some like to do one big "CLICK", it works, but aches more afterwards - better to get one who is gentler, and uses a variety of muscle-spasm-releasing techniques too. This isn't quack medicine btw it's a 4-year UK university degree, OK it's not a redbrick, but it's not homeopathy 

I went through the NSAID route, nowhere near as effective - not even 25% as good for me with lower back & SI joint issues

 

ToneControl

Headphones said:

While happy to be sympathetic to your plight (though not enough to offer to rub anything), this statement always raises my interest:

          "whenever it gets cold and damp, my back hurts"

I've heard it so often I'm sure that there's a real effect here, yet I'm intrigued as to why.

The bones, cartilage, icky stuff are all encased in nice "person stuff" (skin, blood, fat, fluids) so are very effectively isolated from the cold in normal life and are already in a very wet (blood, etc) environment.  So how does the humidity/dampness and temperature (within reason) cause the effect?  Does it occur when swimming/bathing?

As a non sufferer (so far...), this is largely academic interest (no gloating, honest!).

It's true

the theory is: as you increase air pressure, all your tissues shrink a bit, and vice versa. Remember on a plane, typically 5% lower pressure in the cabin, your stomach swells?

Anyway - for most of your joints, it's basically a cup and a ball inside it, the spine is way more complex, but also features lots of "containers" bits that fit in them. If there's a problem with damage to the surfaces, and then the pressure drops, the tissues expand, and then rub more, less clearance, more friction, more irritation, causing more inflammation, etc.

Anyway, when it's cold weather in the UK, it is usually low pressure, when it's hot - high pressure.

If you put an ice pack on a sore joint, it calms it down, the cold actually helps, it's the low air pressure that comes with cold damp weather that is the problem

This is a theory. Other ideas would be about cold affecting muscles. the Italians and Turks are completely paranoid about air con giving you a neck sprain, and I have experienced this - if you have a dodgy neck, and blow cold air at one side of it for an hour, you will notice it!

digitalscream

Emp_Fab said:

Shit man !  I'm trying to imagine how they would handle that with a patient who is face-down on the table.  How do they get the defibrillator paddles onto the chest ?  Bloody scary that is.

They gave me my burst disc in a little bottle of formaldehyde.  God knows why..... I didn't ask for it !  I still have it upstairs somewhere !

Honestly, it was fucking terrifying when she came back to the ward after the op - she'd lost so much blood that she was quite literally camouflaged against the white bed sheets. I've never seen anybody that pale without being dead. The surgeon clearly didn't want to talk about what had happened - the damage was apparently far more extensive than expected, and such a special case that nobody in the hospital had ever seen anything like it (and this was a specialist spinal injuries unit). 

The gist of it was that the disc had prolapsed, then swollen, then burst...then resolidified around the crushed nerve bundle. Judging by the tests he was doing when she came round, and his surprise when she could feel and move her left leg (she couldn't before the op, except for shooting pains), I think he was pretty sure that she'd been paralysed during the operation.

That's enough for me to not want to know what happened.

HAL9000

I broke a shoulder in a motorcycle accident over 30 years ago now and still suffer in cold damp weather.

I seem to recall that the reason Barry Sheene emigrated to Australia was that he'd broken so many bones over the years that English winters were absolute agony for him.

viz

ToneControl said:

I had a steel rod screwed into my spine, and about 6 vertebrae fused when I was 14 - 5 hours op, 5 weeks in hospital, plaster cast from hips to ears for 7 months, pretty serious. This was to stop scoliosis getting worse.

Anyway, all OKish until late 20s, when I had a major car crash (and a drunken lifting injury), since then it's been dreadful. lots of disc problems and tingly fingers, but no surgery. my lifesaver has been chiropractors. First time I went, my lower back had locked for 3-4 days, I was in agony, and could not stand up straight. I went in, and was back to normal within 5 minutes. Every time I seize up now, I get over to my favourite one.

Some like to do one big "CLICK", it works, but aches more afterwards - better to get one who is gentler, and uses a variety of muscle-spasm-releasing techniques too. This isn't quack medicine btw it's a 4-year UK university degree, OK it's not a redbrick, but it's not homeopathy 

I went through the NSAID route, nowhere near as effective - not even 25% as good for me with lower back & SI joint issues

 

@tonecontrol - sounds awful.