Degenerative Disc Disease and Facet Joint Arthritis

JP* · Post by JP* » Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:58 am

Wishing you and everyone the best on their medical journeys. I don't have much to offer but I believe in Acupuncture, as Ross suggested. I use it for issues I have which aren't related to yours but it is certainly worth trying. Like all professions, it is often the practitioner that makes the difference.

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Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:23 am

JP* wrote:QR_BBPOST Wishing you and everyone the best on their medical journeys. I don't have much to offer but I believe in Acupuncture, as Ross suggested. I use it for issues I have which aren't related to yours but it is certainly worth trying. Like all professions, it is often the practitioner that makes the difference.

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Can you recommend one in your area?
I have tried acupuncture a few times, with different practitioners; the first was a complete waste of time and money, and the second did seem to make a difference, but not enough to warrant the cost of a visit for me.

JP* · Post by JP* » Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:22 am

Jaye wrote:
JP* wrote:QR_BBPOST Wishing you and everyone the best on their medical journeys. I don't have much to offer but I believe in Acupuncture, as Ross suggested. I use it for issues I have which aren't related to yours but it is certainly worth trying. Like all professions, it is often the practitioner that makes the difference.

Sent from my XT1563 using Tapatalk
Can you recommend one in your area?
I have tried acupuncture a few times, with different practitioners; the first was a complete waste of time and money, and the second did seem to make a difference, but not enough to warrant the cost of a visit for me.

I would certainly recommend who i see now. PM sent.

I am treating the acupuncture as a long term relationship however after individual treatments I always leave feeling more relaxed, looser and lighter..... if that makes sense.

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 2:38 pm

Thanks, JP. I appreciate the lead.

Rhonda · Post by **Rhonda** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 2:50 pm

Interesting read, thanks for starting this thread WLLady. I have had a "bad back" for many years but have only been diagnosed with DDD in the last couple of months. I find it funny that back pain doesn't seem to get a lot of attention from doctors. They just pump you full of anti inflammatory and pain meds with out actually worrying about the root cause. twice I have ended up in the emergency room and still the focus is just to get you out the door on your feet.

The first time I ended up in hospital was thanks to a physio appointment so I have never gone back there. Ended up with the nerve so badly pinched I still have a numb spot just below my knee, around the size of my palm. When the back is bad the spot gets bigger and I get a lot of pain through my hip. The last time I ended up in hospital was a bad one. My daughter had just had major surgery on her hip. I spent a week helping her in and out of bed, lifting her leg up for her and picking things up she could not reach. The final straw was simply picking a banana up off the floor she dropped. I knew it was bad righ away but it took a couple of hours before the muscle spasms started. It was the first time I ever had that happen and it was agony. Ended up on the floor and couldn't get up until the family got home. Same thing in the morning . Ended up having to call the ambulance and the paramedics scraped me off the floor and took me to hospital. Even then no diagnostics done, anti inflammatories and morphine for a couple of hours. Still could not move with out incredible pain ( labour was a piece of cake compared to these muscle spasms). Doctor said we can fix this, time for the good stuff. if morphine isn't the good stuff I don't know what is but one shot later and I was out the door and on my feet with prescriptions for anti inflammatory, anti spasm and pain meds. Spent about a week in bed that time.

I see a chiropractor every two weeks and she keeps me on my feet. I take Celebrex and pain meds when I need to. I have learned I do not want it to get so bad that I get muscle spasms again. I don't lift anything! When the ice is bad I stay in the house. Some of the worst episodes I have had is when I slip on ice and twist myself trying to stay on my feet. Interesting that you like heat on your back, I have been told ice to reduce inflammation. of course I am my own worse enemy because of my weight, which makes back problems worse. I find now I am in a Catch 22. My back is bad because I am fat but my back is too bad to do a lot of exercise. Walking really helps when my back is bad, it works out my morning stiffness. With the winter weather here I walk laps in the house...we live in a long bungalow so I can walk back and forth down the main hallway.

Back pain is certainly no fun and it really affects all aspects of your life.

Chick-a-roo · Post by **Chick-a-roo** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:13 pm

My issues started being symptomatic when I was 21. By the time I was 35, after X-rays and an MRI, it was discovered I had partially sub-luxated discs in my C3, DDD and osteoarthritis from C3 to C5. For those who don't know, that's the centre of my neck. Years of severe spasms and pain medications, chiro, and attempted physio. It was at its worst when I was breastfeeding my youngest - bent over posture and added weight on the chest after a very fast and rough delivery threw me into spasm so deep one morning I thought the disc had ruptured. Thankfully the ER doc that day had experience with this injury as his wife also suffered with it, and gave me a nerve block injection with a steroid to decrease the inflammation. He's the one who ordered the MRI.
Soon after that I discovered therapeutic yoga. This is different than any yoga most people are familiar with. Our instructor ran this class specifically for rehabilitation and injury - a very, very slow paced class which usually focused on one area of the body per session.
This was the beginning of my awareness of what MY responsibility was towards gaining back a quality of life. These clasess helped me to understand how to deep breath through a muscle spasm and allow the muscles to release. They helped me to learn how to gently stretch the affected muscles in a deep fascia stretch - not only for the muscle fibres, but to reach into the fascia tissue itself. They taught me that with supportive therapy, I CAN regain control of these muscles. I did this for 2 years, and had only I recurrence of spasm in that entire time.
Then we moved, and I "fell off the wagon", and stopped practicing. I felt good, right?
Turns out these problems don't go away...and when you stop supporting the muscles, they begin to weaken again. Fast forward 2 years to January 2015, when I took a really bad fall on some ice and dislocated a rib. Yep. Didn't take long for those now injured and weakened muscles to react. I was in despair, and an incredible amount of pain, AGAIN. That was another wake up call, because once I was mobile again, I began researching a new physiotherapy clinic in town that offered pool therapy.
Now, just over a year has passed since I began this new physiotherapy, and it has CHANGED MY LIFE as I have known it for almost 20years. I am strong, I am motivated, I am inspired, AND I am NO LONGER IN PAIN! I began weekly sessions in the pool for 3 months before they felt I had progressed enough to begin light land work. The pool therapy was incredible - it's a single person pool kept warm for muscle relaxation, an underwater treadmill, water jets for massage, and underwater video so that they can watch what your body is doing underwater. From this, it was discovered that I had been walking incorrectly my entire life. I have essentially relearned how to walk over the past year, which meant working muscles that had gone dormant by reconnecting the neural pathways in my brain to them to get the muscles to work again. This then led to discovering back muscles which had also atrophied to the point of neural disconnection, and having to re-awaken them and strengthen them as well.
I am telling you, that now at just over a year, I haven't had any relapses of spasms. I am strong. My posture has been corrected and strengthened. I can do squats like nobody's business. I am at 65lbs for lateral pull-downs (I began without any weight when we realized my lats were not firing at all).
I am still going weekly for physio, and I have restarted yoga into my life again. I realize that sitting on my butt waiting for prescription meds to take the pain away was allowing my life to waste away. I had feared that my neck would cause me to be quadriplegic by the time I was 50. I am not quite 40 yet and I can now look forward with positivity! I love how far I have come in a relatively short amount of time compared to the almost 20years of pain I had previously lived with.
I hope that this inspires people to give themselves time to work on their bodies! Living with this type of pain CAN be fixed for some, with the right therapy.

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:59 am

This news sucks!! I'm sorry this is a part of your life.

I will say, although I do not know you well, some of your traits come across loud and clear. You are strong, independent and a lifer. You aren't giving in anytime soon!

I can share my experince with you, as I have DDD (osteoarthritis of the spine with some discs basically a dusty mess back there). I take some powerful natural products to help with the core strength muscles and ligaments. You're absolutely right on building core strength. It is everything to my success today. Last year this time I couldn't get up the stairs at bed time, now I can take them 2 at a time.

I'll PM you a bit later with my experience, if that's OK. That's how I came to be better, taking a bit from everything and everyone and made my own personal package for success.

Stay strong!!

Dominion Link · Post by **Dominion Link** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 9:31 am

WLLady, I'm very sorry to hear of all the medical issues you are going through. I can certainly empathize with what you go through day to day, and hope that you do find relief with meds and procedures.

My Mom had most of what you are experiencing and more. Mom developed osteoarthritis in her elbows while in her late 20's about 40 years ago. Eventually she had DDD, cartilage loss and arthritis in her hands, arthritis in her knees etc.. Because she couldn't take aspirin based meds, she was advised to take, and prescribed Tylenol, extra strength Tylenol and Tylenol 3's for decades. The Tylenol destroyed her liver which lead to a very drawn out and crappy death last April 25 at the age of 68. I will never suggest that people don't do what they need to, to deal with chronic pain. I simply recommend that they research the long term side effects, and routinely look for updated info. As late as 1996, I found one of my Mom's prescription info sheets for Tylenol and there was no mention of liver damage. It was still being promoted as a good choice with minimal side effects, and at that point Mom had been taking it routinely for almost 20 years. I don't know when the liver damage side effects were made public, but I do know that many others besides my Mom, killed their livers with Tylenol.

Post by **WLLady** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:25 am

Holy crap!! I just got a call to be at st joes tomorrow for the MRI!!! Wow!!

Post by **WLLady** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:10 am

hiya dean! yes, that tylenol toxicity is a very very good point!!!! lots of doctors were pushing it extensively in the last few years (30 or so) as the new safe wonder drug. i've been on it enough that i worry....arthritis and tylenol...for years-since i was 20...thats 24 years now off and on....so i always try NOT to take it and only cave when i really really HAVE to (like i'm yelling at my husband again...argh). i had first heard of it from a workplace health appointment that i had to update my vaccinations for working with what i do in the lab, so at that point (about 15 years ago) i really cut down the amount i was taking, to just the bare minimum that cut the pain enough to let me function and eventually managed through activity modification to take none for a good 4-5 years until just recently again-last summer. it's unfortunate that my painkillers right now are acetaminaphen (tylenol)...but the others are worse for addiction and dependency, so...heat, ice, rest, complain complain complain, complain....before i break them open. i really don't know why it's so hard to control pain-especially chronic pain, i know pain is something that a lot of people can put to the back of their minds, i'm pretty good at ignoring it, for a while....i'd honestly rather break something (sorry OC) because i know it will be over in 6-9 weeks....instead of this stupid hm lets remodel that finger joint today, and that wrist tomorrow, and how about knee from tuesday the 8th to the 21st, and then the spine, and then back to the hand, but the OTHER joint on that finger....gah!

Sandy, it is half the battle isn't it....getting up and saying "well, not today...this is not going to get me down today"....lol. i draw the line at physically throwing up at pain though, at that point i HAVE to do something about it. it's frustrating that the drs all say "do not to ANYTHING because you will make this cyst thing worse". well, not doing anything makes my arthritis worse, and that drags on and on and on and on...so i get "okay, biking". um...well....if i don't want to walk for 3 days afterwards. so i'm kinda stuck, i think if they take out the cyst, then i can get back to DOING and that DOING will help the arthritis in the spine immensely. The surgeon did seem to think that most of the things in there were fusing naturally, (of course, wants a better MRI) and i know the pain will decrease once they all fuse naturally...so i'm more than happy to let that happen. staying strong. All of of you guys too!!!!! you'd think with this much chronic pain in the world, we'd have more knowledge about it....hm....

hot tub (heating pad...), massage, aromatherapy (usually that just makes me sneeze though), activity, stretching, gently beating the muscles into submission from spasms (man those back muscles are STRONG when they spasm out!!!!)....

hang tough everyone! and i just had a little bit of faith restored in our health care system...never ever dreamed of MRI tomorrow....