chiropractors..... godsends or charlatans?

[Ganymede]

I agree that with such severe symptoms you should see a doctor first to rule anything extreme out. A scan or X-ray would be extremely useful as a diagnostic tool and you might find you get NHS physio quite quickly (in our area you can, so do not assume you will have to wait months).

 

[screenman]

Whether you go for physio, chiro or Osteopath make sure it's a good one I've not had Osteopathic treatment, but I've had Chiro & Physio. 3 chiropracters over the years, 2 good (both female) & 1 not so good & 2 physios (both male) 1 good & 1 rather poor. I'm constantly suffering with my back, docs not interested but a monthly visit to the chiropracter keeps the pain levels low & managable

Bit cheeky of me but are you on the heavy side, weight wise?

I suffer with back problems when I try and carry a 25litre container of water around all day.

 

[Soltydog]

Bit cheeky of me but are you on the heavy side, weight wise?

I suffer with back problems when I try and carry a 25litre container of water around all day.

I'm 6'5" & beginning of last year I was tipping the scales at 19st which won't have helped my back, but now I'm down to a shade over 15st & still have the same issues with my back, was kind of hoping that shifting the weight would ease the back pain.

 

[screenman]

Stretching daily would help many people, but of course not everyone.

 

[screenman]

I'm 6'5" & beginning of last year I was tipping the scales at 19st which won't have helped my back, but now I'm down to a shade over 15st & still have the same issues with my back, was kind of hoping that shifting the weight would ease the back pain.

You done well there, I hope it gets better in time.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

was kind of hoping that shifting the weight would ease the back pain.

I think I can say with some certainty, having been there, it won't be doing it any harm. Keep with it. But see the GP.

 

[Soltydog]

I think I can say with some certainty, having been there, it won't be doing it any harm. Keep with it. But see the GP.

I went to see my GP about 18 months ago & he wasn't very interested. It appears the problem is muscular, not structure. Could go for an xray but that would only highlight arthritis & they cant do anything for that anyway. It may be caused by my work, but proving it would be extremely difficult & if I make too much noise could be causing problems at work Monthly visit to my Chiro keeps the pain levels low & managable without the need for pain killers

 

[vickster]

I'm 6'5" & beginning of last year I was tipping the scales at 19st which won't have helped my back, but now I'm down to a shade over 15st & still have the same issues with my back, was kind of hoping that shifting the weight would ease the back pain.

Back pain is very common among tall folk. Every time I see a physio or specialist with any sort of back niggle, they comment on my height and I'm only 5'10. Taller folk are prone to stooping which is bad of course for the lower back Probably more common among taller women as we subconsciously stoop so we don't appear so tall!

You might find pilates or Alexander technique helps

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I went to see my GP about 18 months ago & he wasn't very interested. It appears the problem is muscular, not structure. Could go for an xray but that would only highlight arthritis & they cant do anything for that anyway. It may be caused by my work, but proving it would be extremely difficult & if I make too much noise could be causing problems at work Monthly visit to my Chiro keeps the pain levels low & managable without the need for pain killers

I think after 18 months he could probably survive a second visit.

<mandatory everyone's back pain is different disclaimer. God I've read a lot of those.>

Ask him if your local hospital has a pain clinic. They are worth a try and why I managed to move at anything faster than a walk with my back pain. Somewhere near the beginning I'd had a specialist talk to me about the cycle of pain, how the back is particularly susceptible because it is particularly prone to problems so we've evolved twice the number of nerve endings to check on how it's doing, which is why when it's doing badly it hurts twice as much (yes, simplified, no I didn't go and do clinical trials to check if it was 100% true, it's an anecdote, sue me).

So, after a few years of trying loads of stuff I end up back at the pain clinic. Here's the thing, if you have one, check how they work, my one didn't do 'follow ups' in any way at all. They'd do a thing (say steroid injection directly in to the spine) and then leave you. If it didn't work you were expected to tell the doctor, decide something else would (even when the procedure had a 30% success rate so was likely to fail first time) and then refer to them again. They didn't mention this, led to a lot of waiting around. In pain. So, they decide after a couple of spinal injections to do an injection under X-ray in to 6 nerve endings around the problem area. Steroid plus anaesthetic to basically kill them off for 3 months. If it works, they'll do it again only with lasers. Do I sound desperate here? It had hurt a lot and been systematically ruining my life for half a decade and more. Anyway, rambling story shorter, the 3 months pain free has turned in to a decade plus. Turns out the pain cycle the specialist had mentioned years previously was what I had. The body was sending crap to fix the pain, irritating the area, sending out messages that there was pain, fixing it with more crap. All it needed was to not have the signals.

That was my back pain, a friend in the States fixed hers by being inverted on a big rack thing and 'stretched'. Moral of the story, don't decide you have X and because fixing X didn't work nothing will, and don't stop pestering people to make you better. The pain clinic exists to deal with you being in pain and make it stop. I heartily recommend it.

 

[Milkfloat]

Mr Doctor was worse than useless, it took numerous visits to even get a referral for a private physio and this is without seeing a doctor at all for 10 years. Even after the physio stated that I needed a referral to a specialist (again private), I had to threaten to make weekly appointments with the aforementioned Doctor before he would refer me. The consultant took one look at me and knew exactly what the issue was, the MRI confirmed it and then treatment started. Unfortunately you need to get a bit pushy and listen to your body. The original Doctor told me it was old age and I would have to put up with the excruciating pain for life - I am 39.

 

[vickster]

You don't need a GP referral to see a consultant privately.

Although if covered by an insurance company, they usually demand one before they'll cough up Certainly the case with Bupa. And the consultants I've seen have also reviewed that referral (orthopaedics x 3). Same with physio actually too

 

[vickster]

Depends on the insurers. Increasingly there are insurers who are allowing or encouraging direct to test and direct access to consultants.

Plus of course, you can always pay yourself.

Bupa do now allow physios to refer to consultants, bypassing the GPs. It probably depends on the consultant / hospital policy too. My local hospital has been taken over by Spire and there now seems to be much more paperwork for everyone to do (including the patients) due to more stringent auditing - the joy I guess of being partt of a much larger organisation

I've never had an issue with GPs referring me for anything privately, they positively encourage it for MSK complaints! Last week, the GP typed my physio knee referral while I sat there (I felt a bit guilty wasting a GP appointment for the sake of paperwork, but the practice secretary said I had to see someone as 6 months had past since the surgery)

 

[vickster]

Yep

 

[vickster]

Ok

 

[Milkfloat]

You don't need a GP referral to see a consultant privately.

My old insurance company were like that, they also would have covered some of the expensive treatment the consultant recommended. Unfortunately, my company decided to 'upgrade' us to a new company with far worse benefits, lots of paperwork and a big hike in contributions. I cannot even self refer to a physio, it has to be via a GP who I would have thought would have been more than happy to offload me onto non-NHS specialists.