No progression, but more pain...?

[Ginamarie]

I had another xray a couple days ago, found my older ones from 4 years ago and compared the two. Well, there looks like no progression has taken place and thats a good thing, but I'm having so much more pain than ever before and I cannot figure out why. Could it just be due to degeneration or arthritis? I have terrible sacro-iliac pain on my right side (curve side) and very bad pain at L4/L5 area too.
The doctor said my discs looked pretty good considering (he's no ortho, though).
I have a feeling my ortho will say I'm not a good candidate for surgery since there is no progression, so I'm wondering what my options might be at this point? Any suggestions?
BTW, I'm only 34 years old, so I'm really wondering how I'm going to cope with the pain in the future!!??

[structural75]

Ginamarie,

Pain isn't often present due to a 'broken' or 'damaged' part so-to-speak, so you discs and facets etc may be in a relatively healthy state and you can still have pain, possibly significant pain. There have been many interesting studies done on back pain and the coincidence of disc problems/herniations.pertrusions/etc. The conclusions and data showed that a good portion of the population has some degree/frequency of disc bulges/excursion/etc but are asymptomatic - no pain present... whereas many of those in the studies with back pain do not have these problems existing in the spine. Not to say that there aren't folks with problems and pain alike or vice versa, but there was an unexpected observation of pain in those without those problems and a lesser degree of occurence of pain in individuals with those problems... .

Scoliosis can and often does cause pain even without remarkable problems present. It often arises for two reasons...

1) With a fixation of the spine and decreased mobility in the scoliotic portion it creates a subsequent change in mechanics and forces in the portions that are more mobile. Thus resulting in overuse of certain joints/muscles/soft tissue and underuse of others. Sacroiliac joint pain is common as a result of this... it is the only two points upon which your entire upper body (spine, head, ribcage, arms) meets bone to bone with the lower body (pelvis, legs). So all of the weight of the upper body is 'wedged' into the pelvis, if you will, at the sacroiliac joints. If there is any discrepency, large or small, in the spines ability to articulate and move you can very easily develop pain in this region... Treating the SI joints alone with say an injection or something will only be temporary in most case because it doesn't work with any of those abberant relationships elsewhere that are causing the dysfunction.

2) The second primary reason is that your body is constantly relating itself and resisting gravity... When you introduce a lateral curvature of the spine, as in scoliosis, you no longer have the reliance on the bones to help provide you with that natural support against gravity, but become heavily reliant on the tensional balance of the soft tissue network to do the majority of the work. Consequently some tissues shorten and tighten, some are forced to lengthen and become taught and in all their tonus will increase substantially for the better part of the days to keep you upright. This ultimately will adversly affect biomechanics of the legs, hips, pelvis, spine, etc... disturbing the optimal relationship between these various 'parts' of the body. Tissue may become ischemic (starved of blood/nutrient exchange) causing nerve synapses to misfire and start a pain cycle.... nerves can become entrapped within this bed of soft tissue, not just at the spine itself... etc.,ect.... .

I think there are options to consider outside of surgery (which isn't necessarily a long term solution for pain as it carries after-effects of its own) that could be very helpful to you for addressing the chronic pain your having.

It's always good to get checked out by a Dr to rule out the potential problems you mentioned, but if they don't 'see' anything it doesn't mean that you can't be helped... just usually not by their methods. There are drugs and injections and such, but I am often concerned that they only mask the problem and buy people some 'comfortable time' before the pain returns, usually worse because the cause has been ignored and allowed to progress without treatment. That's an option.... .

Sorry for the long-winded reply, ...it just 'pains' me to hear of people in your shoes and feeling there is "nothing" that can be done if the Drs don't 'see' anything wrong. It's about perception, they are looking for things they can treat/fix with drugs or surgery... but it doesn't mean that there is no problem if their diagnostic measures are inconclusive.... there are many different ways to view these situations and they are limited by their tools at hand and methods alike... just as every profession is in their own unique ways.

I think you probably have the potential to feel better than you do... . Stay positive and know that there is help for what you're experiencing.

Kind Regards,
Structural

[BETall]

I had another xray a couple days ago, found my older ones from 4 years ago and compared the two. Well, there looks like no progression has taken place and thats a good thing, but I'm having so much more pain than ever before and I cannot figure out why. Could it just be due to degeneration or arthritis? I have terrible sacro-iliac pain on my right side (curve side) and very bad pain at L4/L5 area too.
The doctor said my discs looked pretty good considering (he's no ortho, though).
I have a feeling my ortho will say I'm not a good candidate for surgery since there is no progression, so I'm wondering what my options might be at this point? Any suggestions?
BTW, I'm only 34 years old, so I'm really wondering how I'm going to cope with the pain in the future!!??

Hi : Please go to : www scoliosistreatment-Schroth.com for great solutions.