[Closed] Back Injury woes ;-/

Ive had no joy with mine been told by many doctors and specialists to basically live with it until the pain goes down the legs . Core exercise is the way forward .

Just a note completely ruptured my achilles in 2009 and ever since been getting a niggly back and convinced this is contributing??

It's certainly possible.

Same as sig. NHS useless. Basically think your bluffing and that you can live with the pain.
They did offer physio (lead time of 6 months).
Total shit.
If you can afford it, go private NOW. And proper private, not NHS express rubbish.

My wife has back problems and started this thread [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/sciatica-driving-me-mad-can-anyone-help ]HERE[/url]
There may be some helpful advice in there

It probably is contributing. Please, please, please see a good sports physio. S/he will be able to talk you through your problems, help you understand what you can do to minimise them, and undertake therapeutic intervention to deal with the symptoms.

I know this could re-open the whole debate around chiropractors, but physios are proper, empirically-verifiable medical professionals, and they really will help.

Begin by taking the maximum safe dose of ibuprofen or diclophenic to address the pain - assuming these are safe for you, of course.

Whatever you decide, best wishes for recovery. I have suffered pretty badly over the last number of years with what you describe, but am doing well now.

I am in no way a medical professional (or anything even close), in case you couldn't tell from the rest of my post.

My GP referred me to the local spinal unit and booked an X-ray which predictably showed nothing, the spinal unit then referred me to a physio and put me on the waiting list for an Mri scan. Took around six weeks. That's with a history of surgery on a prolapsed disc.

First time saw my GP they prodded me for 3 minutes and suggest strong pain killers and no advise on actually fixing me.... In all since April spent almost £500 in treatment and feels like I'm back to square one!!

This attitude boils my piss. Step one of getting back pain to go away is to get the pain under control. No physio worth their salt would start helping you to treat the cause of your pain until that pain was under control. Also, medical and health professionals (short of surgical intervention) dont fix - that's your body's job - it's pretty ****ing good at it.

Instead of spunking money on treatment - take the pills and get moving. That will probably fix your back more quickly than and hands on manual therapy that anyone will give you.

As for people who are suggesting going and seeing a "good sports physio", I am a sports physio in elite sport - the last person I want to see is some sedentary dobber who gubbed his back whilst sitting on his arse. 😉

Begin by taking the maximum safe dose of ibuprofen or diclophenic to address the pain - assuming these are safe for you, of course.***

Diclophenic has been replaced by Naproxen, apparently it causes a massive increase in the chance of heart attack!

Swimming cured mine, in so much pain once I needed a morphine injection to be able get up off the floor at work.

Get yourself a good physio.
Went to doctors three times with issues with my knee until he got sick of me going and sorted out a visit to Salford General.

1st NHS physio was crap the 2nd (knee specialist also NHS) I did the rest of my treatment with was a ****ing genius she was absolutely spot on and solved the issue.
Also it very nice to have a young attractive blond running her hands over your body 😉

Also I had a car accident (not my fault) and had a private physio as part of my treatment it was booked by the insurance firm for so many weeks but after 4 my whiplash (yes I actually had it) was ok but then pulled my back at Christmas as the sessions were covered by the insurance he told me he would sort my back out if my neck was ok so the last few sessions he sorted my back out 🙂 Bearing in mind at the time I had to roll onto my front and suck up the pain to get out of bed after 4 weeks I was sorted again and on the bike.

A good physio private or NHS are worth there weight in gold IMO

I had phenomenal care from 2 NHS physios- I think the hard part is probably getting referred to the right people.

As my GP put it "go to the physio, they are the people to sort out stuff like this" We are lucky enough to be able to self refer to our local physio and usually get an appointment within a couple of weeks.
Edit- this would be for the back, wrist, shoulder, knee and plantar fasciitis??.

Same as Northwind, went to the GP and saw a lady doctor who was very pleased when she got to have a feel of my back. Got referred to NHS physio (who was into bikes herself but sadly taken 🙁 ) who did an awesome job as I was on the brink of slipping a disc. I've since had the odd twinge when either lifting heavy in the gym or playing with bar/stem setups on my trials bike but I know how to deal with it now thanks to the physio.

Just a note completely ruptured my achilles in 2009 and ever since been getting a niggly back and convinced this is contributing??

chiropractor

Go to your GP again and try and get NHS physio, but I'm guessing you are already doing lost of back stretches and core strength exercises right?

Mate of mine gets back spasms, and a few years back was reffered to NHS physio. When i ask when he last stretched it or did core strength stuff he soon shuts up!

I'm not sure about the go see a good physio type comments, as you need to know what you've done first and foremost.

I tweaked my back years ago and the GP said it was muscle damage and sent me away with painkillers.

2 years later it went in exactly the same place but this time put me on my backside and I couldn't move until I had a round of co codamol and diclofenac.

GP again said muscle but went private and was told within 30 seconds of seeing a consultant thatI had a herniated disc.

2 days and an MRI later confirmed herniated L5/S1. Had a series of injections which eased it slightly. Ended up having 4 x-ray guided root injections which worked (think that's what they are)

Still to this day get the odd tweak but I know how to manipulate my back and take the edge off.

Physio would have done nothing for my back as it was too low down apparently, so I'd suggest you get a true diagnosis first - even if you have to pay for it.

I've also had a complete rupture of my Achilles although it was after my back.

Stu, where in the country are you? I know a man in Leicester, Loughborough and London who is doing some very interesting work in that area right now. He's tricky to get to see but we'll worth travelling for.

Drop me an email if I can help further.

pilates and swimming twice a week cured mine, our local councils everyone active sports centre do classes and have a pool which is £8 a week to join, the classes are free for members and so is the pool so the £8 covers everything..

twonks - Member

I'm not sure about the go see a good physio type comments, as you need to know what you've done first and foremost.

Which a good physio will help with

twonks - Member

I'm not sure about the go see a good physio type comments, as you need to know what you've done first and foremost.

Northwind - Member

Which a good physio will help with

Don't get me wrong, a good physio can sort out all sorts of problems but in this instance surely it would be a better proposition to have a scan and be 100% sure of the problem (or not) before tackling physio or alternative treatment ?

For sure proper diagnosis is the way forward... But sometimes a physio is going to be the best person to do that, other times a doctor. I'd start with my GP personally but tbf my expectations of that would be pretty low... OTOH, I have access to a very good sports physio so maybe my experience of that is above average and I'm overvaluing?

Can't thank you all enough for the response and so great advise and similar outcomes ;-/ Def seeing the doc Monday to get to the root of this and go from there!!

Onzadog - Would be interested to know more.. Live in Surrey work In london!

I've suffered with two herniated discs & flat back for years (since I was 26), which at worst had me bed ridden for up to a week at a time. Each person will be different but I tweaked and fettled with various things and it's not really an issue now as long as I stick to certain rules...

Drink - dehydration shrinks the muscles supporting various body parts, makes the problem crop up quicker
Keep it warm - like above, cold muscles don't support so well
Work out your limit - I restrict myself to 3 hours mtb/road nowadays. I can go as hard as I like but around 3hrs is where it starts to kick off
Stretches - Soon as I stretched out my hamstrings/itb band (the hard muscle down side of the thigh) alot of the problems reduced. Hamstrings join with the lower back and effectively pull it apart (same for knees!)
Bike position - I moved to a larger road frame, and put a 110m stem on the mtb basically to let me straighten my back out, maybe unique to my flat back
Sit down - Standing up makes it come on pretty quick for me, I rarely get out the saddle for more than 5 sec bursts now
No heavy camelbaks - More strain
Group riding - Mainly a road thing, but found group riding with all the bursts stressed me out more. I can do same pace solo and be fine

Sounds restrictive but it's not really once you get used it, except the duration bit. You can extend it if you're just having a laugh by having breaks/drink/stretching/get off bike have a walk

Er, bit long but have been around the houses with this. Hope some of it's useful, know how irritating it is. 😉

Paul