Well I’m not sure what a good physio or a bad physio looks like… The one I saw seemed to be going through the motions and decided hamstrings were the culprit. I lifted a 200kg motor bike and my back immediately reacted. For me, that’s the issue not hamstrings that have been shortened by years of cycling abuse.

Naproxen has no increased risk of vascular events, whereas Diclophenac raises risk by a third:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/05May/Pages/high-dose-nsaid-painkiller-heart-risk-small-significant.aspx

Oooh ta!

Ah sorry, didn’t realise you could pin it to a specific event. If the physio didnt pick up on the pain being directly related to a specific event then I’d probably not go back to them, been to one or two good ones and it’s been quite obvious from the off when they are vs the poor ones I’ve seen. If you get the feeling they were just ‘going through the motions’ with you it’s possibly not a good sign

Good/bad physios? My last one put the newest tear in L4/5 disc. I’d put that down in the bad column. Apparently he’s the “best” in his field.

PS in terms of pain relief for spinal nerves Amittriptyline even beats morphine (well, for me it did!), did make me a tad zombified though…

anniison – Member
PS in terms of pain relief for spinal nerves Amittriptyline even beats morphine (well, for me it did!), did make me a tad zombified though…

It does that to me. Taken last thing at night and I get 10-12 hours uninterrupted coma. When it was used as an anti-depressant it was normally twice the dosage!

The Gabapentin works fine overnight as it knocks me out. There’s very little back pain now unless I move so the laying down bit seems to help.

I have a physio appointment in half an hour which I think I’ll give a miss now. I went to see an Osteopath a couple of weeks ago and he wouldn’t go near it once he knew I had an MRI scheduled so sounds like good on him from the experience above.

Thanks everyone.

Update: MRI showed herniated disc at L3 so off to the spine man I go. I asked to be referred to the local BUPA mob so no long Soviet era style queues…

Quack suggested more Paracetamol/less Brufen. So I’m on 400mg Brufen/1000mg Paracetamol twice a day plus 1000mg Paracetamol two more times then happy pills overnight.I refused codeine or morphine based stuff as above. It seems to be helping.

Choice thereafter seems to be Cortisone epidural, microdisctomy or fusion. Hmmmmm, shit sandwich or another shit sandwich? We’ll see next week hopefully.

Have you tried a lot of stretching? Mine grumbled on for 6 months – not as bad as yours but I was apparently a bit shit to live with over this time – and I was on the verge of going for surgery but then it resolved itself quite rapidly when I found the right stretches to relieve it. The Mackenzie stuff really works, for quite a lot of people at least. That was over a decade ago, haven’t given it any thought for years.

I’ve had issues with degenerating disks / arthritis@ l3/4/5 and bulging disk @ 3/4 4 was causing foot numbness

Recently had a spinal stabilisation op on 2 levels l4-5 and decompression / diskectomy at L4 S1
Plenty different types of stabilisation out there but I had dynesis done

Best advice I can give is Pilates, use the physio , keep walking lots and naproxen pre op with the stuff that protects your stomach / gut

My surgery went really well and the NHS really came through for me , long road to getting fixed but it’ll be worth it

My feeling on injections is that it’s a very short term fix , if Pilates physio can’t improve it , then surgery to remove the issue , injections get just you short term relief , then you need another & another

Well the prognosis is; 2 degenerative discs and 2 herniated discs. The only surgical option being fusing and Mecano. The chances of success vs much worse aren’t good enough to go for that.

I’ve opted for a few jabs of cortisone to see how we get on. Least invasive, quickest acting but temporary. Quack thinks there’s a good chance of the herniated discs repairing themselves within 12 months which will be fine if it happens.

He was quite jolly about the jabs saying how the didn’t hurt. But they wouldn’t if you’re wielding the needle would they? 2 weeks rest post jabs then back to it (apparently) 🙂

Trick with Amma is to take note of the 12hr cycle it has.
I was on massive dosages of it for back/nerve damage with a 9pm spec for the Amma.
Complete Zombie the following morning right up to lunch sometimes.
Switched to taking it around 5-6pm meant I was in bed asleep by 10pm but able to wake and be bright 7-8am.
Diclofenac is useless though – over the counter or prescription – all it did for me was damage my stomach to the point of having to remove a number of foods from my diet because of them causing pain.
Naproxen work better with none of the side effects.

I would suggest Mezolar Matrix but that stuff is born of Satan’s loins…. in 25+yrs of meds incluing IV Morphine – that stuff is the only one to make me physically sick. A tiny little 24hr patch that even high dose Cyclazine couldn’t master. Once you got past that though – NOTHING hurt 😆

Be prepared to watch a live x-ray of a straight needle coming out looking like a corkscrew!

Have a read of this…..
30Min Yoga session.
MTB back pain yoga

This is designed to stretch out all of the lower back, hips and legs and bring them back into a more balanced alignment.

Deffinately work a try, although from your symptoms you’d probably get much more benefit from going to actually see someone about it to get a tailored program of exercises.

Scar

I did some of them stretches during my last bad bout of sciatica that had me floored with pain that nothing would touch….I bit the bullet and picked up a dual channel tens machine as a last ditch hope before resorting to having to go to the docs and risk someone cutting me open etc……..three days using the tens machine and stretches pain all gone however I did end up with a dead/ numb biggest two toes and top of my right foot for six weeks!
I know myself where my back is unstable and since the last bout have switched to a Wingnut Hyper and it’s helped no end ( my necks buggered and a section of my back just below shoulder blades).
Seriously try a tens machine, it’s a bit odd/ painful in the first few seconds but with the massage function too it’s really pleasant and eliminates the pain.

I posted this in a previous thread.

Look up Foundation Training and Stuart McGill. I have tried just about everything going and these two are the one’s which have worked in helping me recover.

McGill is possibly the number one back specialist in the world.

I have a herniated disk, a years worth of sciatica and was due to have surgery at the beginning of this year.

While it’s not perfect, it’s getting better and I have avoided having my disc butchered.

http://www.backfitpro.com/pdf/selecting_back_exercises.pdf

http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/foundation-training-relieve-pain-and-improve-performance

Well I had the delights of 4 cortisone jabs in the back this afternoon. I was crestfallen to discover, it’s not an instant fix. Bastards! I thought the anesthetic would kick in then pain would go and it would be all betterer in a couple of weeks. Apparently not so. Bolleaux.

Good luck dude, sounds bloody awful.

Ahhh glad you popped along. Back shite notwithstanding, int it time we planned a little adventure?

@boblo – yeah had those and yeah thats about right. feels good when it comes together though…

tell you what though, last bout of bad back/sciatica, i’d just come off a summer of 60k weekday rides with 5k lunchtime runs everyday and usually a big ride at the weekend—then boom
so….
every medical advice under the sun – something is to short, something is not strong enough, you do this wrong, you do that wrong, you need to do yoga/pilates/stretch/heat/ice/change your lifestyle/stop riding/slow riding/no running/running/swim/MORE core…… yada yada yada
in the end nothing worked,
so i just stopped everything for a week, rubbed on voltorangel thingy and its all turned out fine.

@kudos100 – have you tried prootherapy? i had the same as you 8 years ago, had 6 treatments of prolotherapy and was fine, search for BIMM prolotherapy to find a local person – if not try The Wharfedale clinic in leeds – he sorted me out.

Ahhh glad you popped along. Back shite notwithstanding, int it time we planned a little adventure?

I’m a tad busy, you going to Ton’s touring weekend in April?

May might be good for me. See how you back heals first.

Here we are a month later and mebbies a little improvement. I think more to do with industrial quantities of Tramadol/Gabapentin and doing very little rather than real recovery.

I’m scheduled for a percutaneous microdiscectomy on Monday. They stick a big hollow needle into the offending discs then drill a few holes in it, hoover the gunk out and send you on your way. All done under local, 30 mins tops. Apparently 85% chance of success and back cycling within a week or so.

Bring it on… :-/

Well here I am a couple of hours after the procedure and it was a doddle. The most painful bit was the cannula being stuck in. They filled me full of some mind expanding stuff and then I didn’t feel a thing though I was awake the whole time. I heard the buzzing of the drill thing and that’s the only way I knew the surgeon was busy.

They said it could be a few days before the full effects are felt though already there is zero pain in the knee and hip. This could be down to the local he stuck in my back so I’ll give it a few hours before I get too carried away.

The message is; I’d go for this over cortisone any day of the week. It’s less painful and the success rate is higher but it carries more risk of infection. For me the upside far outweighs the risk (assuming I don’t get MRSA 🙂 ).

The other good news, they say I can get back out biking within a couple of days. Hooray!