| I hurt my back in a horseback riding accident two years ago. I ended up with chronic low back pain that no one could figure out. I went to doctor after doctor. I had one test after another. When they couldn't figure out what was wrong, I was told that it was all in my head. I finally found someone who would do surgery. I'm much better now. Why does this run around happen to so many people (myself included)? | 5 years 15 weeks ago | 20042 |
| What's the difference between "disability" and "impairment?" I'm on worker's comp and I see both these words used to describe my case, but I don't undertand them. | 9 years 6 weeks ago | 7910 |
| I just found out I have a posterolateral disc extrusion. I guess there are all kinds of ways the disc can herniate. How does mine compare to others? | 5 years 9 weeks ago | 5012 |
| I was recently diagnosed with "lumbar osteophytes." What does this mean? | 11 years 7 weeks ago | 4510 |
| What's the difference between a laminotomy and a foraminotomy? I have spinal stenosis and the surgeon says these two procedures might be helpful with the back and leg pain I'm having. | 4 years 50 weeks ago | 4265 |
| What's a provocative discogram? | 8 years 4 days ago | 3762 |
| How exactly should you lift something heavy without hurting your back? | 5 years 12 weeks ago | 3649 |
| My physical therapist says I have buttock pain from piriformis syndrome. My doctor says there's no such thing. Which is it? | 3 years 48 weeks ago | 3648 |
| I'd like to strengthen my back muscles. What kind of exercises should I do? Do I need any special equipment? | 5 years 11 weeks ago | 3479 |
| What's the difference between spondylotic disease and discogenic disease? According to my X-ray I have spondylotic disease but no discogenic disease. Please explain. | 7 years 1 week ago | 3255 |
| What does seronegative mean? The doctor tells me I have a sacroiliac joint problem that is seronegative. | 3 years 51 weeks ago | 3113 |
| I hurt my back when I twisted wrong coming down a slide at a theme park. The doctor I saw told me to rest for a day, use ice, and then start moving again. Said I should be good as new in a week or two. Well it's been two months and every day I pray for a miracle. The pain brings me to tears some days. Why do they tell people this stuff if it's not true? | 3 years 46 weeks ago | 2611 |
| What is lumbosacral instability? | 7 years 30 weeks ago | 2496 |
| Oh boy -- I woke up this morning with intense back pain. It seems to be better as I move around. I can only sit long enough to type this out and get some advice. How long will I be laid up? What can I do to speed up getting better? | 3 years 22 weeks ago | 2434 |
| I'm going to have back surgery to remove two discs. I've heard different advice about restricting my activities after the operation. What's the latest on this? | 0 sec ago | 2298 |
| I am a foreman in a factory. We've had a couple of guys come back to work after back injuries. How likely are they to stick with their jobs? | 11 years 29 weeks ago | 2013 |
| I'm being tested next week for a radicular versus pseudoradicular cause of my back and leg pain. What's the difference? | 5 years 6 weeks ago | 1875 |
| I'm having trouble finding someone who will take my back pain seriously and help me. The doctor says to exercise and it will get better. Well, I've tried exercise and the pain always comes back. Is it just me? Or do other people have this experience, too? | 3 years 33 weeks ago | 1721 |
| Mom had a sacral tumor removed that involved taking a lot of the soft tissues around the bone along with half of the sacral bone. She ended up with a bad infection. The home health nurse keeps talking to us about nutrition. I'm not sure why she focuses on that instead of getting rid of the infection. She's pretty skinny herself, so maybe she's got an eating disorder. How can I tell her to bug off in a nice way? | 4 years 21 weeks ago | 1688 |
| I've heard that smoking is the cause of low back pain in smokers. What's the link here? | 5 years 6 weeks ago | 1660 |
| Our PopPop is 72-years old and started to limp last week. Before we knew it, he wasn't able to lift his foot anymore. Now he walks with a distinctive slap of the foot. Is it possible he had a stroke? He won't let us take him to the doctor, so we don't know what's going on for sure. | 4 years 9 weeks ago | 1603 |
| What's the difference between a disc prolapse and a disc herniation? I had an MRI and the results showed a bulge at L3/4 and a herniation at L4/5. | 7 years 48 weeks ago | 1601 |
| After my first child was born, I started having sacroiliac joint pain. My physical therapist says this can happen after childbirth. The pelvis separates and widens during childbirth. My doctor says it's not possible to have enough movement to cause pain. Who's right? | 7 years 30 weeks ago | 1592 |
| About five years ago, I had a spinal fusion at L45. Now I'm having disc problems at the L34 level. I've heard there's a new heat treatment I could try instead of surgery. How do I find out more about this? | 5 years 10 weeks ago | 1515 |
| A spine specialist told me I have two herniated discs, and that a piece of disc broke off and is floating around in my spinal canal. Is it possible to avoid having surgery with a loose fragment like this? | 11 years 9 weeks ago | 1501 |
| After I had a disc replacement in my lumbar spine, I found out they are making replacements just for the inner portion of the disc. That's probably what I really needed. How far are we from having that technology ready? | 3 years 49 weeks ago | 1473 |
| About a year ago, I had the disc at L5-S1 replaced because of degenerative disc disease. I was hoping this operation would help me keep all of my natural motion. The latest tests show that I only got about half the normal motion back. Is there any explanation for this? | 5 years 37 weeks ago | 1394 |
| After a really bad bout of back pain, I had an MRI done. It showed I have a fissure in the outer covering of my disc at L45. How do you treat something like this? | 6 years 26 weeks ago | 1379 |
| What is the lumbosacral radicular syndrome? My brother emailed me that he's having surgery for this problem. What are the chances he'll recover? | 6 years 41 weeks ago | 1276 |
| After lumbar spine surgery, my wife had such low blood pressure the doctors thought she was hemorrhaging inside. They opened her up again, but didn't find anything. Was this second operation really needed? | 9 years 10 weeks ago | 1236 |
