I've had scoliosis since I was a kid. Growing up I had to wear a back brace and eventually had surgery to correct my lower curve. 13 years later, the surgery was a success. My lower back feels wonderful but my upper back is starting to hurt all the time. I have an upper curve that needs to be fixed relatively soon. Anyone else have this? What do you use for pain management? I love to go to a massage therapist. I've been considering a chiropractor but don't know if I trust them. I hear they are kooks!
I have been there it's no day at beach. I was thinking of going to a chiropractor. but I don't think anyone would want to touch my back with the rods in it. I have been in phisical therapy count less times.
About 33 years ago, I began to experience excruciating upper back pain...like a hot poker planted in the upper part of my back. Hard to describe how if felt beyond that. It was at this time I discovered that it actually IS POSSIBLE to get some easing from pain when you drink (alcohol). NOT that I am going to recommend that...because there are just too many downsides to that - from alcohol can Really Kill You (alcoholism) to hangovers to there are so many physical problems caused by excessive use of it! Anyway, it got so bad I went to a chiropractor...and told him I didn't know what was wrong with me; but, either I was really going insane or there was something wrong with my back. He took x-rays and told me he had good news and bad news...(I wanted the good news first) Good news was that I was not going insane. Bad news was that something "must have happened to you, right?" he asks, "because your spine looks bad...like you may have been in a wreck or something." My spine has this s-shape to it, and there is no bend in the lower part of my back where there SHOULD be "curved"...it's straight there. Well, about 1 1/2 years before that I had swam into the side of a swimming pool HARD! I remember even hearing a cracking sound (which I have learned in years that have passed that hearing cracking is NEVER going to be a good thing). For about 6 months I wasn't able to move around like I did before that. Such as, I had worked for a couple of years to be able to do a full back-bend...and I was never able to do that again. At that time I was recently graduated from college and didn't get a "desk job" for about a year but I did get a plant job. When working in the plant, I was physically active and my back would ache sometimes; but never like it did after I got the "desk job". It was after getting this (supposedly) "good", desk job that I began to hurt like hell. The nice chiropractor wound up being the perfect person to have gone to (like a karmic, meant thing) because he had been trained by the Chinese in acupuncture. I wound up getting acupuncture for about 2 years and honest to God THAT SAVED ME. Even tho' I've had a few flare-ups in years past, only once did I go through intense pain like that again, and I found an acupuncturist here to help me. This man still is still a practicing chiropractor and I am certain he would HAVE to still be doing acupuncture as the case called for it. Finding a good acupuncturist is Hard To Do. First of all, I am going to go way out there and sound UNpolitically correct with...you need to find someone trained in Chinese acupuncture, and if you are very lucky you can find a Chinese. My 2nd person is a Chinese lady but she moved to a big city nearby and the treatments about $100 per. I've gone to a couple of men before I found her that must have gotten their acupuncture training and "internship" over the internet. I don't know what I'll do if I start up again...pain is a very motivating thing and enough of it and a person is usually willing to do almost anything (after a while) if the pain is bad enough and nonrelenting. I know that chiropractors enjoy the stigma of being viewed from many, many people as "nut-jobs." All I can say is that I was pretty much brought up being taken to a chiropractors (as well as other doctors, as needed) and that my family always went to them. A good chiropractor is like a freakin' pot of gold, as far as I'm concerned. God forbid, but if I ever start going though this pain that I don't even want to contemplate because I'm afraid doing so would almost invite it (and yes, I'm a little crazy), I'm sure I would start looking for someone here in the town where I live for help. Pain pills for back pain...to me is just a poor mask that don't even do anything but dull the pain while making you constipated and getting you addicted. (When you break a bone, which I've also enjoyed the pleasure of, I cannot imagine life without pain killers for at least the first 2 months!) I have a shiatsu knuckle massage, which I also consider to be worth MORE than it's weight in gold, and I'm able to put it (it's about a square foot in size) whereever the pain is, really lean into it all up and down my spine and my shoulders, my neck. Hey...makes me want to lay into it now! Good luck hon! oh, and since you are a southern girl if you want to know, I'll be glad to tell you the doctor's names and places. Just pm me...I don't know what part of the state you are in, and have no idea if it would benefit you to know but I'll share with you.
I would totally agree with that...and say that some type of exercise is almost essential to keeping back pain down. If you don't intentionally make a point to be active physically, really active...one's back tends to freeze up, which I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You live (I'm pretty sure) fairly near to the excellent older lady Chinese acupuncturist I've spoken of.
I have upper back pain that responds well to yoga. These videos might help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OrTYNPCXHA"]Healthy Back Yoga for Upper Back - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAK2gmx3G4o"]Yoga Exercise for Fast Upper Back and Neck Pain Relief - YouTube
Chiropractors are mostly garbage, and at best, a huge risk. I recommend pilates and maybe some yoga (but start slow if you choose yoga)
