Back Injury Update... Chiropractor Seems to Help

I've been going to the Chiropractor for a few weeks for my back injury. Between him and the gelatin, emu oil and fish oil, I think I actually feel a difference in my back. Here is what I have noticed so far:

• I can get up and clean longer than before I started going to the chiropractor. While I still hurt, the pain isn't as intense and I can go longer before needing to rest from the pain. I was able to clean for 30 minutes today! 
• While my legs still have burning pain, they aren't burning so bad that I feel like I am standing in lava or like I am on fire. The pain does eventually calm down when I rest too.
• The sharp shooting pain that I get isn't as frequent like when I first hurt my back or  after the injections.
• I can walk further! I can actually make it two blocks and back home without writhing in pain!
• I sleep better. I am not waking up every hour from the pain and the sleep seems to be solid sleep, rather than waking up feeling like I didn't sleep at all.
• When the chiropractor touches my back, I don't practically jump off the table from tenderness.
• I haven't hurt so bad that I get nauseous from the pain. Now, when I hurt, it's tolerable pain. It doesn't feel like my back is breaking in half every time I stand up.
• I don't need my walker as often. Although I still have times when I limp a lot and I use my walker, it isn't so bad.
• I am able to stand up easier and by myself.
• I can feel my feet! I almost forgot what it was like to feel my toes!

Does this mean the pain is gone? No. I will probably always be in pain (even the chiropractor said that!). But I needed to be able to function on a daily basis and I am slowly getting to that point again. 

My chiropractor is doing more for me in a few weeks than the doctors did for me in a year and a half. I can't believe they refused to let me go. I wish they could spend one day in my levels of pain. 

Anyway, that's my update. And all I am doing is gelatin in my morning and nightly coffee, taking 3x the amount of fish oil as suggested, emu oil rubbed on my back once a day (when I remember) and going to a chiropractor. Too bad "modern" medicine won't allow alternative medicine. I suspect a lot of people wouldn't be suffering from back pain any more.

Back Update: Schmorl's Nodes and a Chiropractor

After getting all of my medical records from the hospital to show the Chiropractor, I went home and started checking them out. I have an idea of what a spine is supposed to look like but I wasn't too sure exactly what I was looking for. I did have fun finding the protruding disc though. FOUND IT! Not a problem! I also thought my back looked... erm, decrepit in some spots.

After that, I actually read every bit of the reports. I found it so interesting that before my injections, they don't even mention arthritis and after the injections, now I have it from L3-S1. And S1 on the MRI does look quite gangly compared to the ones that are higher up. If I knew I'd get worse from the injections, I would have refused. 

Also, in one of the reports it says I have Schmorl's nodes. I had to look that up. I have never heard of that. It made me think of smores roasting over a camp fire. Anyway, I looked that up and it's basically (from what I am getting from around the web) where the disc protrudes into the vertebrae. They are "vertical disc herniations". Ouches! 

I took this to the chiropractor since I stopped seeing Dr Quacky. The chiropractor is really good. I no longer feel like I have a rock under my spine when I lay down. Granted, my pain isn't gone but it is tolerable half the time now. 

Also, he was looking over all the MRI and the X-rays and he said he had to disagree with the "No nerve impingement". They claim I don't have a pinched nerve. He thinks I do which explains the pissing myself. at least now I don't have someone acting like they have no idea why I am having pain and issues. He did say the pain won't ever go away but we can make it something I can live with. He did! 

The first treatment he slathered my back with BIOFREEZE. Holy burning eyes, menthol-man! That stuff is AWESOME! After he straightened out my pelvic bone (funny how that makes it feel like rocks under your spine) I was actually feeling quite human. The pain was still... well, pain, but I didn't want to curl up and vomit from the pain. In fact, it's been pretty okay. Sure, my back is killing me. But this is a level of killing me I can handle.

I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be pain-free. I am also slowly accepting the fact that I really will not ever go to work again. But at least I won't be in agony all the time. I'll take that!