Can a Chiropractor confirm no disk herniation?

[srvnvly]

I had back surgery for a ruptured disc back in 2008, after suffering thru BS advice from a chiropractor, including lots of paid visits, my frustration, and the chiropractor telling me I would have to change my lifestyle, after worsening back/ leg pain.

I the finally went to my family doctor, who ordered an MRI, diagnosed the ruptured disc, and sent me to a specialist, and, eventually surgery. Best decision of my life go away from this particular chiropractor. I am playing more tennis now than ever, and at the competitive level I like.

I had what I consider a bad experience and i know others have had good experiences with chiropractors, but I know what I will do if this ever happens again.

[tennisenthusiast]

Originally Posted by srvnvly

I had back surgery for a ruptured disc back in 2008, after suffering thru BS advice from a chiropractor, including lots of paid visits, my frustration, and the chiropractor telling me I would have to change my lifestyle, after worsening back/ leg pain.

I the finally went to my family doctor, who ordered an MRI, diagnosed the ruptured disc, and sent me to a specialist, and, eventually surgery. Best decision of my life go away from this particular chiropractor. I am playing more tennis now than ever, and at the competitive level I like.

I had what I consider a bad experience and i know others have had good experiences with chiropractors, but I know what I will do if this ever happens again.

If you don't mind, can you give me your age group? 30-35? 40-45? etc..

[ian2]

Originally Posted by srvnvly

I had back surgery for a ruptured disc back in 2008, after suffering thru BS advice from a chiropractor, including lots of paid visits, my frustration, and the chiropractor telling me I would have to change my lifestyle, after worsening back/ leg pain.

I the finally went to my family doctor, who ordered an MRI, diagnosed the ruptured disc, and sent me to a specialist, and, eventually surgery. Best decision of my life go away from this particular chiropractor. I am playing more tennis now than ever, and at the competitive level I like.

I had what I consider a bad experience and i know others have had good experiences with chiropractors, but I know what I will do if this ever happens again.

I could have written the above: it's the exact experience I had two and a half years ago, with one major difference.

What started as moderate back pain had become back AND leg pain IMMEDIATELY following a chiropractor visit. I was stupid enough to go to the same chiropractor the next day, and to another one for a couple of weeks afterwards. Meanwhile, things were rapidly going from bad to worse: within days I was losing motor control of my right foot, to a point where my foot below the ankle was kind of just "flopping" around. Soon after my right hip "locked" and at that point I could only hobble a few steps before the pain become so bad that I had to stop and recover before taking the next few steps.

MRI itself was torture... I could no longer straighten my leg enough to fit into the machine, nor could I remain in the same position for any period of time due to pain. Three herniated discs. I was scheduled for surgery within a week after the MRI, and pretty much resigned to going under the knife. Thankfully, my wife was not. She scheduled another appointment with our family doctor who suggested trying PT as the last resort before surgery, even though it was obvious that she (the family doctor) didn't believe it would help at that point. She's been and remains a great doctor for our family but this one time she was wrong.

One of the two referrals she gave us was to a sports medicine place, and luckily they had an opening that same day - otherwise I'd have gone to the PT department in the hospital, and possibly with a very different outcome. My wife drove me to that appointment since I could no longer drive; even getting in and out of the car was a major ordeal. I literally crawled into that door, and this is where the horror story ends. My recovery started the minute Jeff (the PT office director) got me on his table. One hour later I walked (!) out of there on my own: still hobbling of course, but my hip mostly "unlocked" and the pain turned from unbearable to, well, bearable.

Two months and a dozen PT sessions later I was back on the tennis court... 80% overall, but in some ways stronger than I was before. The PT office was one half of that outfit. The other department under the same roof was devoted to high-performance training for pro, college, and top junior athletes. My last few PT sessions were more like fairly intense cross-training than "traditional" PT.

So obviously the major difference with srvnvly's story is that I didn't go under the knife but instead went for physical therapy. I'd like to say it was the best decision of my life but in reality I was lucky to consider that option, and to end up in that particular PT office. I urge everyone who might be in a situation similar to mine to find the best sports PT practitioner and the best facility you can find, before opting for surgery.

To anticipate possible questions: I was 47 then, and in good shape aside from the whole ruptured discs/sciatica/nerve damage thing Haven't had problems with my back since.

[LuckyR]

Originally Posted by ollinger

Don't know how much time LackeyR spends in medical staff lounges, but I'm in one every day and talk to surgeons about this all the time. Two points stand out in my mind. One is that surgeons are generally not eager to operate on people with disk issues unless they feel it will be helpful. But the other vital point is that people with chronic and severe back pain are a desperate lot who suffer constantly and not infrequently become suicidal over their plight, not to mention addicted and abusive of opiates. The question posed about whether a surgeon should or would operate if he sees a 40% chance of benefit is naive; for comparison sake, should an oncologist administer chemo if he sees a 30% chance of cure? Most would say "of course" if the alternative is death. People with severe chronic debilitating back pain often feel the same way; they see their affliction as a death sentence and will beg surgeons to operate even if there is a less than even chance of benefit. Even in the non managed care setting, which still exists to some extent, people usually have to shop around to find a surgeon who will operate.

A couple of things: Only the most naive would not acknowledge that compensation is a real life incentive. By stating that, I am not accusing the vast majority of surgeons (or anyone else for that matter) of practicing Bad Medicine or fraud (though, again only the most naive would not agree that there is such a thing as medical fraud, rare but real). Rather I am refering to the well established phenomenon of unconsciuous bias (hence the reason for double blinding in legitimate research). If there was no such thing as compensation bias, there would be no difference in care between insured and uninsured patients, yet there is.

True there are other biases: fear of litigation, fear of poor patient satisfaction etc that may skew clinicians in the opposite direction than that of conpensation bias, but that doesn't mean that compensation bias does not exist.

As to the strawman of oncologists doing chemo when the alternative is death, that I believe qualifies as the very lowest hanging of all fruit, hence it's use as your alternative example. Can't you address the more controversial example I posed: do you operate purely for pain relief, (not to save a life) with a procedure that has a moderately high risk of complications if it only has a 60% chance of working? Of course there is no "right" answer, that's why I used it to point out the nuances in Real Life medicine, which is much more complicated than this thread.

You ponder how much time I speak to surgeons, I do speak to some between my cases.

[srvnvly]

Originally Posted by tennisenthusiast

If you don't mind, can you give me your age group? 30-35? 40-45? etc..

I am 48 now, 43 at the time of my back issues. My back is holding up great, with with stretching and some cross-training (I did cross-training before, but I do more stretching now).