[Maria]

I worked with osteopathic doctors (D.O. doctor of osteopathic medicine) and when my back was at it's worst before I had any surgery I only let osteopaths do soft tissue manipulation (sort of like stretching) on me and NOT high velocity (like crunching).

My pain was in my low back only for many years. I injured myself when I was 28 transferring a patient from a gurney to a post op bed (RN). At the time the CT scan revealed 3 bulging discs tho later thru the years prior to my first low back surgery in '89 MRIs revealed annular tear at L3 and disc bulges at L4 and L5S1.

So until about 1998 or so I had symptoms only in my low back. After this period I started having some cervical symptoms. I have DDD in my lumbar and cervical spine and remaining disc bulge at L4 and annular tear at L3 and L5S1 finally autofused on it's own after many years. I have a disc bulge at C5/6 and DDD in 3 cervical vertebrae.

My back and neck now trade off re painful flare ups and episodes. I don't think flare ups mean one is getting better actually and for me I've generally come to believe it is disc material leaking out on a nerve creating nerve pain and muscle spasms or could be the other way 'round.

It's just a matter of how debilitated I was with my pain, how often my back went out back when I was working, how long I was out of work or in bed recovering and so forth that lead me to a surgical solution.

Re seeing a Chiropractor.. personally during an acute flare up I never let anyone touch me as I couldn't even get out of bed. Though lately I've found if I can make my way to an Urgent Care center, GP or Pain Management office that an injection of Toradol 60mg Intramuscularly helps me tremendously with alleviation of pain from muscle spasms.

I think the "unknown" re the spine makes anyone freak out and then take away our ability to make a living ... that's very scary. I had gone so long working with pain and probs I finally had to stop working and applied for what we call here in the states Social Security Disability and Long Term Disability from my current employer. However this was 20 years after my original injury and after 2 spine surgeries with a latter one that failed in '92 actually making me worse off.

Currently while I still think that spine surgery is a gamble of sorts I do think there are more options out there and some very highly skilled surgeons should one come to the conclusion that surgery is a must.

If you can see one of your doctors and ask for a shot of Toradol however that might be something that will help break you out of the pain cycle. Maybe if you're not already taking some oral muscle relaxers you could benefit by them and ??? not sure what else you're doing re your flare ups.

A few glasses of wine seems to help relax me when I'm really bad off as well at least enough to sleep tho I best be in a good position for sleep with cervical pillow around my neck and back in a decent position as to fall sleep in semi drunken stupor with bod all over the place can bring on a heap more of back/neck pain!! oops of course I must include the disclaimer about mixing drugs and alcohol being a "no no".. don't do as I do.. do as I say (or so the saying goes?) take care!!!