On my husbands MRI it said Large Herniated Disk( L4). All the doctor has done for him is give him pain killers. There has to be something eles he can do . The doctor also said he is to young for back surgery so all he has done is write him pain pills every month there after. There has to be something eles besides having to take pills for the rest of his life. I really hate feeling so helpless. When he is in pain its chronic. It really hurts me because I cant take the pain away. I would give him my back in a second. Thanks to anyone who can give some helping words.
He definately needs to find a good pain management specialist and sounds like he might benefit from some PT IF and I put that in caps they are affiliated with pain management and can show ways to decompress the area and strengthen around it.
Here are a few tricks that have helped me greatly (and I have disc problems, nerve damage and a clearing list of low back hell).
First, hang a towel over a door (and make sure it’s a sturdy door lol). Have him grasp on it and slowly move his weight to it so he is decompressing the spine. This can bring major relief in a hurry, but it is temporary, as are most of these things sadly. But hey, they get me through the day, and I find pain meds alone definately don’t do it.
Next thing I highly recommend and couldn’t live without it one of those heat/massage pads. I have one in my car, one on my desk chair, and a full length chair with one built in in the living room (that was a miracle find at Costco…it was either buy that chair or move into Costco..and it was under a hundred!). If you shop around for the cushions you should find good deals on them. I got really nice homedic ones for under $20. Now they also have many different varieties so he might want to see what feels best. For me the main element is heat. This has made me been ok to drive when I didn’t think I could….I highly recommend these.
I found a hand held infrared heat unit on sale so gave that a shot. I’ve found it really helps on bad days. I tried a more expensive TENS unit that my insurance didn’t cover and while it gave some temporary relief it wasn’t much better than these other things. I’d see if your insurance would at least give a trial of one of these units to see if it helps him.
Last, I don’t suppose you guys have a jacuzzi? That was one of the reasons I bought this house and it has saved me some days. If not if you can afford it I’d look into it or save for one. They are awesome to relax anways, but some nights when I am near crawling out of my skin in pain a long soak with the jets makes it livable.
Oh one more trick…..sometimes I have found laying flat on a hard floor and half sitting up or turning sideways until it sort of pops/feels like it aligns can help. I have several types of back pan as I said and that helps one. The other tips seem to help all.
I wish him the very best. I can tell you with 100% certainty a good pain specialist who will adjust medications and use other modalities can help a lot. I’ve had a bad pain md, the best in the world, and now he’s away I have someone ok. I know all to well the difference they make. So best of luck in finding one of the good ones. Be sure to check the sites for the major pain management accreditions (I’ll list below), and I’d suggest starting there. The first one lists accredited MD in each state.
And make sure he knows that with legitimate pain there is virtually no risk of addiction to pain medication. The body becomes chemically dependant, but you are not addicted (nor get the euphoria that comes with an addiction). Less than 1% of those taking pain meds have any problems with this. There are tons of sites and resources, and a few great pain forums so I’d suggest you both go exploring!!
Best of luck to you both and let me know if I can be of any more help…I’ve been playing the home game on this for too many years now. Sigh.