Well, that's been an adventure. I went to an osteopath on Friday and finally felt like I was dealing with someone who actually appears to know what they're talking about. Even better, there were no false promises: I was told I had a herniated disc. Well whoopie-do, that's the first time anyone's been prepared to tell me one way or another. The solution? Four or five visits maximum to the osteopath (recommended by a friend in London) - but no guarantee it'll work: which actually makes me feel better. If it works, they can find a way to get the disc to slide back into place. If things have gone too far, then it's MRI, and then possibly an operation. Let's recap:
Chiropractor: the sun is shining and everything's dandy, oh hey, the treatment's not having any effect. Well, just come back any time you feel like it. Bye!
Physiotherapist: Here's some exercises. They hurt like hell but, really, they're good for you. Oh, we don't do x-rays any more, they don't tell you anything. Is it getting any better? No? Here's some more exercises.
Osteopath: You have a herniated disc. This stuff about not needing an x-ray is bullshit. The exercises are doing you far more damage than good, in the same way you don't go jogging on a sprained ankle. These treatments could hopefully help, but let's see how it goes.
She sounded more like a doctor than my doctor. So let's see.
The other main effect of this is I'm giving up the day job for a while. I've been told to rest up, lie on my back a lot, and give my spine a chance to recover, so I figure I'm several weeks away from returning to the day job at the very least. Which, obviously, gives me the chance to focus on other things in the meantime. Besides, the day job was getting way, way too stressful. The place barely limps along week to week and I could be doing basic logo design with far, far less stress for about a hundred and fifty quid a time. New employment opportunities will be investigated - but in the meantime, the thing I'm going to do the most of ... is chill.
2 comments:
Hey,
I'm going through the same.
I think all the GPs, physio, osteo etc are full of it.
If you've got an herniated disc then the only way to tell is a CT scan.. armed with this I saw an orthopedic surgeon who said he agreed it was bulging/herniated, but said for more detail of where the problem is it has to be an MRI.
I'm finding out the rest tomorrow in a follow up consult, which I'm pretty sure will result in an epidural shot to the spine.... we'll see.
check out my situation at www.mylifemytravel.com/wolff
Good luck
Matt
Thanks Matt. I sometimes have a fantasy of getting all these different back specialists into one room to slug it out, since none of them ever seem to have any notion of what the others are on about. They all deal with the same problem, they all have it in for each other, and there's little communication. Myself, I'm due an MRI in a couple of weeks, so we shall see.
Post a Comment