oh yeah to go along with 4 ruptured disks

stretching , walking as much as you can put on cloths and turn up the heat in the house till you have a bit of a sweat going just sitting there.

new shoes can make a huge difference , my back will start to act up when my shoes are wearing out.


the good news is ciatica is the nerve bundle that goes through your but cheek getting pinched stretch the muscle and it releaves the pinch

this is the time of year for it also , your probably been less active , colder and spend less time stretching. it used to get me I would get up be ok , take a hot shower then go hop in a ice cold van with a not very good seat and bounce down frost heaved roads for 45 minutes to work then I would get in to work sometimes could hardly walk. warm up stretch out be in pain but manage to get a day don then go get in the ice cold van again and drive home.

if you just can't get things to relax the DR. will prescribe muscle relazers and you get to spend a day passed out flat on your back letting everything relax then start physical therapy

when I went got physical therapy for it , the therapist would have me walk on the treadmill as best I could for 15-20 minutes then I would go do stretching on the bar against he wall it was adjustable in height one leg at a time put the heel on the bar and stretch leaning forward do that a few times with each leg , then turn around there was a second bar to hold onto and hook my toes over the bar and stretch the front of my leg , then an angled wooden box with traction tape to stretch my feet and calves on.

she had other exercises to strengthen the muscles that when they get weak you rely more on the other muscles and they get tight and pinch the nerve bundle.

Know exactly what your going through. Have had 5 fusion surgeries, with 8 levels fused. Have constant pain, but you learn to deal with it. Guess really don't have any choice. No opiods for me. Been dealing with this since 2003. Have to sleep in the recliner, lucky to get 4 hrs a night. I'm 57, but get around like I'm 80. At least I'm still getting around, can still trap with a few limitations. Could always be worse, lol.

Go to a professional; some issues are muscular, some are structural, degenerative, injury, etc. Find out what your problem is and get it fixed, the sooner the better. Nerves can regenerate up to a certain point, wait too long and movement and balance are lost forever.

I have a ruptured L4. I got the pain to ease up enough so that, so far, I have avoided surgery. I did it by walking and walking some more. I am a water trapper for the most part and I feel walking upstream against the current helped more than anything. I still have some bad times now and then but most days I don't even think about it.

try sleeping with a pillow under your knees chiropractor and stretching helped me but it takes time hot water bottle in the small of your back helps when your sitting im more prone to getting it in the fall for some reason

I spent the first half of last year a wreck with back pain. Finally got some better with only occasional bad days. Then out of the blue ended up in ICU with blood clots in the lung and diagnosed as diabetic. Now on blood thinner and diabetic program. Guess what, chronic back and leg pain pretty much gone. Really believe my underlying health problems were the root cause of my back trouble. Sometimes we end up treating symptons instead of the real problem.

Went to the same chiro for 15 years or so. 3 weeks ago I went to a new one and they did X-rays. Long story short I have a fractured vertebrae and they believe it’s been that way for years. Not to mention my spine looks like the Snake River. Never got An X-ray ever with other chiro. 3x a week visits right now and things are slowly getting better. I asked them what I should not be doing. They said probably everything I normally do. I just laughed and said yea ok.....

Welcome to my world, cattle man. I have had everything your talking about since I was around 55 years old. Really miserable being a trapper and fur buyer. My back is killing me at this time, also my sciatica is very bad.

Guess I'm lucky, did pretty good after rupturing a disk in '86, some nerve damage, but disk seems ok

Going thru the same deal, on prednisone and muscle relaxers for next 2 weeks, I'm 39 and been thru chiropractor, PT and meetings with a back specialist for years and nothing has changed, right now is the worst pain I've ever had. Inversion table is coming tomorrow hopefully that helps cause I'm running out of options

I'm sure the daily stretches and exercises I did for 20+ years kept it from happening again

If your having shoulder or back pains I think if you try to passive hang from a chin up bar you will like the result. Grab bar with feet off the ground and hang with straight arms...I would do both palms toward you and palms away from you. great for decompressing spine and shoulder joints.

I suffer with every kind of back problems you can imagine. Had surgery, helped some just moved problem upward. Injections feel great for 2-3 months then pain is back. TWO THINGS HELP ME !!!!!! Ice packs on the back sitting in a recliner late in the day . Hot tub first thing in morning..... ONE big thing you will find is no two people has the same pain. What may work for one may cripple you !!!! Inversion table put me on operating table . IDD traction worked before surgery but after Dr wouldn't let me do it. I had a fusion of the S-1 L-5 , and need one in 4-5 Got DDD and arthritis in t-12 /T-11. bulging disc in L- 2-3, C-4-6

BE CAREFUL If your chiro has an IDD traction machine it would be better. Pulls then releases. Inversion is constant. They are not the miracle some think . It nearly crippled me....

Was on a traction machine for 6 weeks twice a week at physical therapy in the late fall, had constant pressure on for 10-15 mins at a time and it seemed to work, last doctor I saw said if you go to inversion table do less than 5 minutes at a time 2-3 times a day

I fought sciatica for years, tried many different things, nothing worked. In 06 I found out I had cancer. Took 10 months of chemo and the sciatica disappeared. I've talked to several doctors about why it disappeared none of them could give me an answer. I wouldn't recommend my cure.

Father has it. Best stretch for him was one foot up on chair so thigh was horizontal to ground. Lean slightly forward over thigh. Lean whole body forward (stretch) gradually. 3x per day 10 reps per time each leg. That was when he was in his 60s. Now 79 he gets a nerve blocker injected. Good luck.

Got a steroid shot in my L5 S1 yesterday at 1030am, still sore behind my right knee and thigh but so much better than before the shot

Dr said it would take 2-4 days for the shot to really kick in but I got almost instant relief but every back issue is different

Only thing I wish I did was go under for it, took Novocain then the shot and felt the worst pain ever in my life. Hopefully this will work and good luck to everyone else battling back pain

Thank goodness the shots are safe now, my friend in Wyoming got contaminated back shot few months before it came out on the news, fungal meningitis, nearly killed him, I think 68 people died and 1400 injured by back shots

Dirk, is the inversion table helping at all? I'm thinking of buying one.