Pinched nerve in back....ouch....

[lefty_monster]

I have a pinched nerve in my lower back and it sends a shooting pain down my left leg when it's aggrivated. I thought it had healed but yesterday i did something when i was fencing and it is bothering me again.

anyone have any experiences with pinched nerves? What should i do?

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by lefty_monster

I have a pinched nerve in my lower back and it sends a shooting pain down my left leg when it's aggrivated. I thought it had healed but yesterday i did something when i was fencing and it is bothering me again.

anyone have any experiences with pinched nerves? What should i do?

Sounds like you have a problem...

Schedule a visit to a Doctor...

Don't look for advice here...

[veeco]

Rest, until the pain is gone. Go see a chiropractor, and once the pain is gone, work on getting stronger dorsal muscles, abs, and fix your position on the strip (guard, lunge).

[RebelFencer]

I had the same nerve problem in my shoulder, every time I got heavy pressure there it sent huge amounts of pain through my arm. When i saw the doctor they put me on a steroid to get rid of it...so i'd imagine they might diagnose you the same. But yeah, see a doctor.

[chiz]

Lefty,

I had a problem with my back as well, pain in my left and right legs, numbness in my feet, toes and legs when sitting and working out. These problems led to back surgery, which turned out great, but I digress.

Visit with your primary PHYSICIAN, a quick check of your back may lead to a CT scan and surgery or a drug therapy and a series of exercises.

Don’t wait thinking it may get better or you will get great advice from someone. You may be in the best physical shape right now to recover without long term damage to the nerves.

Good luck

Chiz

[Mergs]

I had a pain in my a**, back and neck.






And then I divorced her!

Seriously, see a doctor. Before you see a chiropractor.

[GGK]

Sounds like sciatica.
GO SEE A DOCTOR

[lefty_monster]

Ok, i'll see a doctor. a REAL one. not an internet one

[Inquartata]

And not a chiroquacktor, either ( sorry, Veeco ). One doesn't heal spinal injuries by wringing the spine like a dishrag...

If you want a massage, get a massage. AFTER you see a real doctor.

[Peach]

Chiropractors can be good, actually, but they vary widely in quality. I went to one once and walked away shaking my head in disbelief that such a profound quack was allowed to touch people. I've gone to another who did wonders.

Your symptoms sound like what I have, which is sciatica. I went to a doctor, had X-rays, had an MRI, and the doctor looked at everything and said, "Well, you have some bulging here and some wear there."

I said, "In other words, it's the back of a middle-aged person who's been athletic all her life."

"Basically, yeah." In other words, my health insurance paid for a whole lot of nothing, or at least the knowledge that I didn't have anything obviously wrong.

So when I'm being good I do a whole lot of stretching and warming up. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes, on the other hand, I fence a whole tournament going back two steps and putting line.

[Schiavona]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

And not a chiroquacktor, either ( sorry, Veeco ). One doesn't heal spinal injuries by wringing the spine like a dishrag...

One also dosen't heal twisted vertabre with ultrasound therapy. I wish doctors and chriopractors would get over their differences and realize that they each only have a part of knowing how to heal people. Before I went to a chriopractor, I was in pain for a back injury for more than a year. All the doctor I went to did was have me undergo ultrasound (heat). The chriopractor took x-rays and sure enough, there was a vertabre twisted right where my pain was. Putting my spine back into place got rid of my pain. My complaint is this, if my arm hurt and an x-ray showed a bone out of place the doctor would have fixed right away. My spin's twisted and I'm in pain and the doctor can do nothing.*end rant*

[Inquartata]

I can't speak to the ultrasound issue. As to the rest, though, we cannot assess a practice on the basis of anecdotal evidence. Your chiropractor claimed to see something on an x-ray....they ALWAYS seem to find something, usually something which can be resolved only by committing to a lengthy course of "adjustments"...this is one of the bigger problems with the whole chiropractic concept.

However, had you gone to a faith healer who told you he'd "seen" an ectoplasmic mass and then "removed" it with prayer, and you felt better afterward, would that establish the validity of faith healing as a science? Or might it only prove that there had been a psychosomatic effect in your case?

Now, if it makes you feel better it works for you, whatever the reason. But it does not follow that we can extrapolate from your experience and say therefore that chiropractic is valid medicine generally...that wants broad studies. Most of those have found it to be mere pseudoscience.

[Schiavona]

Inq, I saw it on my x-ray! I have some other features in my back so I knew it was my x-ray. I don't believe all the claims chiropractic makes. I know people who have come from a chiropractor worse off. I was very angry that my medical doctor wouldn't or couldn't do anything other than apply an expensive heating pad when there was something structually wrong with me. I got a year of pain, then I got fixed, my back that is!

[Inquartata]

And you're a trained radiologist, experienced in interpreting x-rays? It's not as cut-and-dried as "Look there, see this X? That means Y"...

If even doctors miss things, what are the odds that you will immediately tumble to a fuzzy image feature? Unless it's pointed out to you, and a diagnosis suggested to you by...I don't know...someone with a vested interest in finding something?

IMO it's a bit like taking your car to the shop. If they tell you that you need a new computer gizmo, how can you be sure they aren't making work for themselves? Unless of course you're a mechanic yourself...

[oso97]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

And you're a trained radiologist, experienced in interpreting x-rays? It's not as cut-and-dried as "Look there, see this X? That means Y"...

If even doctors miss things, what are the odds that you will immediately tumble to a fuzzy image feature? Unless it's pointed out to you, and a diagnosis suggested to you by...I don't know...someone with a vested interest in finding something?

IMO it's a bit like taking your car to the shop. If they tell you that you need a new computer gizmo, how can you be sure they aren't making work for themselves? Unless of course you're a mechanic yourself...

Or its like going to see a doctor about any other complaint and trusting that he's reading the results right and not letting something else influence his diagnosis. No, its NEVER happened that a surgeon might have a vested interest in finding something to operate on.

[Schiavona]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

And you're a trained radiologist, experienced in interpreting x-rays? It's not as cut-and-dried as "Look there, see this X? That means Y"...

If even doctors miss things, what are the odds that you will immediately tumble to a fuzzy image feature? Unless it's pointed out to you, and a diagnosis suggested to you by...I don't know...someone with a vested interest in finding something?

IMO it's a bit like taking your car to the shop. If they tell you that you need a new computer gizmo, how can you be sure they aren't making work for themselves? Unless of course you're a mechanic yourself...

I'n not a mechanic, but I can tell when I have a flat tire.

As to the vested interest, don't you run that risk going to any health care professional?

[Inquartata]

Yes, of course. The difference is in the frequency and the ubiquity. It seems to be SOP in chiropractic: nothing can be remedied in short order, no injury is a simple and transitory one, EVERYthing needs a months- or years-long schedule of twice-a-week treatments.

And there is still the whole issue of the fundamental idea that cracking and twisting joints and vertebrae are actually therapeutic in the first place. That's still very much up in the air.

[fencerchica]

When I was around 12 years old, my mom suddenly noticed that one of my shoulders was higher than the other. Oddly enough, I'd just paid it no mind until then, but it was obvious right away that I had a moderate but pronounced case of scoliosis. 32 degrees at the worst spot between my shoulder blades, in fact, which made it just within the kind of range where some doctors discuss surgery.

I started chiropractic treatment 3x a week for about 3 years, with the end result being that my posture was visibly more even, the muscle ache I was just starting to experience disappeared, and my curvature in that worst spot at the end of that treatment was down to 11 degrees. The lateral curvature I'd had in my lumbar vertebrae (I don't remember the starting point off the top of my head) was almost entirely eliminated.

You can lay the twice-yearly x-rays one atop another and watch the progress. It's really kinda cool. :-)

[Welted 24/7]

You can lay the twice-yearly x-rays one atop another and watch the progress. It's really kinda cool. :-)

I've been in and out of radiology places so much over the course of my teenage/pre-adolescent years that you can literally make a full-body picture of me out of x-rays. Fun stuff.

Anyway, the two most important pieces of advice are- one, go to a doctor. And two, STOP FENCING UNTIL YOU DO. It always kills me when people here ask about what to do about this horrible, agonizing pain they get when they fence...and then say "And tell me how to make it so I can fence with it". If it's causing you pain, then you've just got to suck it up and lay off for a while. Better to take a break for a few weeks than not be able to do it at all anymore.

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by Welted 24/7

I've been in and out of radiology places so much over the course of my teenage/pre-adolescent years that you can literally make a full-body picture of me out of x-rays. Fun stuff.

You probably don't even need a reading lamp at night, eh?