Hi there!

My first posting on this board, though not my first reading. I have suffered from back problems almost my entire life, and that's a looooooong time :D.

In the last month or so I have had excruciating pain in my shoulders, neck and rib cage, and on the right leg starting from the spine when driving long distances. I finally initiated the tests and diagnosis, consisting of lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine Xrays, and after a visit to the spine center in my city, was ordered an MRI for the cervical spine. The diagnosis has been confirmed to be spondylosis of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, as well as DDD. It is worse on the C4-5 region. Considering that I am over 60, none of these seem to bother my doctors, not even the worsening osteoporosis despite two years on Actonel and one year on Evista.

I am quite physically active, walking at least 20-30 minutes everyday, am underweight and am pretty much in shape. I started therapy at the spine center yesterday, consisting of exercises, a lumbar support while sitting before a computer, and continuing evaluation. I intend to pursue the therapy vigorously. Meanwhile, the pain continues unabated, and in fact one day after doing the initial exercises I felt more sore than ever.

I have a few questions for my co-sufferers: (a) Have you experienced that stress and depression noticeably aggravates the pain? I have been in a blue funk almost simultaneously with the onset of this pain wave, and am not a happy camper right now :o . (b) Anyone taking Vioxx longterm? I have been prescribed to start with 25mg/day, which i think might be increased to the regular dose of 50, but I hesitate to take any more drugs if I can help it. I do remember taking Celebrex, then Vioxx, briefly in the past, and I think I suffered from stomach problems, cause I invariably stopped. (c) Can anyone tell me of exercises they have been doing and the results? Has anyone seen chiropractors and used other such alternative approaches? There is a prominent practitioner in optimum skeletal motion who has some interesting prescriptions, written up in many books. His name is Pete Egoscue and is based in San Diego. Anyone ever heard of experiences using his methods?

Thank you for your help.

I have been having left buttock and thigh (hamstring) pain since Aug. 2003 and have great difficulty sitting and driving, but walking and standing are fine. I've tried many things and the best I can do is get the pain to a tolerable level during the day (yeah!) but the first hours in the morning are H***! Stiff and barely able to walk. Diagnosis is DDD w/annular tear, small 3mm herniation.

The 2 cortisone epidurals at L5-S1 were a waste (I think), so no more. I also found that the PT and even the home therapy (using a gyn ball and gentle stretching) flared me up, so no more. I just walk as much as I can and hope to get back to gentle swimming w/jacuzzi follow-up.

I take 20mg Bextra (which is similar cox-2 inhibitor to Vioxx I believe) and yes it upset my stomach, but it hurts too much if I don't take it. So my doc gave me Nexium (the purple pill) to help with the GERD/stomach issue and so far so good, short term anyway.

Funny you mentioned about Egoscue - someone told me about his place in San Diego and said he has worked miracles for them and prominent golfers with sciatica and back problems. I checked him out on his web site and they are pretty expensive (about $200 per visit or $1800 for a full session over time) and I am not sure my private insurance would cover it. I would even pay out of pocket if it would do any good, I am just in that place where I feel nothing is going to help and only time will tell whether my disc will heal itself or herniate and then we start a whole new chapter.

Finally, re how your mood affects the pain - I agree absolutely. I cry at the drop of the hat and get very depressed - I am 46 years old, formerly active and now my world is limited to a 15 minute driving radius around my home and walking in my neighborhood. I feel like I am a burden to my family (even tho they are so supportive) and am frustrated that I've done everything they told me to do and yet the pain won't go away. To keep from going crazy (or worse) I just try to take it one day at a time, try not to panic in the mornings when I feel awful and can hardly walk and try to enjoy the time when the pain gets to a manageable level even tho I kknow it won't last and I'll get up in the morning and repeat the same cycle.

Quote from WWWalkEarth:

Hi there!

My first posting on this board, though not my first reading. I have suffered from back problems almost my entire life, and that's a looooooong time :D.

In the last month or so I have had excruciating pain in my shoulders, neck and rib cage, and on the right leg starting from the spine when driving long distances. I finally initiated the tests and diagnosis, consisting of lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine Xrays, and after a visit to the spine center in my city, was ordered an MRI for the cervical spine. The diagnosis has been confirmed to be spondylosis of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, as well as DDD. It is worse on the C4-5 region. Considering that I am over 60, none of these seem to bother my doctors, not even the worsening osteoporosis despite two years on Actonel and one year on Evista.

I am quite physically active, walking at least 20-30 minutes everyday, am underweight and am pretty much in shape. I started therapy at the spine center yesterday, consisting of exercises, a lumbar support while sitting before a computer, and continuing evaluation. I intend to pursue the therapy vigorously. Meanwhile, the pain continues unabated, and in fact one day after doing the initial exercises I felt more sore than ever.

I have a few questions for my co-sufferers: (a) Have you experienced that stress and depression noticeably aggravates the pain? I have been in a blue funk almost simultaneously with the onset of this pain wave, and am not a happy camper right now :o . (b) Anyone taking Vioxx longterm? I have been prescribed to start with 25mg/day, which i think might be increased to the regular dose of 50, but I hesitate to take any more drugs if I can help it. I do remember taking Celebrex, then Vioxx, briefly in the past, and I think I suffered from stomach problems, cause I invariably stopped. (c) Can anyone tell me of exercises they have been doing and the results? Has anyone seen chiropractors and used other such alternative approaches? There is a prominent practitioner in optimum skeletal motion who has some interesting prescriptions, written up in many books. His name is Pete Egoscue and is based in San Diego. Anyone ever heard of experiences using his methods?

Thank you for your help.