Question
I have been dealing with Chronic Back Pain for over 2 1/2 years now and have been receiving treatment with chiropractor care, acupuncture, electric stimulation and massage therapy.  I have also gotten x-rays, MRI's and CT-Scan's and everything has showed fine other than a fractured rib on my T6 right in between my shoulder blade and spine.

My employer has asked my doctors whether my injury is temporary or permanent at this point and I wanted to know....what makes a back injury permanent?  I know all my exams have come out good, but I am still in pretty bad pain.

Answer
Hello Mark,

I'm sorry to hear about the pain you have been in for the last 2 1/2 years.  I'm assuming it's middle back pain?  
The good news is that from the test results you've shared with me, I do not think you have a permanent back injury.

All your tests seem to show that all you vertebrae, discs, tendons, ligaments and bones are fine in your lower back. If your discs or vertebrae were permanently damaged then you would have a permanent back injury, but they are not damaged.  If your tendons or ligaments were torn then you would have injuries that required surgery, but they are not torn.

I explain all of what I'm about to tell you on my totally free website Do-It-Yourself-Joint-Pain-Relief.com,
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/
where I have follow-along videos for every joint in the body that thousands of people have used to fix themselves.  And I do think you can probably fix yourself.

So, if you think of all the muscles in your body like the rigging (ropes) on a big old-fashioned sailboat, you can begin to understand that if some the rigging (muscles) get too tight, they will start yanking other parts of the structure out of position. Doing repetitive tasks tightens tissue, but also we just get tighter more easily as we age.

Now, if you understand that bones are basically chunks of calcium that don't do anything on their own, you can see that bones only go where muscles pull or hold them.

All the tension in our muscles has to be properly balanced or our structure starts having to compensate, and often this results in us feeling pain.  Like most people with back pain, the most likely causes of your back pain are muscles that have become inappropriately tight.  When these muscles get tight they yank on the bones and nerves, which results in you feeling pain.  If you free that tight tissue your pain can almost instantly go away.

The good news is that I show you how to fix all of this on my Middle Back Pain Relief page,
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/middle-back-pain-relief.html
I'd recommend you give it a try.  I think you may be pleasantly surprised with the results you achieve.
If it is not middle back pain that is bothering you, then you will see links for Upper Back Pain and Lower Back Pain in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page.

I do hope this was helpful.

Best,

Gary