Question2 years ago I slipped on icy stairs and went flying down 25 steps on my butt and lower back. I thought I was fine and went on to work. My job was a cashier were I stand for 8 hours a day. After about a year later I started having a lot of pain in my lower back with burning in both legs. I told my Doctor about it and was sent to physical therapy which helped for a little while. After 6 months from leaving therapy the pain started getting worse and besides the burning in my legs there was also at time numbness in my thighs. I once again told my doctor and was sent back to therapy and have been going through it now for 3 months. The pain is getting worse and it is to the point that I can not stand for more than 5 min. before the pain has me in tears. Doctor finally did an MRI and told me that it shows an annular tear at L4-5 level and disc bulge, no pinched nerves. He is wanting me to continue therapy which is not working. Before I started therapy I could walk 10 miles a day with with mild pain, now I can't even walk to my driveway without being in pain, can't stand and cook or clean kitchen for more than 5 min before the pain hits hard, although I make myself finish cooking or cleaning. What can I do if anything for this and should I contact a back specialist or continue therapy? It has been a year and am so tired of being in constant pain all the time and in the last couple of months I have had a headache in the back of my head that wont go away either, could the problem in my lower back be causing this to? Thank you for any help you can give me.
Answer
Hanna Somatic Educatio
Hello, Victoria.
All painful accidents cause the same kind of response, a cringing or tightening of muscles related to movements of the afflicted region.
Please see the entry, below:
http://somatic.com/recovery_from_injury.htm
You fell on your tailbone with many blows to your low back. That's where you are contracted, and it's that contraction that led to the disc bulge. You've got nerve impingements from the same cause -- tight, contracted muscles. Your whole spinal musculature is tight, up to your head. Upper spinal muscle contractions generate headaches. Please see the entry, below:
http://somatic.com/headaches.htm
It's those contractions that you need to relax, and conventional therapy is, as you have discovered, not very effective with freeing muscular contractions.
It's my experience, also, that annular tears trigger the same cringe response ("Trauma Reflex"). It may be that you need a surgical repair of that tear before you will be able to free yourself from the contractions at the floor of your pelvis and along your spine.
However, a more conservative approach is worth trying and may work better than what you have tried, and surgery for the annual tear may be unnecessary.
Please see the entry, below and do the somatic exercise accessible, therein:
http://somatic.com/back_pain.htm
regard,
Lawrence Gold
