www.medicine-site.info

 

Medcial and Health blog

This blog is a special collection of new medicine articles about many health topics.

Back Injury

I injured my back setting a 500' spool of copper wire off of the bed of a pickup december 11th 2006. It pulled me to the ground being it weighed about 356lbs and I pulled something in my lower back. Later the same day I decided I needed to go to the Doctor.To make a long story short,I ended up having to do electrical stimmulation to the muscles.It seemed to be helping but only to a certain extent . The pain has never subsidedin my lower "right side" and becomes more severe the more I do.I also have pain going down my "left leg to the heel"(I have had some say this is not possible.)Also as the days went on I began to notice a burning and nimb/itching feeling in the center of my back pulling to just under my"left" shoulder blade and it becomed quite painfull if I do anything having to do with my arms being in front of me. My arms also fall asleep every night without fail. My dr. thought it was all muscle problems but wanted to be on the safe side and order me a MRI. It came back showing Cracked or torn discs on the L3-L4 L4-L5 and the L5-S1 and the S1 bulging as well.(if I understand everything correctly. So my DR> sent me to a specialist.
Now, here is were I'm having a problem with questions. The specialist says there are no tears ...only a bulging disc at S1 and all the upper back is because of the lower back ...but there have been no x-rays or MRI's taken of the mid/upper back. Also this is the Dr. the workers comp.ins.co.wanted me to go to. should I get a second opinion? Or should I take His word and get shots in my back.(he didn't seem very interested in what my questions were either. HELP ME!!!

Answers:


Hi, thanks for your question.

It's very hard for me to comment on this without seeing the pictures or physically examining you. If you wish, you can e-mail me scans of the MRI images and I'll have a look. What sort of treatment / follow-up was suggested by your doctors? You can also try to get a second opinion from a spinal surgeon (neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgery).

Please see also:
http://askdoctorjoshua.com/category/neurosurgery/spine/