Bone spurs in lower back.

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Bigdaddy1

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Thanks twins. I'm not afraid of surgery. Can you tell about yours? How long were you in the hospital? How long out of work?

The Celebrex that I am taking seems to have eased the pain, but it is still there.

I will find out more on tomorrow's MRI.

Thanks for writing!
 
I had no idea that the surgery would have such a long recovery. I couldn't take 6 months off from work.

We shall see what the MRI shows tomorrow.

Thank you all for your information.
 
SounRAB like it could be arthritis. If you can manage it with celebrex that is great!!! If you can get the pain down to say 3 on the pain scale, I would not do surgery. I think that surgery causes even more pain (including nerve damage) and the back is extremely slow to heal. I am still at least a pain level of 3 at 6 months out of surgery. I get sciatic pain that is relentless.

When you get surgery, depending on what they do, You have to wear a brace, and no bending , lifting, or twisting for 6 months. I am still not able to work at 6 months out of surgery. I am attending college part time but feel there is no way I could work yet.

Surgery is definitely a point at which you have tried everything and are desperate for pain relief. I still cant walk walmart, and need to ride in a motor cart. You have to be very patient with surgery. At 5 months I was in pain and thought there was no way out of this, and at 6 months Im feeling better, so it can get better but it is a LONG road. (for me)

For my surgery, They went in and cleaned out my bone spur area, and did a laminectomy and fused L5-S1. I have a bracket with two pins/screws in there. They put in a BMP which is a bone growth stimulator to help the bone fuse faster. I think they removed or fixed the bad facet joint.

Hope that helps! Let us know what your MRI says
Jen
 
I have had lower back pain for several months. My doctor sent me for an X-ray and I never heard back from her. Today I went back to the doctor as my back is still hurting everytime I stand. She told me today that the X-ray showed bone spurs on my lower back. She is sending me for an MRI. Has anyone had anything similar and what can I expect?
 
Big, it all depenRAB on what kind of surgery is done, plus how your own body heals, etc. I had multi-level laminectomies and was out of work for 10 weeks, but I also have other health issues that caused alot of fatigue and such, so it took me longer to recouperate. The average out of work time for my surgery is about 6 to 8 weeks, some people feel really good in less time. If one has a fusion, then that seems to usually take a long time to completely heal.

First you need to see what the MRI results are and you should ask for a copy of the MRI report also. Then you will see what treatments to try or if you even need any type of surgery. It's possible that the bones spurs might not even be causing you any pain, it could be disc herniation or something else. Let us know when you get the MRI results.
 
Hi Big Daddy, I had bone spurs from spinal stenosis and they tried the following:

1. Medication - Motrin around the clock for 10 days, medrol (steroid pack which lasted 7 days), a steroid injection in the hip to get the steroiRAB in quickly, muscle relaxer, and a pain reliever. They told me to alternate between ice packs and the heating pad. (Be sure to use no more than 20 minutes at a time or your could receive a burn. Believe me I have the heating pad coil marks (circular rings) on my back to prove that it does happen.

2. At the end of 10 days, they sent me to physical therapy for six weeks and ordered an MRI.

3. Still not feeling better they sent me to a surgeon. The surgeon ordered a CT scan and

4. a series of 3 epidural injections (steroiRAB injected directed into the spinal column). They start an iv, some places give you light sedation, they spray a nurabing spray on your back, do the injection under fluroscopy (very important - don't let anyone do an injection without using the flurscopy), and you are out of the building within 30 to one hour from the start of the procedure. The second day to about the 5th day you will experience a temporary increase in pain then it will slowly get better for you or back to your preinjection levels.

When all of the above failed to provide me with relief i.e. back pain and leg pain, I underwent a laminectomy. During the surgery they decompressed the affected nerve and removed the bone spur. Recovery was six weeks before I resummed my daily activities and 4 to 6 months before I recovered.

Do you have leg pain? What medications do they have you on?

I hope this answered some of your questions but please remeraber each case is unique and has its own levels of complexity. Also different doctors handle things differently.

Good luck and I will be lifting you up in prayer.
 
Oops, forgot to tell you, I was in the hospital 4 days. I probably would have got out in 3 days, but the pain meRAB were making me so sick and I couldnt eat. As soon as they took me off the big pain meRAB, I started eating and got out the next day.
Jen
 
My Dr. must be nuts too , my CT said I had bone spurs too but my Dr. said they didn't cause pain...Wait until I see him..Grrrr.:mad:

Good Luck with your back , I took skelaxin too , was in la, la land everytime I took it. :D
 
Thank you for your information and your prayers. The doctor gave me Celebrex and I take one a day. She had given me Skell... something when she thought it was muscular. It made me dizzy so I stopped taking it and it never eased the pain. I don't have any pain in my legs. Just in the lower back. It hurts almost every time that I stand from a sitting position and it is diffucult to straighten up. It is also difficult to tie my shoes. I am waiting to get a date for an MRI.
 
Hi! I also had a bone spur on my original xray at the onset of my pain. A bone spur is a growth to try and cover up underlying problem. (in my case)

For 2 years, all docs said that bone spurs do not cause pain. That is baloney.

After trying everything in the book to relieve the pain, inlcuding pain meRAB, muscle relaxers, nerve pain meRAB, physical therapy, hysterectomy and appendectomy, steroid injections in various places, a discogram that showed my discs were fine, chiro appts, accupuncture, massage, and seeing a naturopath, I went again to see the back surgeon who felt sorry for me in his office since I was crying and agreed to do surgery. At that point, I was limping on the right and in pain to tears.

After they opened me up, the saw the inflammation and severe arthritis of the facet joint, not the disc, and they cleaned up the bone spur and fused L5-S1.

My point I am trying to make to you is please try all other avenues to help with the pain, but if you don't get anywhere with it, dont let them dismiss you. See a spine specialist, getting 2nd and 3rd opinions if necessary.Hope you feel better soon!
Jen
 
Thanks Baybreeze. You are right. The MRI will tell the story. Thanks for you input and concern. I will let you know what they find. I had by-pass surgery 5 years ago and wasn't out of work much longer that a month.
 
I had alot of bone spurring, but the extent of my problem did not show up on x-ray. My x-rays said mild degeneration. When I finally had my first MRI, my spine was a mess. My rheumy even said alot of my pain was probably caused by the bone overgrowth (plus I had disc herniations and a thickened & buckling ligament). My surgeon didnt say anything in particular about the spurs, he just saw from my MRI and films that I had alot of compression in there caused by several things. Before I even was able to make an appt. with him, I had to fax them any xray and mri reports. I guess they wanted to see first if I might even be a candidate for surgery. I did get a call back to make an appt. and the surgeon had told me I would need surgery (if I decided to do it) if I wanted any chance of walking normal again and having less or complete pain relief. He did show me on my MRI's where everythign was and he's done that any time I went there...so It's also a learning experience for me.

But anyway, you might want to have an MRI done so your spine can be checked more thoroughly b/c x-ray does not show the whole story. And spurs definitely can cause pain, especially if they press into any surrouning nerves.
 
My doctors office called a moment ago with my MRI results. She said that the MRI showed a bulge at L-5,S-1 or something like that. I don't know what that means. She said the MRI also showed arthritis but no nerve problems. She is sending me for physical therapy.
 
I asked for a copy of the report which said:

Findings:

There is minimal disc desiccation at the L5-S1 level with a mild disc bulge appreciated which reveals no significant asymmetry or focality, and there is mild degenrative change involving the facets.

The remainder of the sutdy is unremarkable. The signal demonstrated by the bony structues is within normal limits. The conus is unremarkable.

Impression

Minimal disc desiccation and mild disc bulge at the L5-S1 level with mild degenerative change involving the facets. The study is otherwise unremarkale. There is no evidence of disc extrusion or significant canal compromise.

I still hurt.
 
Hi, this is so similar to my situation it's scary. I eventually had surgery after 2 years of trying to convince people I was in pain despite my "minimal findings" on my MRI.

I think the docs focus so much on test results they dont look at what is in front of them (the patient)

I also had facet joint degeneration. You very likely have arthritic facet joints.
The bone spurs are some sort of reaction the body does to help the situation and it just enRAB up making it worse in my case.

Your discs may be fine like mine but the facet joint may be totally arthritic. Have you tried any arthritis meRAB? You might want to ask your doc for these to try.

You may also ask to be referred to a pain management doc. They can do steroid injections to the area to see if that helps (unfortunately for me, it didn't help)

You can also try steroid packs (taking steroiRAB for 5 days) to see if inflammation is involved. My doc tried that also. In my case inflammation was not the problem , but for a lot of people it can be.

If your current doc blows you off, move on to the next doctor, this is your body and you have to be your own advocate. Many primary docs will not prescribe pain meRAB and you will need to see a pain management doc for long term pain control. I found this out the hard way.

There are other tests to be done too, like emg and discogram. The MRI is not the final say.

Hope you are able to find someone to help you. Physical therapy is good but it is not solving the problem, you still need to see someone regarding it. You might want to ask to be referred to a spine specialist to continue your case.

I found the most relief with a physical therapy place that offered manual therapy after exercise (massage) so shop around and dont let the doc tell you which one to see.

Jen
 
Thanks for your post and your understanding. I was just about to blow it off and live with it and try to quit whinning. Sometimes when I stand up it hurts so bad that I can't straighten up and feel like I'm going to fall over.
 
Ask your Dr. if you have arthritis in your facet joints and he should tell you exactly what approach you should take . Don't go in asking for things , let him decide what ya need . The MRI report to me didn't seem bad at all . But the radioligist are not doctors ,so keep us updated .

Good Luck

Shawley
 
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