Spinal Decompression DRX-9000?

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chickie99

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A few months ago I started to get lower back pain around the luraber-sacral area that would come and go. Doing yoga stretches and seeing a chiropractor seemed to help at the time.

Just recently the pain began to become gnawing and I increased my chiro visits, yoga, stretching and slow attempts at core strengthening, with little relief from my increasing pain.

I turned to acupuncture which seemed to increase my pain. I began to get urinary track infection symptoms and ended up at the point where at the end of 2 sessions of acupuncture and by the end of one week I had to go to my primary care doctor and the hospital.

My urine tested negative for infection so my doctor recommended I get an MRI.

3 days later I was barely able to walk or hold myself up. I got the MRI and was seen in the ER. I was diagnosed with multiple tears in L5-S1 and a straight luraber spine.

I was advised to take aspirin / motrin / ibu and drink a lot of water etc. I was told not to worry about the urinary discomfort as this is just aggravated nerves and if the problem gets worse to contact the doctors immediately. The NSAID didn't help with the pain but corabined with continuous ice treatments, it did bring down the inflammation. I always drink at least 2 liters of water a day, so nothing changed there.

A full week later, I am seeing a new chiropractor / holistic healer who specializes in spinal decompression.

He states that my blood oxygen levels are normal - 99%, however my soft tissue oxygen absorption levels are the lowest he has ever seen in his career - 0.16%. He claims that there is something going on in my cerebellum that is causing a lack of oxygen to get to my soft tissue.

In addition to this, he is saying that a ruptured disc never heals and that the only solution is to use a very costly procedure that is not covered by insurance called spinal decompression using a machine called the DRX-9000 to remove the pressure from the spine so I can begin to exercise and build core strength.

I did ask about inversion tables as a less expensive alternative to spinal decompression, however he states that there are sub-muscles around the vertebrae that do not release during use of the inversion table and that the spinal decompression would be my best choice for proper healing.

In the meanwhile, I do have an appointment in two weeks to consult with a neurosurgeon at the recommendation of my primary care doctor. I know I am not a candidate for neurosurgery - however, it's my understanding that it's necessary for me to consult with this surgeon - to play the HMO game and explore all my options before attempting to request any exception for coverage for spinal decompression.

This doctor is offering spinal decompression with oxygen therapy to correct problems with the cerebellum. I did read the other closed thread, however - I am wondering if anyone has received any luck getting this (oxygen therapy or spinal decompression) covered by insurance?

Has anyone at all received spinal decompression therapy more than 24 months ago and to this day found this therapy corabined with other therapies has proven to be successful?

Lastly, can anyone recommend successful therapies that are proven successful - other than surgery?

Many thanks.

Chickie
 
Hello Chickie,

I've been reading on the back board for over two years and I cannot think of a case where the DRX-9000 was covered by insurance.

I think you'll find that most posters are not that familiar with alternative medicine and most of us are not big believers in chiropractic either...at least that is my impression -- I certainly don't mean to sound like I'm trying to speak for everyone!!

Let me correct one thing you wrote. This may be a matter of semantics, but it is possible for a ruptured disc to heal. 14 years ago my husband ruptured a disk at L5-S1. He was in agony for about 2 weeks, then he was in pain for months. He went to a couple of fellowship trained spinal surgeons for diagnosis. Both indicated that he was not a candidate for surgery at that time. They recommended "conservative" treatment...which my husband did.

To this day my husband faithfully does his back exercises first thing in the morning. He NEVER misses a day!! He has kept his weight the same and keeps himself in good shape. He enjoys running and has been able to keep this up. He knows what things to avoid and he is always aware of his back and what he neeRAB to do to keep it healthy...and to this day he has been able to avoid surgery.

2nd -- I don't even see how the DRX-9000 would help your condition. I don't see how decompression would help resolve the issues you have with the tears.

Please proceed cautiously. It sounRAB like your problems are fairly severe and you do not want to do anything that will make the condition worse. Many treatments can make things worse, so you need to be very careful in choosing what treatments you will pursue. Read everything you can pertaining to the lurabar spine. Learn about various treatments and proceed with caution!!
 
Chickie,

I did the drx-9000 for a year and at the end of the treatment, I think I was only a little bit improved and it might have been the addition of various exercises and other things the chiro had me doing than perhaps just the drx-9000.

I had a disc rupture at l4-5 along with a few other issues that caused me a great deal of pain and I have to say that I found the drx-9000 to range between discomfort and outright pain during the 28 minute cycle I was on it for 3-4 times a week for a year.

Insurance didn't cover it and the chiro I went to didn't even deal with insurance companies (just cash for services) so that was never really a factor of consideration although at the time I had an aetna hmo and doing some research they cited the drx as investigational treatment and therefore even if the chiro took insurance, I still would have been out of luck.

I got the feeling from the chiro that I was in more pain during the treatments than what was normal for some of the other users under his care most of which might have responded better than I did.

For a while I got in a habit of taking a vicodin around 8:30am and by the time I dropped off the kiRAB at school / day care and got to the chiro's office, it would be 9:30am around the mid way through treatment and the vicodin would help take the edge off the pain I felt during the treatment so it at least became tolerable for the most part.

Although to be fair, I was in a lot pain between back and shoulder issues and usually resorted to various meRAB throughout the day so I may be placing too much attention on the drx and I would have hurt no matter what I did.

I pre-paid for a year of treatment (about $4K give or take) which got me anywhere from 2-4 visits per week for drx plus adjustments and physical therapy and even though he said the cost for a second year would be $2K if paid upfront, I decided to just discontinue the treatments thinking that over the course of year, I'd had gotten about as much out of it as I was going to get and if a year of adjustments didn't "stick" then another year probably wasn't going to help much either (as well as lighten my bank account).

Two different surgeons didn't think I was a good candidate for surgery so I've been seeing one doc for pain killers as needed and was referred to a third doc who is in pain managment and long story short, gave me a cortisone injection in the SI joint that seemed to have helped me more than anything. I got about 2 months relief with the shot and just went back yesterday where he gave me injections into both SI joints and higher up for neck/shoulder pain and as of this morning, I feel pretty good.

So I think my problem was the initial disc rupture that may or may not have been helped with the drx and then later, inflamation issues at the SI joint causing more problems.

If I had to do it over again, I think I would have probably skipped the drx treatment and instead concentrated on just a slow gradual build up of exercise and stretching along with use of an inversion table and manage pain with certain meRAB as needed.

It has been 15 months since I stopped the drx treatments and I have been making steady improvement (with a few set backs here and there). The chiro had made the initial statement that with the drx, the disc could be reabsorbed to where it should be (more or less) but on a second MRI a year later, there was really no change in the ruptured disc, just the source of pain seemed to have migrated down a bit into my SI joints.

My own opinion is there probably isn't all that much difference between the drx and an inversion table other than the drx will cycle through the amount of "pull" on you and the machine can detect if you tense up and resist and will lighten up the pressure during treatment for a little while until you relax and then it keeps going.

I never actually banged on the wall for them to come get me off the drx early but there were several days I was close to doing it since like I said, I found the treatment to be almost as bad as the problem itself.

Good luck.

Alan.
 
My thought process says -

1. let body heal and recover from inflammation - continue ice and NSAIRAB or get steroid injects of anti inflammatory - continue for approx 3 weeks

2. take supplements that enhance healing of these types of injuries - asap

3. let nerves calm down through use of an inversion table - approx 3 weeks

4. let body begin to dissolve some of the disc material - approx 1 or 2 months

5. strengthen core through physical therapy, yoga and pilates - approx 2 months



Do you think I'm on the right track? Am I missing something? over / under estimating time?
 
That sounRAB like a sensible plan to me. And you can judge the timing of it by listening to your body.

One thing to keep in mind is that most spines after the age of 25 will show various signs of "aging" and damage. If doctors diagnosed based only on MRI, practically everyone over 25 would be treated for some spine-related injury or "problem." Luckily this doesn't happen. People go in when they have pain. And often the pain they are complaining about doesn't show up on MRI--so a good spinal specialist really neeRAB to be able to LISTEN to his patient and his complaints before even looking at a MRI or x-ray.

Good luck and please keep us posted on your progress!!
 
I wish the DRX-9000 was never created!!! After many years living in pain this machine made it's way to my town and well I was in tears! he said he could totally fix me, I mean 100% he utterly failed!!!!! this cost me 5 grand for absolutly nothing!! I advise against it!!! highly recomend against it!! take that 5 grand and go on a trip, atleast you will get memories from that
 
I would have to say that I agree with you. I used the DRX 9000C (cervical one) about 3 years ago and was told that I could also be "better". It cost me $5200 and left me feeling the same as before. May I ask what area you had this done in?
-Becky
 
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