Hello, Marlene, nice to talk to you. Sorry for the delay in response, I was away, and ran out of time last night to finish this. My mother was the owner of the company, and passed away not too long ago. She was not a doctor but did lots of research due to her own spinal stenosis, degenerative disk disease, and later on in her life, fibromyalgia. I’m not a slouch when it comes to back related knowledge, and can be of some assistance to you. I also have let a couple of chiropractors read your emails for some added input. I also know what my mother went through and can help apply that to your situation, since you have three of the same problems, spinal stenosis, fibromyalgia, and degenerative disks. She doesn’t have your scoliosis with rotation though. I’m sorry you have so many back problems, it must drive you insane and hurt the quality of your life. It is difficult for me to comment on some things with certainty, because I’m not physically there, and because I’m not your chiropractor/doctor, I’m just reading your somewhat limited info from my computer. Giving you precise answers is difficult, and knowing what is causing what with 100% certainty is difficult in some situations for me, although I’m pretty certain what’s going on. But I will try. In my response to you, the blue words are links to places, and the questions to you are in a different color(red) so you can spot them better. Here is my first question: Have you been in any accidents(any kind of falling, auto accidents etc) where your back neck or spine could have been hurt in an way in addition to your problems?
If I ship a heat pack to you, where do you live, what country?
About the Subject of Heat Therapy and our Pack:I can tell you about most heat pads, and can explain the situation you encounter/described with yours. Heat helps to block out pain, too high a heat still blocks pain, but
creates inflammation meaning the area doesn’t get better, ie it doesn’t heal, which explains why the pain feels more fired up with added stiffness (inflamed) after you’ve used your pack. Our heat pack was designed to deal with this problem. All the other heat packs are designed at too high a heat, and although that high heat might mean it stops (temporarily) about 5% more pain than our pack, it causes inflammation which is very bad, meaning the area treated won’t heal, and you will often move a step backwards, which means you will feel more pain. Our pack is designed to reach the right temperature to enable healing and of course stop the pain during the duration of the heat treatment. This is called a therapeutic temperature. This enables blood to flow into the area being treated, and then dissipate afterwards not causing inflammation. Since it is at a slightly lower temperature then other packs, it stops a little less pain (very slightly, it’s hard to notice). Our pack also maintains this temperature and slightly below this temperature for a set
period of time, called a therapeutic time interval. This is a certain time interval that is useful to heal. Our pack is the only pack out there that reaches and maintains a therapeutic temperature for the proper therapeutic time interval. On a related note, our pack is the only pack out there that has spinal protection, as it is dangerous to heat your spine. Please read about our pack here:
http://http://www.heattreat.ca/aboutthepack.php About Your Scoliosis:In regards to your double scoliosis with rotation, I don’t know the severity of it (% angle of curvature etc). Scoliosis usually develops in the upper back (thoracic spine) or area between the upper back and lower back (the thoracolumbar area of the spine), so I’ll assume that. In most cases regular types of scoliosis, there are usually no symptoms, and if there is, people experience muscle back pain, stiffness and/or fatigue. For people with severe scoliosis, back muscle fatigue and pain can be felt during more lengthy periods of time when standing or sitting. Some of your pain in your low back in the tissue area could be from scoliosis Marlene and could be helped by heat therapy (read below for more info on my recommendation of heat therapy). In some people, the condition can worsen over time. The abnormal compression of your ribs on one side can put pressure on your vital organs and can mess with the function of the heart and lungs if left untreated. I’m guessing this last sentence doesn’t apply to you unless you haven’t mentioned it for some reason. Stretching and resting is obviously going to help. Also in some severe cases of scoliosis, If there are any neurological deficits that would indicate impingement of the spinal cord... I don’t know enough about your scoliosis, but this can cause obvious problems.
As any doctor ever mentioned spinal cord impingement due to the scoliosis? I’m guessing no.
Your Stenosis:In lumbar spinal stenosis, the spinal nerve roots in the lower back are compressed, or choked, and this can produce symptoms of sciatic tingling, weakness and or numbness that radiates from the low back and into your legs and buttock- this gets worse with activity.
Spinal cervical stenosis (in the neck) can be a lot more dangerous because of compressing the spinal cord itself and possibly leading to major body weakness or even paralysis. This is virtually impossible in the lumbar spine, however, as the spinal cord is not present in the lumbar spine.
Thoracic spinal stenosis, again is where the spinal cord or spinal nerves are compressed by narrowing of the spinal canal or the openings between the thoracic vertabrae. The thoracic spine has some unique characteristics that make thoracic spinal stenosis a little different than stenosis in other areas. Thoracic spinal stenosis rarely occurs by itself, and is usually accompanied by stenosis in the lumbar area, and sometimes also the cervical spine. The spinal canal is narrower in the thoracic area, even though your spinal cord size remains the same. That means there is less extra space, so it takes less obstruction to cause problems. Most thoracic spinal stenosis is due to degenerative changes—arthritis in the joints, bone spurs, disc degeneration and other changes due to aging. As the degeneration grows, you may experience pain in your back and legs, either aching in your legs when you walk that gets better when you rest, or pain that radiates down your back or legs. You may develop problems with walking or loss of bowel or bladder function (this sounds like it doesn’t apply to you). Since the thoracic spinal canal is already narrow naturally, people with this problem cannot tolerate any extra pressure on the spinal cord, and if they do they are going to develop symptoms of cord compression where you lose some sensation or movement below the thoracic impingement region where the problem is at its worst. Thoracic spinal stenosis treatment usually involves using anti-inflammatory medications, pain management medications and techniques, steroid injections, nerve blocks, and physical therapy. These are some of the things people with thoracic spinal stenosis do, I'm not saying you should do them, I’m just listing them. You could see a physiotherapist to see if there is some way you can do some sort of exercise. Again, you said you were allergic to most meds, however anti-inflammatories work best. For most people if the pain is uncontrolled or if there are signs of cord compression, surgery is necessary to relieve pressure on the cord or spinal nerves, however this does not seem to be quite bad enough to warrant this.
I want to address your quotes from your email that relates to your stenosis: “
Yet that whole lower back area I described is all sore including in my soft tissues. The area feels like it has crushed glass in it and after touching it, massaging it, or using a vibrator, it gets to feeling stingy and burning right below the skin”. This pain in this area is all nerve related due to the stenosis, and nerve problems due to it. The area is badly inflamed which explains the burning crushed glass description. You need to get the inflammation under control before you think of using heat therapy, and when you do use your heat therapy I would not use any other heat pack except ours (due to its temp and time interval and spine protection already talked about) and when you are using your heat therapy I would also use ice therapy as well due to your ongoing inflammation in the area. The heat therapy is obviously just going to aid in treating the tissue, specifically in your low back which seems to be giving you your most grief, and the tissue in the rest of the back as well if it is hurting. In terms of the nerve impingement due to the stenosis, heat therapy wont work, you need to find ways to reduce the inflammation, like cold therapy, anti-inflammatories etc.
Your Sacroiliac Joint (area) Problem:This is getting to be a long document, so instead of writing out a huge blurb, I’m just going to give you a link to a decent page on Sac Joints , its related area and inflammation(which I’m quite sure you have):
http://http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/buttocks/sacroiliac.htmThis is a semi basic article, and I’m sure you know lots about your Sac joints already, but it lets us get started and gives us a reference when we are talking. When you wrote: “
The worst pain is in and around my sacroiliac joints, the whole area around the iliac crest and hips. The left side is worse than the right side. The scoliosis goes to the right by the way” I’m guessing the reason it’s worse on the left is because the scoliosis goes to the right putting more tension on the left. Here your scoliosis is hurting your sac joints. You wrote: “
The worst pain is in and around my sacroiliac joints, the whole area around the iliac crest and hip”. ...” The one sharp pain I was referring to seems to be on the left side all around the area I described above except its so far inside that I can't reach it very well. It's hard to pinpoint” If you read the top two paragraphs from the article and follow the link from the part that says
Iliolumbar ligament in that second paragraph, you will see that that ligament in the
picture is right where you are having this problem(left side due to the strain), which is the part you said is inside where you can’t get too. This area of yours is out of alignment partly or wholly due to your scoliosis, which is putting a strain on this area and tendon due to alignment problems. Your Sac joints are badly inflamed, and your Iliolumbar ligament is irritated as well which explains to a large degree the problems you are experiencing from what you have told me so far. If you read the symptoms part from that article it says “The pain can range from an ache to a sharp pain which can restrict movement”, which is the bad sharp pain you described at the beginning of your email. To be clear your sac joints(which are inflamed) and Iliolumbar ligaments (which is also probably inflamed too) are related but are going to give you different symptoms, as discussed above and in the two articles. Please read both articles
1,
2, and their symptoms, and treatments to better understand what is causing what pain, and the proper treatments. For me getting the inflammation under control immediately is key, and keeping it under control will go along ways to minimizing your pain and discomfort. Stopping or lessening the strain (probably caused by your right curving scoliosis) on your left side which is irritating your Iliolumbar ligament is going to help you a great deal I would imagine. Cold therapy, stretching and message are all listed treatments, as is articulation/manipulation. All the things you wrote like bending over to brush your teeth, looking in the fridge, moving your hips, all are symptoms due to the problems talked about above, and should get better with treatment (not permanently better- but the pain and frequency should get better).
You wrote “
If I'm careful, I can exercise on my rebounder and feel much better until I'm done. Then the pain gets much much worse after I have exercised.” ... “Walking hurts, pedaling my recumbent trike hurts,but certain movements make if better like rocking”. Rebounding is good in a lot of ways in general life...check
This article. It is going to help your blood flow a bit which reduces your inflammation in certain regions(until you stop), and relaxes you and your nervous system (“nerves”) which is good.
I’m not sure what part in your body doesn’t feel good after getting off the rebounder though is it the sac area? The thing is with nerve impingement you are compressing your spine and exerting force on any impinged nerves when you are impacting your rebounder, which is not good. Also when you stop the blood will flow back and stay and the area continues to be inflamed, which brings back your symptoms. In terms of the rocking, its helps your blood flow out of those regions and helps stretch your sac region which you need. I
s this the area that feels better when you rock? I just assumed so.
Your Fibromyalgia Problem:There are a few news related articles picked from this news section that you should read that relate to your Fibromyalgia:
http://http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217123124.htm (read this one carefully and more then once as there are some important parts to it that are missed on a quick read. Note they mention the fact that it can be stress related. Without knowing anything else about your life, just the problems in your back alone that you were born with and the resulting pain could be stressful enough to cause fibromyalgia if you buy into the stress related angle of the article.) I think this is how you developed it.
http://http://mtabcpain.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/fibromyalgia-can-no-longer-be-called-the-invisible-syndrome/http://http://www.heattreat.ca/back-pain-health-news/fibromyalgia-pain-caused-by-neuron-mismatch.phpThere is also a decent article written by my mother several years ago about fibromyalgia on our forum where she answered a posters question:
http://http://www.heattreat.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38As mentioned already in my employees email regarding our pack and the therapeutic temperature and time intervals, and spinal protection, if you were to use any heat pack out there, it would be ours. There is one problem using heat therapy for your body which I found reading your emails. You have problems with your sacroiliac joints, which I’m 99.9% sure are inflamed. If they are chronically inflamed I would suggest not heating that area at all until you know they not inflamed, and you can work at reducing the inflammation by icing, anti-inflammatories (never use these long term they damage your kidneys) or other methods(talk to your doc). Are you allergic to anti-inflammitories too? Ask your doctor or chiropractor or who-ever you see about using heat therapy before actually doing it. Usually our pack doesn’t cover the sac joints if you look at the size and shape of it, it doesn’t reach that far down. However people can use the pack where ever they like it, so I’m just advising you not to use it there until your inflammation is under control and your doc says its ok to use it in that area. I would use it for areas it was meant for. If you decide to buy the pack after thinking things through with your doctor, seeing as though you are in so much pain I’ll give you one of our slightly defected packs at a good deal. As I’m sure someone with the knowledge you must have accumulated over the years, that you know heat therapy won’t solve all of the pain that all your problems are causing, but it could definitely help some areas, plus its natural and doesn’t hurt your body like drugs. It’s cheap too because you can reuse these packs for years, and are looking at pennies per treatment. Please read this link if you have time for more info on heat and pain control:
http://http://www.heattreat.ca/heatpaincontrol.php Its important that you stop using your hot baths especially long ones, due to the inflammation issue, they would be making it worse. Take showers instead(not too hot!).
My mother besides using her heat pack, who also suffered from Spinal stenosis, degenerative disk disease, and fibromyalgia, used another product that I would recommend to you, which is a pain cream called Gardeners dream cream:
http://http://www.aromacrystal.com/index.php?page_id=26 It’s relatively cheap and does wonders for treating pain. I have used it myself and highly recommend it. Its’ natural too. It has a bit of a build up effect on your skin so you have to wash your skin between successive applications of it-you can use it maybe twice in a row without washing.
Here is another article outside of your individual conditions that you should read, and below it is an article my mother wrote before she died regarding Maldynia if you have not read it yet:
Chronic Pain Related News:
Rewiring Of Brain Responsible For Baffling Chronic PainIn a few days when I have some more time to devote to you, I could give an email listing some vitamin and supplements that could help you with your problems, in addition to some other things/methods that could help you out. Sorry this took so long.
Here is to you feeling better!
