I have always sufferd with a bad back which got progressively worse since the pregnancy and birth of my daughter. She is now two and the last few months the pain has been getting so severe that I cannot pick my daughter up and I'm not sleeping.
I find that at night the pain is very great at the base of my spine, along the pelvic area and up the lower right hand side of my back.
I recently went to my doctors who prescribed me anti inflamatories which have now given stomach pains.
Hello Charlotte,
There is powerful research done by an orthopaedic surgeon in the UK about low back pain. His conclusion, widely published in medical journals? Manipulation for lower back pain is the most effective treatment. In the hands of a careful and experienced practitioner.
But of course you weren't to know that, and your doctor was ignorant of that medical research. Or prejudiced against it. "Don't confuse me with the facts. My mind is already made up."
A few years ago it was reported in an American medical journal that 14,000 Americans died in one year from a bleed in the tum from taking anti-inflammatories. And the sister of a patient of mine, only one month ago. She was 52. So stop the pills immediately.
My best advice is to start some lower back exercises(look in the navigation bar at Chiropractic Help) and do them very faithfully every morning before getting out of bed for the rest of your life. They take less than two minutes. I do them myself, and never miss.
Give it say a month. If they are helping significantly, keep at it. If not much, then it's time to start talking to friends and family about a local chiropractor. Take any X-rays you have with you. If they're in the hospital, take your digi camera, ask them to put them up on a screen and photograph them with the flash off.
Let me know in a month how you are doing. I hope this has contributed.
Dr. Barrie Lewis