NHS Rant

I fractured L1 a few years ago.

Once it had healed I had the same problem, loads of pain, nothing helped and the GP was more than happy to just write out another prescription.

Anyway, one day I was in the hospital having some metalwork taken out of my leg and the aneathetist (spelling...) asked me how I was as he had seen me before, I told him about my back pain and he said "that's hardly ****** surprising!".

Anyway his comment echoed the GP's and it kind of enraged me.

Once I was out of the hospital I went to my GP and told him that I was not happy with painkillers and that I wanted to do something positive about it.

He respected this and doodled some stick men in various exercises for me to try. I persevered with them for 2 or 3 months and things improved quite a bit so I went to see him again to see what else I could do.

He said "Try Yoga", so I did, I now do Power Yoga and it works.

I haven't had severe back pain for years now.

So, I would suggest trundling down to the GP's and if he insists that nothing is wrong ask him what YOU can do to help. There may well be some kind of therapy or exercise to match your problem.
 
Try and get a second opinion on the MRI, if you can. Both myself and my gf have been through similar things ...

... She used to do a lot of competitive swimming and has problems with her hip as a result. She went for an MRI and was initially told it was fine. She knew it wasn't so asked to be referred to a specialist. The first thing he said when he saw the scans was that she had some tissue damage in the joint and that the first person just didn't know what they were looking for.

... I used to do a lot of rowing and cycling and have issues with muscle imbalance in my knee, which has caused mal-tracking of the patella and various other issues. If I cycle on it at all now it's painful and I'm pretty sure I've torn some cartilage in there. I went for an MRI and was also told that it was fine, but being the person who's knee it is, I'm perfectly well aware that there's something amiss down there. I haven't got any further with it though, so I can't comment further.

Basically, push to be referred to a specialist.
 
a lot of people have intractable backpain that's not amenable to medical intervention. the MRI result is encouraging - in that you're not going to be paralysed, or broken your back etc.
the next step is to ask your GP to refer you to the local pain management clinic, usually led by consultant anaesthetists

don't forget, not all medical problems are fixable - take regular analgesia and take up a low-impact sport such as swimming if not done so already, and most importantly take full ownership of your condition
 
go see an osteopath or stop faking it to get out of work, i fail to see why the nhs is at fault because they cant find anything wrong
 
I'm not reading the rest of the replies in this thread through fear of it angering me further. What a load of toss. I injured my back in about August and it has given me constant jip since. I haven't been to the doctor about it because I predicted that what the o/p went through would happen to me. So I never bothered. I think I might just pay out some of my hard earned and get somen proper treatment at a chiropractor.
 
I just happen to work in MRI and it's not unusual to have people who are clearly in considerable pain have MRI scans that do not show a pathology. This doesn't mean there's nothing wrong, it just means that there's nothing to see. With regards to Spinal imaging MRI is primarily used to show whether or not there any degenerative discs or sequestrated disc (old and crumbly or squeezing out). the nerves in the spine below about T12 L1 actually fan out from a solid clump (the spinal cord) into a pony tail like structure (cauda equine, means horses tail in Latin). These nerves exit the canal through little key shaped holes at the sides called exit foramena. when a disc bulges it can trap the nerve as it passes through this hole. The most common nerve to get trapped is the nerve exiting at L5 S1 this is the sciatic nerve (hence sciatica). If your MR scan shows that none of this is happening (assuming it's been read correctly) then your pain is most likely due to what is referred to as "mechanical" means. usually a good pain control clinic using a mix of anti inflammatories and pain relief can sort this, but the advice on gentle exercise and particular Yoga above is good.

Hope it all works out for you.
 
ask your gp to be referred to an outpatients pain clinic. you'll be seen by a consultant or registrar. An MRI is very good at spotting spinal stenosis or trapped nerves, a repeat MRI would probably be pointless. Yours is most likely muscular.
 
Just from my point of view, the NHS have always been really good for me.

I've been in hospital more times than I can remember and they have always been brilliant.

However, I hear these sorts of stories quite a lot...

For what it's worth, I had a back problem about 5 years back and they sorted me out with physio and a scan all within a week. I had sciatica - physio sorted it for me. Did your physio not relieve any pain at all?
 
Have you seen the Physio since the scan and do they have any further suggestions?

I had an issue a couple of years ago with a muscle going into spasm and applying pressure onto the sciatic (probably spelt wrong) nerve, anyone who has had issues with this nerve will tell you that's not fun at all, I spent the first 6 or so hours after it happened on the floor as I was in to much pain to move or even roll over.

I went to A&E, I went to my GP ... but due to the nature of the problem they could not really help me only give me drugs to dull the pain. It wasn't helped that one minute I could feel like i had a badly twisted ankle and the next it would feel like i had pulled the muscle in my thigh as the pressure on the nerve changed. Eventually a second GP decided to give me a muscle relaxant which allow things to improve and healing to start. Eventually the pain subsided enough that I was able to start Physio (3.5 months after it originally happened).

The Physio I had was very good. He manipulated me and gave me exercises to identify exactly what the problem was and where it was. Most importantly he listened to my feedback and hence was able to narrow down the problem and after 6 months I was just about back to normal.

The chances are that a good Physio may well be able to help you further.
 
bazaarboy said:
a lot of people have intractable backpain that's not amenable to medical intervention. the MRI result is encouraging - in that you're not going to be paralysed, or broken your back etc.
the next step is to ask your GP to refer you to the local pain management clinic, usually led by consultant anaesthetists

don't forget, not all medical problems are fixable - take regular analgesia and take up a low-impact sport such as swimming if not done so already, and most importantly take full ownership of your condition
Click to expand...

First sensible post in this thread.

Backpain is a nightmare, there is no magic cure-all for back pain, if we can't find anything to fix what exactly do you expect? Modern medicine has its limits.

The great majority of back pain has no cause that current medicine can identify and can't treat apart from analgesia and physiotherapy. Even when there is something to fix the results post surgery/ablation/nerve block are as bad or worse than the initial pain.

It is just as frustrating to doctors as it is to patients to see all the cases of chronic back pain we can't do anything about. There's also a huge psychological component that is not well appreciated, and no amount of pills or surgery will aid that.

A repeat MRI is a waste of time, I don't understand that suggestion.

Finding a GP is supportive and offers help is a good idea, not just one that will refer you to a "specialist" (which is not the magical cure-all either), they may be able to help you get your pain better controlled and try and find ways of coping with your problems.
 
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