Well, basically, I started out with shooting pain from my hip down my leg. I first noticed it at home; went to take a step, and I thought I was going to hit the ground, It felt like my leg would not hold me up. Doing playground duty, I was walking and BAM, it happened again. I had to grab on to a fence, because I thought I was going to fall. I went to a dr that day, and she said she would normally order tests or whatever if this had been happening for a long time, not just twice in 5 days. But she said something about it bothered her, so she ordered x-rays and MIR. So I was feeling hip pain, like a needle shoved in the joint. The pain radiated up my back and down my leg. I was limping pretty bad until I started pt. After the first treatment (which was a killer massage with her elbow in my hip joint and my back) and some stretches, I sill had pain the next day, but I was walking! It wasn't shooting pain, but more of an ache. Lately, the pain has been an ever present burning, tingling, and at time numbness going down my leg (also get burning , numbness and tingling going all the way up my spine and on my right side from shoulder blade to spine, but that was from a car accident in 01. No relief from that yet!) PT has helped a lot, but I have had a couple of bad episodes- once was in pt, my back siezed up into a spasm while I did a stretch, and my neck did too, I didn't exercise for the rest of the week, and the next session was just massage, no stretches or anything. The next week, I slowly started stretches and exercises again, and it wasn't bad. But YESTERDAY on the way to check out this sipnal decompression, I wrenched my back getting into the car. Just a little twist I guess, but it sent shooting pain through my back. It really set the stage as I went into this place, with tears in my eyes, willing to do just about anything this side of surgery to make the pain stop. From my friend who is a pt, she thought it sounded like glorified traction, with a lot of other little fluffy things to make my back superficially feel better. (I liked the look of the superficial things though... they had a nice water table, like a bed, that shoots jets of warm water onto your back.) The big problems are these: a. will it work, and what happens if it doesn't? and b. it's $4000 for the course of treatment. baseline starts at 25 treatments, 2 or 3 times a week, and even 45 treatments if I need them, as many as they feel I need until I level out and see no improvement, which should mean at that time, I am feeling better than I ever was. It looked great when I was standing there in a great deal of pain, but after talking to my mom and a friend in back care, I am wondering if it is worth the steep price tag. and can another doctor do the same thing, covered under insurance (this isn't). It's pretty serious stuff, and I don't want to mess up my back more, but I don't want to chase after care that may be ripping me off or may not do all it advertizes. I am completely freaked out!
As far as the chemical sympathectomy, I'm not sure. I have only treated with motrin, and am NOT looking for anything involving needles, except maybe acupuncture to help with the pain. I don't want to just stop the pain though, I want to stop the cause of the pain.
Thanks for your thoughts.