I have had 3 years of horrible lower back pain and I am trying to get some advice as to which doctor or direction to go next. I have seen 6 different PTs, 5 difference chiropractors, 2 sports medicine experts, an orthopedic surgeon and the list goes on. I am in my mid 20's now.

THE BACK PAIN
My pain is in my lower right side of my back. When it is at its worst it will go down to the top of my buttock and around the side of my right hip. It never deviates or goes higher then maybe 6 inches above my pelvis. 5 x-rays showed nothing and out of 2 MRIs the first one showed nothing and the last one showed "mild inflammation in a lumber facet joint". I received 2 injections of steroids into the lumbar facet joints, but that did not help much. Laying down with a flat back always feels the best.

PAIN: The pain in my lower back is at its highest degree when I do not sleep straight the night before, I bend over and lift with my back or I sit in a chair for long periods of time. The back seemed to be flared up much more often when I was doing Yoga and stretching daily.

THE NECK PAIN
The other side of the pain: I also have severe pain in my neck. I get a very stiff neck and I have shooting nerve pain down my arms. This pain has recently gotten much worse and is worse when standing or sitting for long periods of time. It often feels the best when I am laying down. This was always just a very slight pain and I didn't think much of it, butIt has gotten very painful over the last 4 months. I had a chiropractor work on it, but that only allowed for more flexibility and did not help the pain.

PAIN: My neck pain is at its worst when it tightens up to a point where I can barely turn it. Wearing a tie makes it very tight and painful as well. I don’t know what the large tendons reaching from your head and going down the shoulders are called but that is where a lot of the tight pain seems to be because my wife rubs them and I can really feel it. Laying down with a supporting pillow seems to be the only thing that makes the pain go away.


THE INJURY
The injury or starting point of this pain was when I was playing golf nearly 3 years ago. I have not played golf since that day and swinging a golf club is very painful, especially at the point where I swing through the ball and thrust my body upwards/outwards while extending my right leg. I can feel this motion especially around the side of my right hip and where my butt and back connect (likely the facet joint as well). Swinging a golf club does not hurt my neck, however.


Things that didn't work: Chiropractor, steroid injections into facet joint, months and months of stretching/yoga, dry needling and any other typical PT or chiropractor stuff. The orthopedic surgeon refused to work on my back because he said that it looked like a very healthy back. Quoting him saying, “This is one of the best MRIs I will see in the next 3 months”.

Does anyone have a guess at what this might be? I am mostly looking for where someone thinks I should go next? What kind of doctor? Is there a possible connection between the neck and lower back pain?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.
-Joe

Welcome JonnyBackPain.

Joe,
I am sorry to hear you're dealing with such pain. I am
25 and have had terrible headaches for the last 10 years. I have seen more doctors than you have and nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. My last resort was to go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. They found that I had a spinal fluid leak that nobody else did. Now I do not think that you have this, as you would have terrible headaches like I did. However you seem lost in which direction to go. If I could change one thing in my life I would have skipped every local doctor visit that I had. I should have gone to mayo clinic before I even went to the first neurologist. When you have such pain and hopelessness, you need the best. I hope they or somebody else can help you. I had to get surgery to fix my spinal fluid leak. Mayo even looked at a disc I brought from 2009 of an MRI of my spine and said that I had it that year and it was missed. Crazy. It's called medical "practice" for a reason. Good luck. You will find something just like I did. My answer took 10 years.

Xo

Nicole

[ I get a very stiff neck and I have shooting nerve pain down my arms.]

What kind of work or other activities have you done?
Repetitive, lots of desk work or phone tucked shoulder to ear?
Any previous whiplash, or sports injury?

Chiros or PTs do or mention any top rib mobilizations, trigger point, deep tissue release for what sounds like muscles spasms?
Did they evaluate your posture at all, is head/shoulders forward of the body, or rolled, hunched?

these might be helpful -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread125577.html
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

Have you tried a physiatrist?

Thank you for your response. I have in fact not tried a physiatrist. What exactly would they do that a neurologist, orthopedic surgeon and chrio wouldn't do?

Thanks.