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in reply to: Low Back Pain and Bladder Pressure #4781
Your symptoms could be from a number of sources. The bladder problems can rarely occur from the spine but that would be unusual. There is the chance you have arachnoiditis from your original disorder or from the surgery. An MRI of your lumbar spine would help to diagnose the presence or absence of intra-canal problems that could cause your bladder symptoms. (See website)
The pain in your sacroiliac region could be from a lack of solid fusion from the prior surgery (pseudoarthrosis), compression of a nerve root, chronic radiculopathy (see website) or even originate from the sacroiliac joint itself (sacroiliac instability). A thorough work-up of your spine could reveal the source of these problems.
By the way- “tailbones” (the coccyx) rarely fracture. These bony segments are connected by ligaments and even though these ligaments can be injured (coccydynia), this is a rare condition.
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.in reply to: DDD, stenosis and pain, oh my….. #4780Unfortunately, my knowledge of inflammatory disorders is limited to certain specific disorders associated with the spine. Your symptoms are indicative of a generalized inflammatory disorder. The osteoporosis is very unusual for a young individual. You might consider a trip to the Mayo or Cleveland Clinic for a look-over by multiple specialists as your disorder may be rare and difficult to diagnose.
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.By your description, you have multilevel degenerative disc disease at the age of 34 associated with Schmorl’s nodes at many levels. I assume that there are irregular endplates involved too. If so, you most likely have had thoracolumbar Scheuermann’s disease when you were young. This is a softening of the endplates of the vertebra when you were growing in height. Did you participate in contact sports in high school or track and field as these activities are also associated with these endplate changes?
Regardless, your pain could be generated by this multilevel degenerative disc disease. You do not mention where you pain is located (lower back, buttocks, leg, upper back) and when it occurs (standing, lifting, walking, sitting, night, driving). That does affect your assessment. Did you go through a good rehab program using core strengthening and ergonomics? Have you tried medications like NSAIDs and Ultram?
If you have exhausted all conservative methods, there is a possibility that surgery could give you some relief. With multilevel disease, do not expect a cure of all your back pain. If there is one motion segment or possibly two that are heads and shoulders painful above all the others, you may be a candidate for a fusion of these segments. Your expectations should not be too high. You are not going to be a future olympic marathoner or work in heavy construction with your back but surgery possibly can give you pain relief.
You should find a good spine surgeon to look you over, perform some tests and give you an accurate assessment of your condition and chances.
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.in reply to: Seizures After Lower Back Fusion #4775Seizure occurrence after a lumbar fusion must be exceedingly rare as I have never seen nor read about seizures as a complication of this surgery. This is unless you might have had an undiagnosed disorder that became apparent after this fusion or something went terribly wrong during surgery.
You can check the operative report by the anesthesiologist to see how you were monitored during surgery. I believe they record blood pressure, percent of oxygen saturation and use of all inhalation and IV agents during surgery every so many minutes.
I assume you have been thoroughly checked by a neurologist with an MRI of the brain to look for the cause of the seizures. With seizures along with heat intolerance, multiple sclerosis comes to mind as well as other less know diagnoses.
I wish you the best.
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.You are now entering the world of multiple spine diagnoses by different professionals. It is amazing for me to see what prior diagnoses are given to me by patients who have seen other expert practitioners who have missed or misinterpreted the pain generators. The old saying carries some truth- “Get 10 spine specialists into a room and ask a question- you will get 15 different responses”.
Foraminal stenosis (see website) normally causes buttocks and leg pain with standing and walking relieved by bending forward, crouching, sitting and lying in the bed with knees bent. If your wife has back pain more than leg pain, her problem is not primarily foraminal stenosis.
Unfortunately, I don’t know someone in the DC area who I can refer you to. You could send her images to my office and I would be happy to review them. (970) 476-1100
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.in reply to: Prolapsed discs at C3/C4 and C4/C5. #4772There are many different diagnoses that could cause your symptoms. Visits to an emergency department are not typically helpful for accurate spinal diagnosis. The emergency room physician has to cope with so many potential fatal diagnoses that an accurate spine diagnosis is not expected.
The MRI reading of “C3/C4 and C4/C5 disc prolapse” also does not describe what your condition is from. Are these herniations that compress the spinal cord? Do these hernations compress one nerve root or more? Are they disc tears/bulges that don’t efface any neurological structure? Are these segments in kyphosis (a reversal of the normal cervical lordotic curve)?. Do the flexion/extension x-rays note instability? As you can see, the MRI report is incomplete.
Whenever I see the diagnosis of “whiplash injury”, it tells me that the diagnosis is incomplete. Whiplash is a generic term for a flexion/extension injury to the neck but does not delineate what structures were damaged. What did the whiplash do? Did this force tear a capsule of the facet, tear a disc, cause a herniation, tear a supraspinous ligament or an insertion of a muscle.
Your symptoms could be from spinal cord involvement. You need to evaluated by a spine expert. A full history, examination and review of all studies needs to be performed.
Dr. Corenman
PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books. -
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