Lower Back Pain in San Diego

The other day I had a young 34-year-old woman came into to my chiropractic office in San Diego and was complaining of low back pain. In addition to her low back pain she also complained of sciatica or leg pain.

During our consultation, she told me that she had been dealing with the low back pain for about 10 years and with intermittent sciatic pain for the last 5 years. Her low back pain and sciatica made it difficult for her to exercise and sometimes it bothered her enough to affect her ability to work.

This condition was a big problem for her.

I should also tell you that she had been to many doctors for her problem and had many diagnostic procedures that were not of any help. She had an MRI that showed a small disc herniation that was not pinching a nerve. This lady had never been to a chiropractor before.

Of course her question was "Do you think you can help me? If you can't, I don't even want to start!"

I could tell that she was a little combative and with good reason. Ten years of pain can give you a short fuse - especially with doctors.

I told her that I would do my best and I told her that the success of treatment is often determined by "trying" to see if it works and then I promised her that if after our exam I felt that I couldn't help her that I would inform her before she incurred any charges.

My exam of this patient was unremarkable. I explained to her that my tests showed that nothing was seriously wrong with her back. I also explained that even though she has a herniated disc that it may not be the source of her pain and that there was only a very slim chance that my chiropractic care would aggravate it.

I also explained to her that the basic process that affects joints is one that progresses from some sort of injury, like a fall, that can irritate the joint. That joint irritation leads to inflammation that can cause muscle spasms and pain. In her case, a small disk herniation can become irritated and inflamed by some bio mechanical problem with the joint that leads to the leg pain.

I explained that by resolving the bio mechanical problem with the joint with chiropractic care that there is a good chance of resolving both of her problems. She was excited by my analysis - it made sense to her.
The one thing that she was not happy with is that I told her that I was not sure how many treatments she would need. I did tell her that if her condition didn't show improvement or worsened in the first 12 visits over a four week period that the treatment probably wasn't right for her.

To wrap this post up, this patient had 90% of her back pain symptoms resolve in the first 5 treatments. By the end of the third week of treatment her sciatic pain was gone.  Was my patient thrilled to lose her low back pain and sciatic pain? You bet she was.