Annular Tears, chemical radiculopathy.

[Aaron]

I have a herniation at T6-7 that I had discogram for. The discogram was positive at T5-T7 and showed tears in T5-T8 but T8 asymptomatic. I wish they would have continued up my spine until I did not have a positive result, I could have had painful tears up to T1-2 but they stopped at T5 which is usual for testing T6-T7 ( disc above and below) but when positive result occured at T5 it should have changed to keep going. Annular tears are very interesting because doctors dismiss it but the unexpected tears and positive discogram other than at T6-7 caused a surgeon to halt a surgury plan due the new results because he felt T6-7 was not my only pain generator as earlier expected. The sitting pain seems to be a common when dealing with tears, the pain increases at a much faster rate. Most times it gets to the point where I must lay down but every once in a while the pain peaks and actually goes down to a manageable pain while sitting. I attribute this to the possibility that the disc has pushed out any fluid in it through the tear. The SED procedure is very interesting but as chiro geek says unless it is put up for the double blind testing it is all hear say about its results. The pain I feel does not radiate much but the burning is terrible over the spots on my thorasic and it increases when sitting by 10X. Its all so confusing, not many disagnosis have so many variables to deal with. As I have said before I was treated so much better when I was diagnosed with cancer. Surgeons so compassionate and caring along with people in general and it was only thyroid cancer. I could not help but think if I was treated this way for my spine I would have made much better progress by now. Dealing with this constant pain and talking to so many about it I have come to the realization that seems to never be addressed, back pain does kill people. Often from suidcide and often it seems they die inside. There are no rally walks for the spine as there are with mental illnesss, cancer etc. There are no celebrities out there saying help donate to back problem cures. It just seems like we just have to live with this so oh well.

[Maria]

I truly think we should have some kind of "walk" tho many can't walk when pain is on.. can't sit.. so we'd maybe be able to be pushed in gurneys and thus causing some other people back probs..

Anyone that has watched a loved one suffer with horrendous spine related pain and disabilty would likely champion this cause. I know I would.

We as a collective group of sufferers may out number any other incidence of condition out there except the common cold which I keep hearing there's going to be a cure for down the road.

Yep.. back pain sure does cause death. At least of life as we once knew it.

Even tho I have been a long long time spiney I have to say that relief is sweet and I hope that all others out there get it no matter the route.

[Aaron]

I was very interested to see what clooney did after his back was fixed, but I have not heard of him raising any money for the reaseach or helping any with bringing spine problems to a forefront . I mean i was shocked to hear the so called handsomest man with millions of dollars and probably a great life say something to the effect of, ok I will have to kill myself now, when he thought he would live with that pain everyday from the injury he suffered on Syriana movie shoot. Said it was the hardest year of his life, if a major star had gone through cancer they would be on the TV any chance they had to raise money, and thats great, but it does not help any of us. I loved when he talked about how much pain he was in and the doctors looked at him like he was a spoiled hollywood star bitching about something they could not see on tests. Later they found his spinal cord was leaking and some other problems, but you do not have to be a hollywood star for doctors to treat you that way.