by Curt Lezanic
Yesterday, I had a new patient who got my name from one of my regular patients.
She came into the clinic complaining about low back pain and loaded for bear, complete with recent X-rays and an MRI. In May of last year, she underwent a spinal fusion at L-4 and 5. Following the operation she completed standard physical therapy. Unfortunately, she was left with pretty significant back pain. She went back to her surgeon several times to see what could be done to relieve her pain. She described her pain as stabbing, believing that one of the screws had somehow worked loose and was causing her pain. More X-rays were done showing that the hardware and the operation were just fine. She was referred out and underwent a series of injections that provided almost no relief. She returned to her doctor who ordered an MRI of the low back. He told her that he thought the pain was in the soft tissue as the MRI showed that the hardware and operation were good.
I had her lay on my table face down. I palpated the area and found that L-4 and 5 were very painful even to mild touch. I also found that both trochanters were really inflamed, something that she was completely unaware of. I applied Medical Massage techniques in the area of the lower back. The result was quite remarkable. Within 15 minutes the pain on the trochanters and the low back was simply gone. The patient could not believe it. Her remark was, “I can’t believe the pain I have been living with since May can be gone with so little effort.”
LESSONS:
1. Even after successful spinal surgery some patients continue to feel pain in the area of the surgery despite that the neurological pain they experienced before surgery is gone. The pain these patients feel is coming from the soft tissue trauma and scarification of the soft tissues decreases the mobility of soft tissue layers in regard to each other.
2. The sooner Medical Massage is started, the less the chance that post-operation pain is developed.
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