My back

Well, apparently I actually have a back problem. I think the assumption has been that my back pain has been tumor related, although no one actually wanted to take the time to really find out. Today I went to an osteopath, one that specifically deals with manipulations. He and the young woman dr. with him took the time. They took a thorough history, looked at my ct-scan and MRI reports and spent a lot of time looking at my actual scans on the computer. If you just read the reports it appeared as if my anatomy was normal and so it must be the tumor, radiation damage, the lack of my uterus and subsequent scar tissue (apparently the way my pain flows, from lower back to hip to front of thigh is related to my lack of uterus), muscles etc. However they looked closer and found that there is actually something physical going on with my back, some kind of deformity in my L3 which I could have been born with (and something else with the L5, I don't remember what, neither of which was reported on the MRI report and which they actually found visible on the ct-scan because there is a view that gives them something that resembles and x-ray). So, as usual my problems are complex, as likely all these things are contributing to my pain, but because there is an underlying back problem, maybe, just maybe osteopathic manipulations could help.

He did some very gentle manipulations, commenting to A. (who used to see him years ago when he had a bad back, which has been a pretty good back for a long time now, knock on wood!) about how different the manipulations were from what he did for him (which was more crunching). He told me to see if over the next few days I feel like it made a difference and if so to come back next week and he'll do more (earlier he did say that even if it didn't help the first time, it still could help as similar to acupuncture it can sometimes take a few times, so if I was so inclined I could still come back, but he was very low pressure). I walked out of there hurting, but I was also overdue for an ibuprofen at that point. But once it kicked in I now feel very good, dare I say I feel no pain at all right now (I am so jinxing myself to even say this, never mind write it down).

I also had a major acupuncture session on Monday, LOTS of needles, more than I have ever had because the treatments were not "sticking" and my pain was back a day or so later. I was sore the rest of the day, decided to take a muscle relaxant before bed as it felt "spasmy", and slept well (for the first time in a while) and had been feeling pretty good since. Between these two things my hope is that I can feel like a semi-normal person again. I especially hope that I can go to Mexico and enjoy myself, sleep, and survive the travel days. I have an acupuncture appt. for the day before the flight there.

It was good to have someone really investigate my problem, not just throw pain meds at it. I've been sticking with ibuprofen because I have not been ready to graduate to narcotics, but there is no question that the ibuprofen raises my blood pressure and how good can almost 2 years of daily ibuprofen use be for my stomach? But narcotics have their own issues, so I am have been trying to find other ways to deal with this problem. I started daily stretching a few weeks ago and I think that is helping also. Maybe between all these things I will feel better. I can hope.