Crutches use!

I have had a foot injury which has required 5 surgical fusions over the past 5 and a half years. Most of this time I have had to use elbow crutches. About 2 years ago I started to get a lot of neck and lower back pain which I could only put down to using crutches, which a consultant surgeon initially agreed was a probably cause or aggravation of both the neck and lower back. I have had MRI scans done and they show for the lower back:
  Degenerate disc with broad based posterior bulge and small osteophytes and fairly florid facet join overgrowth bilaterally. These factors are causing significant crowding centrally and a degrees of central cord stenosis and also bilateral facet and right L4 foraminal  stenosis.
And for the neck:
   C5/6: Degenerate and slightly narrowed disc with broad based posterior disc bulge maximal in right paracentral position significantly effacing  CSF space around cord and causing slightly flattening of cord. No definite signal change within to suggest established myelopathy.
   C6/7: Again degenerate & narrowed disc; broad based posterior disc bulge which extends  out into proximal aspect both exit foramina. Is effacing CSF space around cord & causing slight cord flattening.

Can these findings be caused or aggravated by constant elbow crutch use and if so is there any way of proving it or at least saying with some medical certainty that this is in some part down to the constant use of crutches?

Many thanks

Robert Rollo

[AMG3369]

I have a lot of the same trouble with my back but not from crutches. The only thing keeping me on the square dance floor is my great chiropractor. Find a really good one with a Dr. in front of his name. He would probably have an answer to the crutches. They sure are not helping the problem.