Chronic Thoracic Condition

I'm an otherwise healthy and formerly very athletic young man (33).  I've had a chronic thoracic back condition for the past eight years.  Its origin is unknown (but possibly from an injury).  An MRI taken eight years ago revealed a bulging disc.  A recent MRI taken two years ago revealed no bulging disc.  Over the years, I've tried most everything I could to cure this problem - orthopedic care, physical therapy, chiropractic care, epidural injections, stretching, vitamins, etc...  My passion in life was basketball.  I've had to give up basketball and other physical activities because when I engage in these activities, my back goes into spasm, which is very painful and debilitating.

My orthopedic doctor has basically said that this is a non-operable condition and there is not much I can do about it.  My back recently went out again from stretching in my sleep.  I'm thoroughly frustrated.  

I would really appreciate hearing thoughts on anything I could do at this point, or a specialist who might be able to offer a solution.

[ggreg]

I have a thoracic spine problem from a car accident, compression fractures of three vertebrae there, discs vaporized and the bones fused more or less.  On X-ray, it looks like a bunch of rocks.  All my life I've had this profound aching, spasming, and sometimes pain so bad I have to lay down immediately.  So, years into this thing, I found a trick that has helped me many, many times to get that hurt to stop.

This won't make it stop forever, this just will make it stop for the rest of the day.  You get down on the floor and lay your calves up on a couch or in a chair, scoot up close so your upper legs are perpendicular to the floor, and clasp the back of your neck and roll yourself out flat, then let your arms fall to the side.  This takes all the weight off your back.  Just lay there around five minutes.  Eventually you'll realize all the pain is gone from your back.  Get up carefully, and in nearly every case, the discomfort will leave you for the rest of the day and until the next time.

If I had not learned this trick, I would have still be having people rub out my back every time it hurt.  The doc says it's inoperable because getting to the thoracic spine involves going through the chest, not an easy proposition.  You might benefit from some sort of back brace, could be it will allow you to do more activities, altho it's not good to use all the time or your muscles will weaken.  Also, I still do one of my physical therapy exercises, which is to pull my arms back to tighten those back muscles between the shoulder blades, then release, just a few times whenever I get ready to do some exercise.

I feel for you, I know exactly how awful that thoracic pain is.  Now, I've got this sharp pain in my lumbar spine, and while it hurts powerful bad, the thoracic pain is dreadful, deep and scary, hard to describe unless you've been there.  No medicine I take touches it... I take a mild opiate and a nerve pain medicine, neither helps it, even tho they help other pains.  Well, I hope it helps to know somebody else feels what you got, and I really hope laying flat on the floor with your legs in a chair will do the trick whenever things get out of control.