lumbar spine lower section

[dorothy308]

my husband has a growing lesion on a vertabrae on his mid lower back he has been tested with biopsies 3x's all 3 were inconclusive. he has been treated with steroids that has caused his face and stomach areas to grow extremely large. the doctor has just winged him off the steroids and for the pass four days he has been in pain. please tell me what you think he may be dealing with. i asked him to go to the e.r. but he states that he can tolerate the pain for now.


This discussion is related to Spinal Lesion - Anxiety and Treatment.

[ggreg]

Well, maybe a spinal block type shot, which works for varying periods of time.  And if he can get cleared for physical therapy, that will help.  Driving in a car for long periods of time for me, which I have a back injury, bothers me a lot.  He might can get one of those roller ball type seat cushions, maybe.  I have a vibrating seat cushion that helps, but it goofs up the vision...  Sorry, guess you need a spinal lesion answer on this one.  I hope somone else will respond on treatment for that, like surgery, so this post will bump up now to the top again.

[dorothy308]

thank you gregg for your input. but i believe one of the reasons he hasn,t put my husband on something different then steroids is because he drives a truck and he & I  don't want him to get into an accident. Driving under  pain meds can be very dangerous

[ggreg]

I don't know anything about the long-term effect of a lesion on spinal nerves, but I do know a little about steroids.  The reason he has pain now is because the steroid dose has been lowered.  Steroids lessen pain.  Steroids also sometimes cause the face to enlarge like his has, it's one of the side effects.  Steroids also treat inflammation and thus can also shrink swellings, which would in some cases help his pain, because the lesion might get smaller for a while with steroids and therefore not push on the spinal nerves so much.

But there are so many additional treatments for the pain associated with his lesion, besides just steroids.  A doctor should be prescribing different stuff to give him some pain relief.  He should not have to live with this pain.  I know how back pain feels, it really ruins your day, your attitude, your whole life, so he has really got to be put on something to help with that.  If you have to go to another doctor or whatever, do it soon.  Sure, he says he can live with it, he doesn't want to bother anybody, but gee whiz, why?  

I also know that physical therapy or even just simple careful stretching exercises at home will help in general, to perhaps increase blood circulation to the site of the lesion, keep up muscle strength so as to maybe take dead-weight pressure off the spine, and even free up some jammed-up nerves.  But a doctor or PT specialist should supervise this sort of thing, because I myself tried some yoga at home one time, and, for a little while anyway, I made my back worse!  So, I won't be doing that by myself anymore.  Just do stretches that don't hurt or push the body too far...mostly it's to keep flexibility, blood flow, and muscle tone as good as possible, so as to give the nerves a break.

One other thing I do that helps my back not hurt so much is to lay flat on the floor and put my legs up in a chair or on the couch or an ottoman, let my arms fall out to my side, and it takes all the weight off the spine.  Just be careful getting back up, roll over to the side and then into a dog position, hang onto something to get up.  If his back gets to bothering him too much, he can try that.  Also, heat always helps pain, like a little heating pad or even a hot water bottle wrapped in a tea towel, put it on there, and it will help.  

But in general, I think your husband ought to be given ordinary pain treatment with opiates of some kind, it's not fair that he is suffering while the docs decide what to do about the lesion, if anything.