Day 4 The most disheartening thing a doctor told me...

[Urbanjourney]

After seeing so many clinicians throughout the first half of the year and getting frustrated at the lack of results I decided to book into a sports physician where my physio is located - they are difficult to get into and cost a lot of money but i felt he was the best person to see and try and work out if there was some other factor causing my symptoms (The physio centre i attended dealt with high level, paid sports people so that was part of my evidence as to why they could help me). I wanted him to specifically discuss the possibility of cluneal nerve entrapment or myofascial trauma (due to my boat accident which impacted that area very hard months before my main back injury) however it was clear when i got into his office, seeing my MRI on his screen that he was not interested in any other diagnosis. He simply said "There's no such thing as what you are saying and your issue is simply the L5-S1 facet joint arthritis on the left as that's where the symptoms are. You need to accept that once guys get over 50 this is just what happens and you just need to take 1 Naprosyn if the pain is not bad but if it's a bit worse take 2."
He then wrote me out a referral for another facet joint injection and that was that. I remember feeling so hopefuly going in then fully deflated and pissed off coming out, especially when paying the invoice.

I got home to my wife who was equally excited to hear what he'd said and I just broke down and thought "this is it for me for the rest of my life"

It has been difficult to shake this and i find it a bit triggering now even seeing or hearing the word 'facet'.
I know there are lots of people on here with disc related issues on their MRI but i need to search for those who have had facet arthritis as that will provide necessary evidence to hopefully banish this through from my head.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Dr Sarno specifically talks about this in "Healing Back Pain" - on facet joints (pg. 128) - "like all joints, they are subject to wear and tear (arthritis) and begin to look abnormal as we get along in years. It is believed that these changes cause pain in some patients. In my experience they do not."

And then on arthritis of the spine (which includes fact arthritis) - if it's osteoarthritis then he says the same thing in that in his experience it doesn't produce symptoms, rheumatoid arthritis is a different story.

 

[Urbanjourney]

Dr Sarno specifically talks about this in "Healing Back Pain" - on facet joints (pg. 128) - "like all joints, they are subject to wear and tear (arthritis) and begin to look abnormal as we get along in years. It is believed that these changes cause pain in some patients. In my experience they do not."

And then on arthritis of the spine (which includes fact arthritis) - if it's osteoarthritis then he says the same thing in that in his experience it doesn't produce symptoms, rheumatoid arthritis is a different story.

Thanks so much for the refresh Adam! I now remember seeing that.
It's amazing how I wasn't much of a reader prior to this and now i'm loving my daily and nightly ritual of consuming books on the topic like a locust!