Disc degeneration pain

Primarily lower back pain. However, if a disk is failing or calcifying and is impinging on nerves, your pain will be located in the area dictated by which nerves are affected. Search Google Images for a DERMATOME MAP. This picture associates each nerve exiting the spine with pain in a particular part of the body. Example: I'm currently dealing with severe pain in my left hip, lower back and lower abdominals. The Dermatome Map says that all this pain relates to L1 in the spine. Just had the myelogram done. Guess what? L1/L2 is compressed hitting the nerves associated with my pain. Bi-lateral stenosis (compression of the foraminal canals the nerve roots run through) can show up as pain and weakness in the legs. If the sciatic nerve is pinched, it could cause severe pain on one side of your lower back, through the glutes and down your leg. Very common.

Question... How do you know if it's disk degeneration pain other than your hips being out of alignment and causing all sorts of pain in your lower body? IMHO, your first step is chiropractic to assure yourself that alignment is not the problem. Then you see a neurosurgeon who will do x-rays and an MRI to get a better look at your spine. If the doc determines that it really is DDD, he may start you off with PT and/or pain injections. If those don't work, a CT/Myelogram usually precedes surgery as that test renders the best spinal images.

If a disk is impinging on a nerve, the op is a simple decompressive laminectomy (I've had two) which is a quick, same-day procedure. I have found that shaving back a calcified disk and freeing up the nerve results in a huge drop in pain which then completely goes away in a week as the irritated nerve returns to normal. Best case for stenosis is a one-level LLIF (Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion) procedure. One night in the hospital, no brace, no rehab. Worst case is a multi-level TLIF fusion of screws, rails, and spacers resulting in a week of hospitalization, 4 months of rehab, 6 months in a brace. After any of these procedures, you should be pain free and good to go. (Yes...I've had all of them...)

Find the root cause of your pain and fix it. Sometimes, all you need is PT/chiropractic. Pain shots only mask the pain and do nothing for the underlying cause. The correct surgery plus a skilled neuro will be your last stop.

Hi Charcey,

Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) can manifest in all sorts of different symptoms, and can also manifest in different locations (surprising locations you might not imagine).

It might be better if you described your symptoms, because right now you haven't mentioned if your symptoms are upper or lower back, so there is a pretty large range of symptoms that could occur from disc problems anywhere on the spine.

One thing I would mention though, and I've seen this in a number of my younger, healthier friends. It is possible for an otherwise healthy person to hurt or strain their back and to then become worried that they have suddenly "damaged" their back in some way, such that they will now have chronic problems. And aggravating that feeling is the fact that even for healthy people, an acute injury or strain to the back can take upwards of six weeks or so to heal (hence people tend to think I MUST have injured my back permanently, this isn't going away!).

In point of fact it can be difficult sometimes (without extensive testing) to decide whether you have just strained your back or whether you are actually experiencing disk degeneration, at least right after some kind of injury or flare-up. One rule of thumb (and this isn't hard and fast, but it's been true for me) is that if your back is really damaged, the symptoms will be felt elsewhere in your body other than your back. I knew, for example, that my back problems had gotten serious when suddenly I wasn't feeling all that much back pain anymore, but suddenly I had round the clock pain in my butt, my thigh, my calf and eventually even my foot. Seems like the more serious the problem is, the further away from your spine the symptoms tend to show up.

So tell us what you are feeling, where it is, how long you have felt it, etc. I'm not a medical professional but I've been down this road a long time, I can share with you my experiences...

Thank you to both of you for your replies.

Here's my symptoms:

-Tenderness in the area of T5-T7. Almost like someone is taking a knuckle to that area of my back and pressing hard. Worse when I twist or bend.

-Aching that seems to originate from that area.

-Pain subsides when sleeping/laying down.

The only testing Ive had done is thoracic and lumbar xrays which showed disc degeneration in those areas. I've also heard facet joint syndrome mentioned. I've had back pains off and on over the years, but Ive never experienced these types of symptoms. Its not excruciating by any means, but the discomfort is weird to say the least.

HELLO CHARCEY97,

I WAS KIND OF THROWN WHEN I READ YOUR POST, BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BEST ONE THAT CAN TELL HOW IT FEEL. HOWEVER, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU SAW A DR. OR NOT. BUT THE PAIN IS MAINLY IN YOU LOWER BACK, IT HURTS TO WALK AND MOVE, HARD TO GET IN AND OUT OF THE CAR, LONG RIDES GIVE YOU PAIN, AND SOME HAVE PAIN IN THERE LEGS. STANDING IN LONG PERIODS HURT, AND EVEN WALKING BOTHERS YOU. SOMETIME HEAT OR COLD PACKS HELP. TO BE HONEST, PEOPLE HAVE SEVERAL DIFFERENT PAIN.

YOU NEED TO GO AND SEE A PAIN DR. HAVE A MRI, TO MAKE SURE IT'S YOUR DISK IN YOUR BACK, AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU. BUT THE DR. IS GOING TO ASK YOU WHERE YOUR PAIN IS.

I HOPE THIS HELP YOU SOME AND GOOD LUCK!

I should also mention I have been dealing with some low back pain off and on over three months...exactly described as some of you above. Can't sit or stand for long periods without it hurting. Long car rides aren't fun. Chiropractor said I have some degeneration in low back, but nothing worrisome. Low back seems to be better as of this week, but still dealing with the thoracic area (which is a very different discomfort altogether). I'm in PT per my doctor's orders and then we seek out MRI after that.

I just thought I would ask if anyone has experienced the mid back stuff like I described because I hadn't heard it before.