Tens of millions of Americans deal with back pain on a regular basis, but that doesn’t mean that it is normal to experience chronic back pain as you get older. If you have back pain that continues to linger despite your best efforts, it’s time to rethink your care plan so that you can find a path to relief. In today’s blog, we share what steps you should take if your back pain isn’t responding to current treatments.
When Back Pain Treatments Aren’t Working
Back pain is unique to the individual, so what works for one person may not work for others, but with that said, there is a kind of general flowchart for how to approach back pain treatment depending on the methods you’ve already pursued. We’re going to go in order of what the next steps might look like based on the methods you’ve already tried to treat your back pain. For example, let’s say that you injured your back and have done nothing to proactively treat it, and a week or two down the road you are still dealing with spine pain. Here’s a look at how you may benefit from pivoting treatments until you find symptom relief.
- Light Exercise/Stretching/PT – If you’ve done nothing and are still dealing with back ailments, your first move before connecting with a specialist may be to try some gentle exercises and physical therapy movements. You can find some general exercise or PT guidelines online based on the issue you believe you’re dealing with, just make sure the site you choose to get your information from is reputable. Controlled activity and exercise is a great way to help strengthen areas that have been weakened by stress or injury that are causing pain.
- Confirm Diagnosis – If those treatments don’t work, your next step will likely be to connect with a professional. You can turn to your primary care physician, a physical therapist or a spine specialist for direction. They will work to confirm an accurate diagnosis and set you up with a recovery program tailored to your specific needs. This may involve a combination of exercise, physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, manual manipulation or a corticosteroid injection.
- Adherence To Recommendations – If your doctor’s recommendations aren’t working, we want you to really consider how well you are following their instructions. Are you exercising as recommended? Are you following updated diet protocols? Are you giving it your all during physical therapy? If you’ve really followed through on your doctor’s orders, you can move onto the next step, but if you’ve been slacking a bit, we encourage you to really focus on making all the adjustments recommended by your provider.
- Second Opinion – If, despite your best efforts with your doctor’s care plan, you still haven’t found the relief you seek, it’s time to seek out a second opinion. Perhaps the second professional will see something the first didn’t, or they’ll come up with a different plan to treat the issue. If both providers are seeing the same thing, it may be time to consider a more hands-on approach to treatment.
- Second Doctor Recommendations/Surgery – If the second professional has recommended a different course of conservative treatments, follow their instructions and again be sure to give it your all during your rehab exercises. If these still don’t produce the right results, then it’s time to move onto the last resort in terms of treatment, which is surgery. Surgery is designed to directly address the root cause of discomfort, and while it is typically very effective, it does carry additional risks compared to conservative treatment, which is why it is usually avoided if at all possible. After surgery, you’ll jump back up a few levels on this list and pursue some common conservative treatment techniques as you progress through your recovery program.
The vast majority of individuals with spine pain find relief somewhere along this timeline, and we’re confident we can help provide the same relief to you. For more information, or for questions about any one of these treatments, give Dr. Sinicropi and the team at The Midwest Spine & Brain Institute a call today at (651) 430-3800.
