As I mentioned in my some goals for 2010 post, I have been suffering from chronic back pain for nearly 5 years since an injury at work, and I am simply fed up with it. I don’t want to be in pain nearly all of the time anymore so I made finding a cure for my back pain one of my goals for this year and it’s time to get started.

Doing some research I have come to the conclusion that I certainly have sciatic nerve pain, as well as a sore disc. I can feel the disc in my back, when I apply pressure it hurts (more) on one specific disc in my lower back. The disc may or may not be bulging or herniated. I don’t care if it is or isn’t herniated, it’s fixing the pain that I am worried about. I think a lot of people get too hung up on words like ‘bulging’ or ‘herniated’ and let it defeat them without even knowing it. The same way someone might let a cancer diagnoses defeat them mentally and therefore physically, they see it as hopeless and give up before they even have a chance to beat it. So to me whether the disc is herniated or not doesn’t make a difference, the point is that I am going to fix it.

I have already tried chiropractic and physio therapy treatments for the back pain, as well as deep tissue massage through physio therapy. None of those treatments worked for me. In fact, I think chiropractic made my back weaker over time and did more harm than good. I am not going to try either of those methods to fix my back this time as I have already tried and failed. Instead, I have been doing some research on other methods. I think I will likely book an acupuncture appointment soon, I have never been to an acupuncturist but I have heard good results for back pain, so I might try that soon. I am also going to be trying a few other things that I have found online and will be studying up on muscle imbalances as well.

When you go to the doctor about back pain they will often give you the same old sheet of generic stretches to do and if you have back pain like me, you know that those stretches don’t fix the pain. That’s because they are not specific to whatever your particular problem is. I have diagnosed myself with sciatica after doing a bunch of research on different types of back pain. I’m confident with my self diagnoses and began searching for more information on sciatic stretches. I found one that has really been helping me a lot. If you’re interested in seeing the stretch, then click here.

I have also found a product which I plan on buying as soon as I can afford one, and I will do a review of it after I have done so, but I want to let you know about it now in case anyone else is interested in getting one. It’s called Nubax, and it’s an alternative to inversion therapy tables. These products aid in spinal decompression which takes the pressure off of the discs in your spine and allows nourishing and healing fluids to move into the decompressed discs, helping to alleviate pain and begin the healing process for any “slipped”, bulging, or herniated discs. I think I like the idea of the Nubax over the inversion tables mainly for space, but also because I don’t like being upside down very much. Once I get the Nubax I will do a review of the product and how it helps with the back pain.

As I progress with curing my back pain I will keep updating with new posts about it and any new discoveries I make.