my dr. is wanting me to take p.t. i\'m just wondering if anyone has done it and did it help. i have had epidurals and facet joint injections and the did nothing.

I have had PT for my back. It does help, they started slow and built up and the main thing is you have to do the exercises at home as many times as they tell you to or you are just wasting your time and money. My back was injured pretty ba. I could not do a lot and should have waited until the muscle spasms were not so awful. I do the exercises still but have found inversion therapy and DMSO mixed with my back spray, along with herbal supplements do the most for my pain. Inversion therapy is not for everyone, but worked slick for me and I continue to use it as needed. The Teeter Inversion tables are available on eBay and Home Shopping Network. If you live in a city you can probably buy them locally. Best purchase I ever made. I continue to heal. DMSO can be purchased at the health food outlets. I prefer the purest I can get in glass bottles.

PT is definitely worth trying. it addresses the logical cause of most back pain, which are the various muscle groups in the upper and lower back as well as the upper legs and neck. a good PT can really help, and can teach long-term methods of dealing with chronic pain by retraining posture, stride, movement, etc.

PT has never helped me but it obviously works for other people. I go to a chiropractor often but I\'ve stopped because it gets quite expensive. I suggest accupuncture which you don\'t have to have as often and has worked for me, and needles only pinch.

it didnt work for me either. they told me i should stick with it for atleast six months but it made my back pain so much worse i couldnt concentrate on anything else but the pain. the doctors told me it was all in my head and did nothing. i need to find a new doctor. none seem to care. but the PT they made me do obviously didnt help at all.

Didn\'t help me and I tried it twice.
And I\'ll never try it again.
I use to have days when my back didn\'t hurt me but not anymore.

Sarah

I have two bulging discs, one in the thorasic(sp?)region and one in the lumbar region. I tried PT for 6 months and it helped considerably! However, like someone else said you have to be faitful and do the exercises at least twice a day at home. They don't take much time but as we all know it is so easy to find other things to do beside exercise.;) But,when I did them religiously I went from having pain shooting down my leg to having only a little pain in my buttock. If your doctor has recommended PT for you do yourself a favor and try it. Good luck Doug!!

I have had PT (physiotherapy is australia) for my back, L4/L5 disc prolapse and L5/S1 disc bulge.
It definately helped me. I found a sport and spinal PT who helped me like a personal trainer. Initially he gave me gentle exercises. This was combined with another PT who worked in a hydrotherapy pool in a hospital who gave me another exercise program. I religiously did the exercises I was told to do as often and for as long as I was told to do them. This continued for some time.

My PT had a hands off approach he hardly ever did manipulative therapy on me, instead focusing on specific exercises I was to do to get myself better. This continued to be his approach for the entire duration I've known him - he gave me directions to take up more walking, to do pilates. I feel deeply indebted to my PT, he helped me to recover from one of the worst points of my life. I have a deep abiding respect for the independance he has given me. Highly recommended as a work hard but lasting solution to my condition.

Prior to meeting my good PT - recommended to me by a good doctor (not all doctors are equal either) I had two bad PT's.

One let me deny the seriousness of my injury by treating me with manipulative physical therapy. I got into a dependant relationship with this PT and relied on weekly appointments to 'fix' the pain. The second bad PT talked to me more confrontingly about my injury but continued to do manipulative physical therapy. Again I ended up in a dependant relationship with the second PT, where I was ok only if I saw her regularly.

The problem for me was mainly due to the approach the PT's used - they used manipulation instead of telling me exercises to get stronger. But also I wasnt applying myself to the exercises I should do - so I was at fault too. It ended up being really bad before I realised I would have to do the work.

Hope that helps.

Didnt work for me either, infact I have had it a few times and it only seemed to make it worse. But that just might be coz I am in the uk.

I have much more sucess with an oesteopath and Pilates lessons.

I have had two spinal fusions, and chronic back pain for 30 years, many times treated with PT. Never helped me, and at times I tought it made things worse. Waste of my time. There were times I would leave in severe pain, and cry all the way home. The doctor thought I was a nut case.

Great things are done here.