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Self-Employed Louisville Man Can Barely Work Because Back Pain Is So Debilitating

Dr. Stephen Graham • October 19, 2022

Dr. Graham, a Louisville, Chiropractor, utilizes computerized chiropractic adjustments to correct problem

PATIENT PROFILE & HISTORY

WHO:

45 year old business man consulted with our chiropractic office for severe low back pain, that he describes as a 10 out of 10.

Past care:

OTC: Advil 6-10 a day.

SYMPTOMS:

Severe unrelenting pain in the middle of his lower back with pains radiating into the front of both thighs.

He was not aware of what brought this on, but revealed that he has had similar pains, although not nearly as painful or relenting as this is now, in the exact area for the last 2 years. He has been previously diagnosed with a ruptured disc at he L4-L5 level from an MRI.

These things made it worse:

THESE THINGS MADE IT WORSE:

Bending
Lifting
Sitting
Standing
Walking

EXAMINATION & TREATMENT

Chiropractic/orthopedic examinations:

Four (4) disc tests made his pain worse, including the cough test and straight leg raise
Bending forward and backwards was very limited and caused him great discomfort

X-Ray studies:

The side view of his lumbar spine was degenerated at multiple levels. See his x-ray below.

Working Diagnosis:

1. Degenerative discs L1-L5

2. Bulging disc at L3-L5-S1

3. Lumbar spinal stenosis

TREATMENT:

I treated him with computerized chiropractic adjustments. I set the force on the instrument to 400 Newtons (equivalent to 88 pounds of force). This is the optimum setting for the lumbar spine (back).

OUTCOME

PATIENT OUTCOME:

After 10 days of the computerized chiropractic adjustments he was at a 4 out of 10 on the pain scale. He still had pain down the legs.

After 30 days 80 % of his leg pain was gone.

After 60 days 80% of his back pain was gone and he still had anout 15% of his leg pains.

The 90 day examination revealed 90 % of his back and leg pain had left. He was doing well at work and getting through long days.

COMMENTS:

This was an unusual case as I am not used to seeing that much degeneration on a 45 year old man. I honestly did not think he would respond this well because of the lack of disc space and the arthritis that had set in.

This is yet another case where I had to be careful not to treat the x-ray. If I had done that I may have sent him for an MRI. This necessarily may not have been a bad thing, but I pretty much knew what we would find.

Many times people do very well even though they have what looks like a very bad x-ray or MRI. I am careful to refer these patients out, because many times the surgeon will look at the film and say it is a 7 mm bulge and it should be cut. However, I have seen plenty of these on MRI who responded well our computerized chiropractic adjustments and never had surgery. These people are still doing well after five years.

This is an example of this. This patient has been receiving chiropractic computerized adjustments 2 times a month to keep the spinal bones moving to prevent inflammation and increase blood flow to the intervertebral discs. This program of chiropractic adjustments has kept his back and leg pain away for the most part. as a side note has he not had to take even over-the -counter type drugs. in the long run this could potentially save his colon from bleeding stomach ulcers.

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