Any doctors on this forum.......

nah - I was tested for that when I did the bone scan. I think it is actually muscular and not in my back but my, buttock.

Both me and my other half have had bad backs in recent years and we have both been fixed by firstly visiting a good chiropractor and then a sports therapist.
If your skeleton is slightly out of alignment then your muscles tense up to try to lock down that part of your body. The chiropractor can put you back into the right shape but you need to get a sports therapist to give you a deep massage to get all the knots and tension out of the muscles or the tension in the muscles will pull you back out of shape. The sports therapist will then set you up an exercise program to build strength into any weak muscles around your back which will help stop the problem coming back.
It's hard work, and be warned expensive but at the end of he day you can't put a price on your health.

If you do go to a chiropractor, osteopath or sports therapist try to get a recomendation for a good one. Personal recomendation counts for everything when trying to pick somebody relating to healthcare.

best of luck

Stewart

I have just been seaking to a chiropractor, something I haven't yet tried and he mentioned the piriformis could be the issue here........might give him a try. I do take on board the recommendation thing though. Thanks

Originally Posted by krhall

I have just been seaking to a chiropractor, something I haven't yet tried and he mentioned the piriformis could be the issue here........might give him a try. I do take on board the recommendation thing though. Thanks

I get piriformis syndrome. It affects my hip and leg, rather than my back. This stretch can help a lot:
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/piri.2.html

There's some useful information on the net if you google for it.

The chiropractor that I went to was awful - expensive and using cult-like mind-control techniques to try to keep you coming back and paying. And they were calling themselves 'Doctors' without medical degrees, which I believe is illegal. I went to a very good osteopath, but she couldn't do a lot about the piriformis. I ended up seeing a specialist, who didn't really suggest much except suggest the above stretch and refer me to a physiotherapist. The physio did help a lot and it's been nowhere as bad since.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

I And they were calling themselves 'Doctors' without medical degrees, which I believe is illegal.

They may have 'bought' themselves an MD or more likely a PhD from somewhere disreputable .

Originally Posted by Dr Rich

They may have 'bought' themselves an MD or more likely a PhD from somewhere disreputable .

They were displaying their qualifications - Batchelors degrees in Chiropractic (one of them may have had a Masters). I don't believe that they entitle anyone to call themselves Doctor, which they were.

I went to see a chiropractor and she did a great job sorting my back out, my brother went to see a different chiropractor and the guy told him he would need 5 courses of treatment at £30 a pop without even looking at him.

As with everything you get good ones and bad ones.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

They were displaying their qualifications - Batchelors degrees in Chiropractic (one of them may have had a Masters). I don't believe that they entitle anyone to call themselves Doctor, which they were.

I *think* you can call yourself what you like, as long as there is no intention to mislead or defraud. Which it would seem here there would be, as if in any medical or quasi-medical profession you call yourself Doctor, people expect you to be a ...Doctor. I would report them.

Originally Posted by barryrs

I went to see a chiropractor and she did a great job sorting my back out, my brother went to see a different chiropractor and the guy told him he would need 5 courses of treatment at £30 a pop without even looking at him.

As with everything you get good ones and bad ones.

Thats very true in the case of a lot of alternative paramedicine, from what I can work out. I'm sure the good ones dispair at the bad ones bringing the 'profession' into direpute. As with real doctor's as well.

Sorry to hear aboutpeople's ailments here. I am not a medical doctor although I do have more than a passing interest in gynaecology if that is any help?