Should I Get An MRI Of My Lower Back?
I have had lower back pain for about 6 months now. My doctor first sent me to physical therapy. The PT said I have a "Hyper Extended Vertebra" in L-5. We do the exercises and I do the exercises he told me to do at home. There is still no relief. The pain is still concentrated in the lower back area toward the middle. Lately I have also had a bit of soreness and pressure to the left side of it. It extremely painful waking up in the morning and if I walk for more then an hour.
My doctor reccomends the next step is to get an MRI. He is not 100% sure if the problem is skeletal or muscle. He claims that an MRI can see both and may be able to detect what is wrong. I am just very skeptical about it because of the cost. We have insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield) but of course, everything is expensive to begin with. I don’t want to be too much of a burden on my family. I have just entered college and that was hard enough.
Do you think this is needed? I mean yes, I do have lots of pain and it hasn’t gotten any better. So I’m not sure what to do…
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Yes, if your physical therapy is not working, then it is time to get an MRI. THe MRI can see more than an X-ray, including the discs, muscles, and nerves in your back. Do this now, and establish a payment plan if you have to, because this just could help you avoid much more costly treatments down the road.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 amI have had chronic spasms in my back for years, and I have gone to therapy here and there to relieve it. I went YEARS with local back pain/spasms only. In 2001, I started to have numbness and burning pain in my right leg. I ignored it because it seemed to get better, but I had episodes of muscle spasms and nerve pain/numbness in the leg off and on. I continued to ignore it, until it caught up with me. I got the MRI done, found out that I have a condition called spondylolistesis, which is a vertebra that has slipped out of place and over the vertebra below it. In my case, the slippage was minor but it was causing compression of my L5 nerve root. I had three injections that partially worked, and these can get expensive too. I had to go to physical therapy, which partially worked. I wound up having fusion and laminectomy surgery this past July, which is causing me to be out of work, and is also costing MUCH more money in hospital in-patient copayments! The moral to the story? If I took care of this when it started, I probally would be working right now, instead of sitting here in a full upper torso brace, with my walker next to me. I also would have much more money in my checking and savings account!
Getting the MRI done will also allow the doctor and your physical therapist to create a more customized and precise treatment for you, if needed, which has many non-surgical, conservative options that involve little or no downtime. If there is nothing wrong, then you will have peace of mind, which will be a relief for you.
In short, you need the MRI. It could save you thousands of dollars and pain down the road.
Good luck!
it’s cheaper to get it checked now and treat it, than to get it checked when it is worse and have a worse recovery.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 amYou’re in lots of pain, and the Dr wants to do a test that, while expensive, does read both bone and soft tissue to find out exactly what is wrong, and you are not sure what to do so you are asking random strangers. Do you really think we know better than the Dr. If you don’t find out what the problem is then it will just get worse and may lead to permanent damage. Get the MRI
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 am