Collapsed lumbar vertebrae

[Lith]

I had a phone call from someone that says she has a collapsed vertebrae in her lumbar spine.

She has scoliosis in her spine, she couldn't say what type. She suffers from sporadic lower back pain all through the lumbar region, sometimes shooting into her hip and down her thigh. She might have very little pain for a few months before it flares up again, and she can be in a lot of pain for a while. She has been told by the doctor that they can't do anything other than suggest exercises and provide pain relief.

Our training the UK isn't as wide-ranging as yours in the US, and there are no remedial therapists in this area.

Any thoughts as to the suitability of massage in this instance? I explained that if the pain was muscular then massage could be of benefit, and it sound to me quite likely that the pain could be muscle based. Would there be any issues on working the erector spinae either side of the collapsed vertebrae? I suspect QL's are involved due to where she said the pain was located, but as I haven't physically seen her yet I can't say for sure.

Thanks.

 

[m y]

Did she have surgery to correct this vertebrae? If not, I wouldn't touch her, and there is nothing you can do for her pain. If this is post surgical pain, then that is a different story. But a collapsed vertebrae means that it is severe nerve pain that is causing this to happen to her.

 

[daydreambeliever]

I try not to answer in the I-I-P-P section too often, even though I work with a number of complicated problems. Mainly because I think each case can be more complicated than what an indivudual will post on the forums.

But, I'll say a few things on this:

You need to know why the vertebrae collapsed and what has been done thus far to "alleviate" and/or "fix" the problem.

Is it a pathological fracture or collapse due to an osteoporotic vertebrae?

Is it something else?

Get an ok from her physician and speak to him/her (physician) if possible.

I recently worked on a client with a similar problem. He wa sbrought to my by his son. He was in his mid-80's. So much pain and on all sorts of pain meds, along with having the vertebrae "glued" and "caged". The best I could do was work the severely spastic muscles. Unfortunately there was no relief and it was so very difficult for him to get on the table. Add to this a language barrier (he spoke Chinese - so I used the son as interpreter).

I would work on another client like this - but in his specific instance I felt it better to refer him to a Feldenkrais practitioner. He never went, but since Feldenkrais can work with people in pain in a different method, I feel it would have at least been worth the try.

I do hope that helps somewhat.

 

[Lil Dude Eats Tinkerbell]

Having had 2 collapsed vertebrea (compression fractures) in my lumbar spine from a horseback riding accident, I can tell you that the majority of pain was from the fracture site. No amount of bodywork during the healing phase (4-6 weeks) took the pain away, though it did help with the secondary spasming. The original post failed to mention how far post- fracture the client was. Just my 2 cents.