home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!emory!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.columbia.edu!cunixb.cc.columbia.edu!stone
- From: stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Glenn Stone)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Lower back treatments
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.165640.4471@news.columbia.edu>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 16:56:40 GMT
- Article-I.D.: news.1993Jan27.165640.4471
- Sender: usenet@news.columbia.edu (The Network News)
- Reply-To: stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Glenn Stone)
- Organization: Columbia University
- Lines: 29
- Nntp-Posting-Host: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
-
- I need information on the differences in how different categories of
- physicians approach back problems. I hurt my back in the lower lumbar
- area playing squash. It's definitely not just a muscle strain.
-
- I talked to a rehab doctor who told me to stay away from orthopedic
- surgeons, and to see a rehab doctor like himself, who would either
- give the treatment necessary or instruct a therapist on what was
- needed. I asked my internist to refer me to whoever he thought
- appropriate, and he gave me some stretching exercises himself and said
- he'd send me to a therapist if that didn't work (it didn't). I talked
- to a (non-surgeon) neurologist who said to stay away from
- neurosurgeons, that he was the best person, and that what he couldn't
- fix would be taken care of by a rehab doctor. Someone also suggested
- a chiropractor, "unless there's something seriously wrong".
-
- We all agree that the next step is an MRI but I have to decide who I'm
- going to do it with. I'm leaning towards the neurologist (partly
- because I know him socially and he's a good guy), but I would
- appreciate any information or insights that may help me choose and/or
- evaluate the treatment I'm getting. For instance, are there
- characteristic patterns in the diagnoses you get from these different
- categories of doctors? Are there problems that one category tends to
- treat even though it should be referred to someone else?
-
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Glenn Davis Stone BITNET: stone@cunixf
- Columbia University INTERNET: stone@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-