My lady friend has had a consistent back pain.

She has gone to chiropractors and orthopedists. Today she had an appointment and they finally decided to take an xray. After reviewing the xray he told her that she has three of her discs that are "deteriorating".

A brief history:

1. She is a ballet dancer
2. She broke her back when she was 16
3. She has scoliosis (sp)
4. For about 2 years she was holding her hips wrong while dancing. So significantly that she was having serious back pain from that.
5. SHe paints the inside and outside of houses for her "day job".

Anyone know if there is some serious disease that is related to disc deterioration? Anyone have any similar situations? Anyone know a good orthopedist?

I guess it depends a little bit on what they mean by "deteriorating." Problems with the discs are really common, though. Some people get a lot of pain from it. Some don't. About 60% of people with low back pain will get better pretty quickly with conservative therapy, which is basically anti-inflammatory pain meds like advil or aleve and exercises. The exercises are really important, though.

But anyway, it's not usually associated with any particular "disease."

This handout is pretty good, but it doesn't include a lot of the exercises for the quads and hamstrings that I think are pretty important for back pain:

http://familydoctor.org/117.xml


As with any free advice, take all that with a grain of salt. It's just my opinion.

Don't sweat it. It's probably just Dexter.

One of my co-workers has had spinal surgery twice in a year due to degenerative discs. He could have them fused, but then would never be able to do anything really physical again.
With the scoliosis and previous back injury, she's lucky she is still walking upright. How old is she? I know that when I received my spinal brace for Kyphosis at age 17, those being treated for similar spinal disorders such as scoliosis and lordosis had much more complicated braces and more prone to surgery.

St. Jock?

She was 17 when she had her original back fracture. I spoke with her briefly tonight and saying she broke her back was incorrect. It was "just" a fracture. So, in that respect, it is a bit less severe of an injury. It kept her immoble for a couple months.

I am worried that the deterioration/degeneration of her discs is more serious than a series of injuries and poor posture. I am praying it isn't because having to do the fusing business is pretty career ending for a dancer. She is going to talk to her orthopedist soon and possibly get an MRI and a better opinion on the issue than her chiropractor gave.

I am not sure how severe her scoliosis is. It was diagnosed, but to my knowledge she had no major surgeries or anything for it.

She's in The Nutcracker in a couple months. She's sweating it a little.

how does a ballerina have bad posture. isn't good posture, like, kind of an essential part of ballet dancing?

"posture" was a summed up version of the previously mentioned bit about holding her hips wrong when dancing. Technically, that is part of her posture. At least her dance posture. Everything all cleared up for you now?