bulging disk, disk dessication, and annual tear, workers compensation?
Question by flower: bulging disk, disk dessication, and annual tear, workers compensation?
I am been dealing with workers compensation for over 2 yr regarding my neck and upper back. The only treatment i am receiving right now is Chiro. Due to the horrific pain I went in to my own personal physician to seek help for the pain. I was referred out to have an MRI done which show i have 2 bulging disk in my neck at c5/c7 which flatten the cervical spinal cord causing mild central canal stenosis and mild bilateral neural foraminal narrowing, left greater than right. .Which is anyone can explain that line above i would appreciate that .I also have a annual tear in my lumbar that was also discover thru the MRI’s and was told by QME doctor that since this was not a complaint when i filed a claim although it was discover now thru the mri’s just as the bulging disk also. He said I have to handle my lumbar issue on my own. Can any respond on that? Why one i have workers comp doctors treating my for one part of my back and my personal dr treating me for my lumbar? I know the injuries occured on the job. It sounds like to many hand in the same pot. I dont feel comfortable have to different people working on my back. Is is okay for me to seek an orthopedic surgeon to seek the best treatment? Workers comp want to send me to a pain management doctor to seek epidural first to see if that works with my pain then if not then the next step would be surgery. When i go in to see the ortho speicalist will he see me since it is workers comp injury? Since he specialize in this i feel he would be able to give me more on my issue than when i get in to see the pain management doctor for workers comp. Is is wrong seeking help thru my private insurance since i have not getting anywhere yet with workers comp. I am waiting my qme report for a referral to the pain management.
Best answer:
Answer by bgh
Find an orthopedic surgeon….preferably one that specializes in back and spine
Not sure where you live, but if you live in TX by chance there is a wonderful Dr. McDonough (works with workers Comp) and he is one of the top 5 back surgeons in the US. He has done back surgery on my husband, and we were very pleased with the outcome. Go to this website and you can get some answers to your questions. www.spineabilene.com
as for being injured and on workers comp. you have to stand your ground and fight for yourself, sometimes it pays to get an attorney involved. Document everything for your records if dealing with workers comp…they can be down right dirty. Best wishes!!! I know you are in alot of pain and agony!! Hang in there!! Hopefully that will help
TH from TX
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First things first, in medical circles it is thought, that the best predictor of recovery from neck injuries, is litigation. In other words, knowing that a payout depends on your injury will negatively influence your recovery – if you let it! The flip side of that is that the ability to recover is partly down to treatment, but mostly within the ability of your own body to heal the damage, providing it is allowed to (that sentence covers a lot, not enough space here).
I take it you understand the disc bulge? Flattening of cervical spinal cord means that the bulges are pressing on the cord in the neck – a very undesireable situation, but not necessarily as nasty as it sounds. I can’t judge that from here. Central canal stenosis means that the tube that the cord occupies is effectively narrowed by the disc bulges. What may be at risk is cord damage and neurological problems below the neck, again I can’t evaluate this here.
Annular (not annual) tear means damage to the structure of the disc, in this case low back, and it can lead to a disc bulge. However, these are quite common, many people have them and do not realise.
But it is very hard to imagine how both spinal problems are completely unrelated. Firstly they may have common cause. But also, they are mechanically related – arch your low back and feel your neck respond: wave your head from side to side and feel your pelvis shift beneath.
The head is like a melon waving around on a stick. The bottom of the stick is the lumbar spine: imagine the stress it goes through dealing with problems in the neck. The opposite is true, the alignment of the neck depends on the behaviour of the foundations below. This might be hard to prove in a legal case, but conceptually I would sincerely hope that a chiropractor and/or orthopaedic surgeon would give credence to the notion. So I don’t get why your chiropractor wouldn’t deal with the low back while he’s dealing with the neck – it’s part of the problem, and so are all the bits in between. Hence the treatment must be comprehensive and coherent.
Then there is the context of the problem – if this is an occupational injury, much depends on what steps had been taken before and after. If the environmental causes have not been addressed, recovery is likely to be poor, but the converse is also true, these are things that can be changed, and it doesn’t take a surgeon! Furthermore, very few problems have a single cause, some of this will be down to your own circumstances, otherwise everyone who did your job would have identical problems. It may be possible to change those personal circumstances too, but you need help identifying them.
As for pain – pain is your body’s way of saying there’s a problem. It’s also natures instruction to you to avoid something, or to do something else. So if epidural is proposed, it could be that’s because the rest of the problem has got them all stumped.
So I don’t know what legal or practical problems there are. And I can’t offer specific advice as I am not a practitioner in the US and you’re not my patient. But I’d say there is more than one way to see this problem, and if recovery is your priority, I’d suggest you shop around for other answers.
Good luck.