A very good friend has had horrific back pain for 8 weeks. She assumed she hurt her back lifting bags of mulch into her car, so when she went to a back doctor, she offered that as the cause. She was prescribed muscle relaxers and told to do gentle stretching. The back pain persisted, so severe that she rarely slept more than 3-4 hours a night. She saw a different doctor and was prescribed pain killers and physical therapy. She went back a 3rd and 4th time with pretty much the same result. She FINALLY had a MRI today and she has a mass on her spine and is svhefuled to see an oncologist in the morning.
Has anyone had any experience with something like this? I don’t know that the delay of a few weeks on the MRI is going to make a tremendous difference - and it’s too late now to say she should have done x or y, but this is so awful and so frustrating.
Is a spinal mass/tumor as bad as it sounds?
If anyone has had something like this resolve successfully, I’d love to hear about it.
A friend 15 or so years ago ( long ago in tech/surgery technique) had a similar experience although she didn’t have very severe back pain. But enough to keep her looking for a cause.
After many x-rays finally a doctor (I think number 3 or 4) spotted a small spinal tumor. It was successfully operated on and she did very well recovering from it and it was much easier than I would have ever anticipated.
No lasting effects but it caused some problems with her vocal cords so her voice wasn’t as strong (she was a singer) afterwards.
My Dad had terrible back pain. He had recently fallen back against a cabinet and assumed that was the problem. After weeks of excruciating pain, he had an MRI, where they saw many tumors caused by non Hodgkins lymphoma. After a year of treatment, he was in remission and remains so today. That was in 1993.
So sorry @rockvillemom My neighbor had severe back pain. The cause was a lung tumor.
Physicians are getting pinched by insurance companies to spend less time with patients. They jump to the most common diagnosis. Fat, forty, female = bad gall bladder.
As a patient do not try to diagnose yourself and mislead the physician into the most common reasons for your symptoms.
This happened to a family member. It was a cancerous tumor. They removed it and he has had many sorts of treatments since, but is doing well 5 years post-diagnosis.
I had something similar happen to me over the summer. Routine visit turned into a referral to an oncologist and surgery a week later. It turned out to be benign. (It didn’t involve my back.) I remember that I spent a lot of time and energy reassuring those around me, so my advice is to let your friend spill her worries over to you but try not to spill yours onto her.
Ok, this sounds encouraging. We are co-workers and I have reassured her I will cover for her and not to worry about anything work related. Would you believe her mother is also dealing with cancer now? Counting my blessings.
No experience, but I’m sure you’re all alarmed and scared. No one wants to be called in urgently. Unrelated but I had a vaginal ultrasound years ago and referred to gynecologist oncologist the next day. I don’t remember breathing over night. I had surgery and I was fine.
Thinking of your friend tomorrow and hoping for not so scary news.
Thank you. I am hoping for good news. I read online that severe back pain is a symptom of a spinal tumor and I am just so angry at the first doctors she saw for not sending her for an MRI. She has been suffering for weeks.
Hi @rockvillemom - sorry to hear about your friend. A friend of mine’s ex-husband had a very similar sounding story as your friend - bad back pain for several weeks, told it was probably muscle related, etc. He finally did get an MRI which revealed a tumor/mass. He had surgery and, luckily, it was benign. Wanted to share a story was a positive ending.
Even without any tumors, severe back pain requires an evaluation. Our friend had to have a spine surgery recently - he went to a chiropractor first, but the chiropractor said at once it’s not for him to treat and referred him to an orthopedic surgeon right away. You hear all the time about all the unnecessary tests being done on patients, but from hearing multiple stories like this I tend to believe the opposite.
Unfortunately you can’t just send for an mri because… Xxx… Insurance companies want 6 weeks of conservative treatment before an mri is ordered. This is becoming much more common. Your physician is not the person to send for the mri anyway. They should of been sent to a back specialist after not improving after a few weeks. They would decide the proper course of treatment That is where the fault lies.
Extended family member went for MRI for excruciating back pain, found cancer throughout his vertebra, has a year to live with a very deadly prostate cancer that is barely noticeable on the prostate in a CAT scan. Hard to believe. Fortunately for the OP’s friend this particular cancer is for men only.
A coworker’s H, in his late 20s, had sciatica. He went to PT and still had issues. His coworker insisted he see a different doctor. This doctor ordered a scan, and they found a sarcoma on his spine. He had surgery and chemo & has been in remission for a year.
I guess the lesson is that back pain - or really pain of any sort - that does not improve after a few weeks needs to be taken very seriously and investigated thoroughly.