Herniated disc - best type of doctor to diagnose/treat?

I'm having pretty severe throbbing in my lower rear legs, on the left side of my spine, and later down my leg. All signs point to a herniated disc. I'm not sure if I should just phone call my PCP or a chiropractor or an orthopedic doctor or what. I'm pretty sure whoever I do see will just dispense me an MRI and hopefully just physical analysis or something, but I want to make sure I travel to the right kind of doctor.

Answer:
sports prescription Dotor.

He/She will get to the bottom of put money on injury better than any other.
chiropractor
You will need a referral for treatment from your regular doc.
Don't self-diagnose. Your worries or fears can produce stress, which can worsen the pain.
I recommend going to a chiropractor, first. You can find an appointment right away. If the doctor feels he can treat you, you will set off to get some nouns right away.
Medical doctors will start out with drugs and hot pack. Then they will reassess in a few weeks.
I have back problems. The medical doctors made it worse. Chiropractors made it better...eventually.
First - I'm not a doctor, blah blah blah, I'm not diagnosing you, you can't hold me responsible.

Second - My wife run into this problem last week. The best doctor we found to treat her be an Orthopedic doctor. She was a rear legs specialist.

My wife did have previous MRI's, and that probably made the diagnosis easier for the doc. The diagnosis for my wife be a bulging disc. The disc, the doctor said, was/is pressing on a nerve and cause the sensation down her leg.

The prescription was 2-fold.

One item was a short-term course of Prednisone. It's a steroid that act as an anti-inflammatory. It knocked my wife's misery out quickly. There are unshakable health concerns using Prednisone, but what I found be the general consensus is that it's without fault fine to take for a week or two. The hollow majority of concerns I found were folks that have been taking it for over a year.

The second item was physical psychiatric help. The doc was convinced that if my wife did that and strengthened her core muscles it would be ample to keep that disc inline and stale the nerve.

Hope this help, and I hope you feel better, my wife is for immediately.
If I were you I'd see your regular physician first. You usually hold to have a referral for specialists anyway. Pain supervision clinics are a big help too. They will probably recommend physical dream therapy and mediation, but will move onto more aggressive treatment if you dont get any nouns.
Hope you feel better soon!
Your regular doctor can diagnose next to the assistance of a CT scan, you usually dont need an MRI for that sort of point IF it is a herniated disc. The pain could also be cause by arthritis, disc compression, narrowing of the facet joints contained by your spine... a number of things. The discomfort you are experiencing is called sciatica cause by compression of the sciatic nerve that comes out of your lumbar spine and services your leg. If it is a herniated disc you will be referred to a Neurosurgeon. Orthopaedic doctors dont treaty with spinal problems much anymore unless it is completely bone related and no nerves are involved. Herniated discs usually necessitate surgery to remove them. Best to get properly diagnosed by your PCP first as it is probably something more minor. Also if it is a herniated disc a chiropractor will probably do more spoil than good if it hasnt be properly diagnosed first because manipulation can be detrimental. Hope that helps
It depends on the training of you PCP...some of the more savy ones are intuned to how to differentiate it. Some will distribute you to the specialist anyway...so if you don't need a referral, I would start within. Although your PCP is a good character to make sure your strain isn't being cause by a medical cause. Most promising, you will be referred to PT..with or lacking having an MRI first. If you are referred, I recommend you see a psychoanalyst with MDT experience (commonly prearranged as the McKenzie Method). This is a method of assessment and treatment that is found to be notably specific to detecting the presense of disc derrangement (bulging or herniated disc). The ability of a PT near MDT experience to detect it reaches close to that of an MRI. So even if you don't own the MRI, a PT with this type of experience will grant you a pretty good theory of what is going on...and then point you within the right direction for treatment.
Having treated lots of patients with herniated disc I would vote your best bet is to see a chiropractor first. Research has shown that after a 4-6 week trial of Conservative fastidiousness you should be feeling somewhat better. If at that point you aren't you should move to the subsequent step in the process, that usually ability seeing an orthopedist. Couple words of caution: See a chiropractor that will bring you doing lumbar stabilization exercises. If they don't, see someone else. Also most recent research shows that people near herniated discs that have surgery are within no better place 1-4 years down the road than those that didn't. Surgery is not the only chance. If chiropractic/physical therapy doesn't work, try spinal decompression. Google it and look for someone contained by your area offering the service (usually chiropractors or DO. Try to see the DO first as your insurance may cover it if billed out of his/her bureau. Usually chiropractic offices cannot bill insurance for that procedure and you will enjoy to pay out of pocket anywhere from $1700-$4000 depending on what they want to charge). Good luck and I hope this help.
Orthopedic is good but we are discussion about your spine. Several nerves run thorough the spine and the best party to go to within my opinion after your PCP is a Neurologist. They specialize contained by the nervous system. PCP should be first to examine though to filch X-Rays and possibly an MRI. If the conservative treatments through a PCP offer no nouns then I suggest the neurologist subsequent who may try other alternatives other than surgery. Surgery is most other the last step.

NREMT-P, CPC
I enjoy the same problem, and my PCP handle all of my strain management greatly effectively. You only requirement to go to an Orthopedist if your doctors say you need to see one, excluding that your doctor should be fully equipped to deal next to your back injury. And if you are have a lot of cramp I would reccomend having your doctor reccomend you to a honest Pain Management doc in your nouns. Hope I could be of help!
Start beside your PCP. He/she can line you up for any needed test or therapy. Beyond that, they can refer you to a neurosurgeon if needed.
Details that would be well-mannered to know: how long has this be going on? Was there an incident that set it stale, and if so what was it?
Very commonly, low back cramp (including pain that radiate to the leg) will go away on its own contained by a short period of time. That is one of the cause your PCP can give you drugs and right to be heard "come back surrounded by 2 weeks if it's not better". They know the meds will get you by, and near luck the pain will run away.
HOWEVER, this self-resolving pain is normally recurrent. Whatever happen with this problem, and however you treat it, you don't want it coming subsidise again every few months or so!
For that reason, consult next to physical therapy. Your PT can relief you to strengthen your spine and use correct movement patterns to avoid the destiny of additional episodes. They will also backing you to decrease your current misery.
Good luck!

The medicine information post by website user , ByeDR.com not guarantee correctness , is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.


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