I'm a wheelchair user with chronic back and hip pain

milojinx23

Hi I'm a wheelchair user with chronic back and hip pain I have been taking pain killers constantly and I'm getting deep tissue massages but nothing is helping anyone have any ideas on what I should be doing because I don't have a live anymore I'm constantly in the house because I'd be lucky to spend an hour in my wheelchair 

EmmaB

Hi @milojinx23
My situation is different from yours but it might be relevant to explain:  I am a mobility scooter user with very weird hips and curved spine... last year my hip pain was so severe that I thought "this is it" I'm going to have to have surgery"...
However after a course of hydrotherapy - which was very nice but didn't solve the problem, I saw one of the best physios I've seen in the NHS [and I've seen a few NHS and private ones in my nearly 50 years!] and although I was doubtful that the exercises she gave me would help I persisted with them - they were mainly stretches.  In fact it was the exercise that I was most doubtful about which has been the most transformative...
In my experience most physios are pretty ****, maybe it's just because they freak out when they meet real disabled people!  But if you can find a good one then maybe that might help? 
Obviously it really depends on what's going on with you but all I think I'm trying to say is that physio helped me so it might be worth considering.  I did have to persist with it [I think a lot of people are a bit "oh it hasn't worked" after they've done the exercises a couple of times and give up...] but the result for me was nothing short of a miracle and I'm hoping to stave off surgery for a long time to come!
I guess your GP is your first port of call and they may be able to refer you to a specialist physio if that is appropriate, rather than just seeing the physio that just deals with the run of the mill stuff in the surgery [in my experience they are a bit hopeless but sometimes you have to go through them, find they are hopeless, then get the specialist referral...].
I hope you can get it sorted because hip and back pain is all consuming; stretches were transformative for me and I imagine they would help quite a few wheelchair users because being seated means that the muscles could end up more and more contracted and that would cause pain.  I think a lot of pain comes from weak buttock/psoas muscles - look up the psoas muscle it's a pretty impressive one!  
Another option is mindfulness which I have also used to good effect, the book Mindfulness for Health by Burch and Penman is particularly good because it explains how pain works.
Best wishes.
Emma

EmmaB

PS when I took painkillers for the pain I had it made no difference, because frankly I don't think they were dealing with the cause of the pain... 

milojinx23

I was looking to get surgery for scoliosis but they told me my spine is badly curved which is a disgrace 

Liz99

Get a second appointment from a different doctor worth a try 

milojinx23

I have 

jaja

Hi @milojinx23

I'm sorry you are in so much pain at the moment.

Here are my ideas:

Acupuncture - if you have a good practitioner it does relieve pain.

Tens machine - it helps with certain types of pain but depends if you can cope with vibration

Heat - hot water bottles

Pain clinic - referral via GP

Magnesium - epsum salts bath or spray oil. Eases aches but check side effects

Counseling - help to deal with the emotional fall out of living with pain and the resulting issues.

Sprays - heat and freeze sprays.

Mindfulness

I'm sure that there will be lots of other ideas.

Best wishes

J