I've had two major issues with my back and the first goes back to shortly after I joined the army and started getting pains first in my hip joints and then my lower back. Long story short this went on mostly unabated for a dozen years with none of the military medical system getting a grip on the issue (and me not going to see them that often as I should in the first place - basic army suck-it-up-syndrome) In my early 30s I was referred to a pain specialist who ran more extensive tests which showed I had ankylosing spondylitis which is a genetic arthritic condition where effectively the discs disintegrate and bone forms around the ends of each vertebra and essentially fuses them together. Luckily while my spine stiffened the pain mostly burned out.
More recently, two years ago, I was in a motor vehicle accident (a distracted driver rear ended me at a stop light) where my spine fractured at T10-11. As a result I am now the proud owner of two titanium rods and 16 screws that hold eight vertebrae together. There is continuing and varying pain not so much from the joints (which don`t move anyway) but from the muscle damage done during surgery.
All that leads me to the final two points. First, keep having the source of your pain explored as long as it continues. Change doctors if they can't come up with a reason. There is something at play here and it probably won't get better until it's identified. Second, have your doctor refer you to a physiotherapist who specializes in spinal issues. Not all physiotherapists are equal. I've seen two since the accident and the current one works at a spine clinic hand in hand with an orthopaedic surgeon. Their approaches were completely different. The routine which the current one has me on is designed to build up my core muscle strength to help support my back, while not working wonders, it is helping day to day. Core muscles play a major role in supporting the back and a physiotherapist can really help with that but before he can design an appropriate program he does need to know what is the root cause of your problem.
:cheers:
