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Lower back pain specialists...

X-rays show bones. MRIs show the soft tissue. The latter, IME, was essential for diagnosing disc problems. A CT scan, with its 3D/slicing capabilities, shows even more detail.
 
Bob McC said:
I don’t think they do.
Aren’t MRI scans more detailed than CT scans?
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My post wasn’t 100% clear. My last sentence should have been my second.

MRIs use magnetic resonance to see soft tissue. X rays only see bone. CT scans use X rays, but they cut the bones into lots of slices to form a 3D image.

IME, both MRI and CT scans were needed prior to surgeries.
 
steveinspain said:
An update on this.
I had an mri scan and then saw a spine surgeon recommended by a consultant I know.
He was fascinating, spent way over my time chatting and asking questions, and concluded by telling me that my spine is pretty worn out but there is nothing operable, but given what he'd found out about me he suggested that I speak to a therapist.
He said that 'pain is a powerful emotion' and that my emotional battery sounded pretty flat. Not what I expected at all.
I have found a therapist with one spare slot (obviously most are totally booked up) and after a few sessions I'm already able to sit better. Seems she thinks I should write a book given my family history and we've hardly started on my recent past..
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Sounds like a good guy - the surgeon. Several years ago we went to see a spine surgeon at a highly recommended practice in Boston. Being the US I figured we were going to make his next yacht payment, but I was wrong. He fought our insurance company (and won) to get my wife covered for an upright spine x-ray with contrast (apparently an expensive diagnostic), and then afterward was apologetic that he didn't think an operation would help. She has been doing physical therapy ever since, and taking meds. (nerve /muscle, not pain) when necessary.

I hope you can find a similarly good therapist and get some relief.
 
Exactly where I am right now. It is awfully difficult to manage the pain, especially when the pinched nerve(s) make the muscle at right contract.
The surgeon won’t operate either. I’m going to see him next week — last time was in 2017.
I anticipate the pain at every moment now and it’s making me very nervous and stressed, with shivering panic attacks when I feel that the pain is coming, either when standing or sitting.
Awful.
I’ve never heard of a stand-up (upright) MRI.
 
I think it was an upright X-ray / CT scan - with some sort of fluid injected into the spine to aid the contrast. It's done upright so that they can see the spine under load, which made sense since she has trouble standing for more than a minute or two.
 
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