I could have probably sued both the chiropractors in my town one time. I hurt my back at a grocery store I worked at while pulling a pallet jack. The place didn't supply belts and I never thought of getting one. I went to the doctor and he told me he would have to do an mri. I didn't have that good of an insurance so, I went the chiropractor. This one didn't have an x-ray and started doing his work. Every time I would leave, I could barely stand it. I quit going for a month. Then decided to go see the other chiropractor to see if she could do an x-ray. Hers was broke and she told me the same thing the doctor and the chiropractor did, that it was a disc. I have had a bad disc in my back for over ten year now between my shoulder blades and I had a feeling that this was a lot worse than that. (I have never seen it on an mri, but I know from the pain I have had for the last 12 years) After about 3 months, my dad started to feel sorry for me and informed me of a thing called work mans comp. I went and talked to my boss about it and he hooked me up. After getting the mri, i found that my back had been fractured and it could have been seen by an x-ray. I was out all that time and money for nothing. Even now when I think about, it kinda makes me mad.

Even though my back still hurts today and I have insurance that wouldn't cost me no more than a few hundred bucks to have it done, I still wouldn't repair the disc in my upper back. There is no guarantee that they work. But, there is always the chance they will. If you have to have it, get it. It may work. If you can live with it, it may be better to not have air hitting your spine. It sounds like you need it though and I wish you to get better.

Also, back pain can be very depressing. I stayed depressed for a long time because of it. I even went to the doctor to get on prozac during the time of breaking my back and having the mri. It is a useless feeling and made me feel things would never get better.

Don't give up! there is always another doctor if one can't help.