I've been heading that way since a car hit me in 2001. And it worsened after I was hit again in 2018. Cervical spine deterioration, scoliosis in the mid back. No particular lower back pain until a couple of months ago when the lumber and hips began aching, often waking me up once or twice a night.
The neck pain got bad enough I cut back from bicycling 5,000-6,000 miles a year to about 600 miles this year. I switched to more running, jogging and at least walking, but even that's become more painful and difficult over the past several months.
Doctors who've examined my various MRIs and CT scans differ somewhat on how severe the cervical stenosis is, and whether arthritis is a bigger issue. but they agree it's bad enough to warrant some procedure. Last week a cervical spine specialist suggested a course of a couple of injections, some weeks apart, followed by an ablation to deaden the pain nerves. Fine with me, the sooner the better.
He made it sound like a couple of weeks but the incompetent, indifferent pain management clinic put it off until late December. Same reason I left that health care service in 2018. I took my Medicare provider's suggestion to try the clinic again, but I'm already dreading putting up with that clinic's BS. That particular pain clinic used to be good, around 10 years ago or so. They'd do local injections of anti-inflammatories and similar procedures the same day as the exam. But since then they've turned into a Medicare milking machine, forcing patients to go through multiple redundant and unnecessary consults, exams, follow-up consults, etc., before they ever actually do anything useful. And each appointment is scheduled weeks or months apart. So if a patient is in pain now, they'll either have to endure it for another six months, or find some other remedy.
I can see why so many people turn to unproven treatments and supplements out of desperation to do something, after being ignored or delayed indefinitely by traditional medical providers.