Pars Breaks Fracture

One day I was playing basketball with my brother and my back began to hurt. Little did I know this would affect me the most out of any injury I have ever had. I started having a little bit off pain but did not think much about it, thinking it would go away or I was just sore. I was wrong, after about a week of my back continually getting worse and worse by jumping on tramps playing basketball and locrosse I finally decided to go to the doctor because at this point It hurt so much every time stood up.

I was told I had a pars fracture, this meant that my L5 vertebrae in my back was fractured. There are levels to the severity of a pars fracture, meaning it can fracture all the way through your l5 and it can happen to the right or
The most common type of treatment is nonsurgical, there are many varieties within this treatment options. Some doctors may say to not do any activity for 7 weeks to 3 months and be in a soft or hard shell brace. Other doctors believe that the brace is not worth the pain and that they should just stop for a little while and calm down with activity. Normally doctors recommend physical therapy so you can strengthen your back muscles so when you go back to activity you can be supported. Finally there is the option of acupuncture, this is a very controversial technique, I have done it a couple of times and it is very relaxing and helped with my pain a lot. What acupuncture is meant to do is prompt the body to produce chemicals that help to reduce pain. The other option is surgical and is rarely necessary. It is only recommended if you have been pulled from sports and braced for at least 3 months and after 6 months you continue to have pain. At that point the doctors recommend trying surgery if pain is bad and constant. What the doctors do during surgery is take out the part that is causing pain and fuse back the part that has fractured. The one that I would recommend through experience is acupuncture, I would recommend it is because you do not necessarily have to discontinue sports to help with the pain. The problem is the acupuncture does not heal or help heal your back what it does is help reduce pain so if you wanted it to heal your back fully so you can play a contact sport bracing and taking time out is the way to go. Physical therapy is a really good technique to help support your back, but the problem is it does not heal it like acupuncture but it does support you back so if you are in a situation where you need to do activity then your back will not be affected as much. Most people take a break from sports and do physical therapy so when they are done with the break there back is fully supported