I’m not asking for medical advice. I have a doctor on campus that I will visit if needed!
Monday I bent over and “twinged” my lower back, down by the tailbone. The pain was pretty excruciating - sharp pains that I would describe as nerve pain. It made me hobble like a little old lady and when I was on the couch that night I had to lift my legs with my arms instead of lifting them using the leg muscles. I gave it the day to see if it got better.
The last couple of days I have not experienced that sharp pain. Instead, I have muscle soreness. Yesterday it was in my lower left side of my back. Today it’s in the upper right side under my shoulderblade.
I don’t usually have back pain. So what I’m thinking is that the muscle soreness is just a later reaction to that initial twinge, i.e. part of the healing process, and that I just need to wait it out. It’s not agonizing - just pretty uncomfortable.
Or is this continued soreness a possible sign that something is messed up with my back and I won’t get better without a doctor?
Can anyone share the normal outcome of a sudden back pain incident? When is it an ongoing injury, and when is it normal healing/give it time?
Thanks in advance! I am totally willing to see the doctor but it’s worthless if she’s going to tell me to take inflammatories and rest. I’m already doing that!
I had back spasms a year or two ago. Sudden pain that made me yell out loud. Got some Vicodin for short-term (nice) and some non-narcotic muscle relaxants for one term (useless). Pretty well cleared up in about a week.
Without an MRI, it’s generally impossible to tell. A doctor will generally diagnose it as a sprain/strain initially, and modify that diagnosis if it doesn’t resolve short term. And yes, you’ll be told to take anti-inflammatories (and probably muscle relaxants like Flexeril) and rest. You should also try alternating heat and ice.
If you’re worried, get somebody to try the straight leg raise test with you. If it’s negative, it doesn’t necessarily rule out a disc herniation or some other serious problem, but if it’s positive it means you need to see an orthopaedic spine specialist or neurosurgeon as soon as possible.
Curvature of my spine gets a nerve pinched between two vertebrae from time to time if I’m not careful. Hurts like hell and can incapacitate me for a week. People keep telling me to see a massage therapist or chiropractor, but every doctor I’ve seen says no, that would probably only make it worse. I just have to be careful.
Herniated disk in my lower back, about 20 years ago. Those fuckers NEVER heal. Back in the day, I would regularly collapse in agony and be unable to get up for 30-60 minutes. Nowadays I have 1-2 incidents a year where it can be ‘out of whack’ for 1-5 days. The worst ones cause me to actually lean to the right (I think I’m standing straight, look in a mirror, nope, leaning to the side.)
Stress related back injury (upper back) in 2001. Now it turns out that I have severe degeneration, severe arthritis/stenosis/everything and FOUR herniated disks in my neck. Making my second stab at the spinal cortisone shot in a couple of weeks.
You know, the thing that kills me now that I’m in the middle of this is the idea we have that someone with this stuff can never do normal stuff. Bob is on disability for his back. We saw him carry his child. Therefore FRAUD! Nope. We all have good days and bad days, and there’s plenty of times I’ll engage in activities that I know are not going to be good for my back, because I’m fucking HUMAN and I want to live life and enjoy myself. This isn’t to say there is not a lot of actual fraud going on, but seeing me walking a mile home from the grocery store carrying two bags of food doesn’t mean I’m lying about my back problems.
I “threw out my back” a few years ago reaching over a small table for a pen in a holder on the wall. It was epic. My husband and a friend, both paramedics, watched all the blood leave my face as I gently crumpled to the floor in slow motion. Took both of them to fireman’s carry me to my bed in the camper nearby.
Three days of narcotics, lidocaine patches, and NSAIDS did nothing. Every single movement, I had to think about how to move. I couldn’t so much as roll over in bed without carefully planning and executing each movement, not just because of the pain, but because my muscles just couldn’t remember how to move without conscious control. It was terrifying.
Finally my husband announced I WAS going to the emergency room, and he’d like to see me resist him just picking me up and carrying me there. I begged him to send over a friend who’s a massage therapist first. She did 20 minutes of work with a particularly awful move called a “psoas release”…and everything worked again. The pain retreated to a dull ache, and I could move without thinking about it again.
Never had pain that bad since, but it really gave me a new sympathy for people with chronic back pain.
Also made me realize I should have called the massage therapist immediately. Could have saved myself a lot of trouble and my husband a lot of worry.
That may be true for you, and it’s good it worked, but again, my problem is not muscular, it’s a nerve that gets pinched between two vertebrae, and I have been warned by multiple doctors that massage to relieve it when it happens could cause more damage. Best to seek medical advice first. Massage therapy is not a cure-all.
Thanks for the replies. It’s feeling much better today, so I’m on the mend. I was just worried that it might be something that wouldn’t resolve on its own.
Who knew that leaning over could cause such pain? I guess I’m just getting old!