<p>I am a 49 year old female and normally in excellent health. I walk/jog with our dog 1.5 miles 4-5 night per week. About a month ago I was sitting at a red light and reached over to get something out of my purse. I felt this shooting pain through my back - outside of natural childbirth - the worst pain I have ever felt. I pulled over and it subsided a little, but still hurt quite a bit. I popped Advil & Tylenol for a few days and it got better.</p>
<p>However, a few random days since then the pain comes back (no trigger that I can figure out). If I bend a certain a way the shooting pain comes back though less than the original occurrence, but that’s generally after I wake up with it already hurting.</p>
<p>Oddly, if I can force myself to go and walk everything loosens up and I feel great! I work at a desk job and it’s pretty painful sitting during the day so I’ve been taking a lot of Aleeve/Advil lately.</p>
<p>So…should I just be patient and maybe since the pain is less than the original pain it will go away? Or should I make a doctor’s appt and if so, with my GP? Or seek out some kind of back specialist? Since it is inconsistent you know I will get to the doctor’s appt and it will feel fine and it will be a waste of everyone’s time.</p>
<p>My work is really crazy right now and I don’t want to have to go to multiple doctors and multiple tests. I just had blood work at my well woman exam last month and it was fine so I think it’s JUST my aching back that is the problem!</p>
<p>Any suggestion - even stretches that I could do to lessen this soreness would be appreciated! I sat on the heating pad for most of yesterday and it’s depressing :-(.</p>
<p>I have had periformas/psoas issues for over 4 years now with your exact symptoms…</p>
<p>Yoga stretching helps, a little…walking too; as long as my strides are not too long…</p>
<p>I have gone to at least 4 doctors/PT’s etc to no avail; currently in treatment with a myofascial therapist to attempt to release my psoas. I will let you know…</p>
<p>If you go to an ortho, they are going to try to tie this to your spine…you need to rule out nerve issues and muscle tears though…</p>
<p>If it were me, I would make an appt for two weeks or so from now…see if it gets any better…if not, rule out any serious injuries</p>
<p>It is incredibly depressing; I have good and bad days but definitely better off when I am moving…</p>
<p>Does it feel better if you lie on your back and bring your knees into your chest? It usually helps…</p>
<p>Sigh…that is exactly what I’m afraid of! We’re blessed with good insurance but it’s hard for me to take off right now. I need them to see me at 5:30AM when I am crawling out of bed in pain. As the day goes on it gets better, but yesterday was a really bad day for me!</p>
<p>Someone told me to try to sleep on my back with a pillow under my knees. That position seems comfortable but I can’t fall asleep like that! </p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I have never heard of periformas/psoas - I will google.</p>
<p>Google Rossiter technique and see if you can find someone in your area. It is a half hour workout that can be quite remarkable. Plz report back if you try it.</p>
<p>I have 2 compressed disks, and I have found 2 things help when the pain gets intense. </p>
<p>Laying on my back on a soft(ish) surface I bring my knees to my chest and hold them there (with my hands) for as long as I can, when I can no longer hold them I lower them very slowly, breathe a few moments and do it again (my bed works well for this, and I can get up afterwards). </p>
<p>When I sleep, I do so on my side with a pillow between my legs, and the top leg bent at a 90* angle. This feels so good.</p>
<p>Back pain is exhausting and I also find it brings me down badly when I have it. I feel for you.</p>
<p>Just went through similar thing last week. </p>
<p>Bought this book on Saturday- The 7-Minute Back Pain Solution: 7 Simple Exercises to Heal Your Back Without Drugs or Surgery in Just Minutes a Day</p>
<p>Life changing book.
The Dr will explain why you feel better when you walk, with back pain, and the exercises which I’m going to do again right now, are simple. </p>
<p>Download on Kindle !!! Get your hands on this book</p>
<p>I have been dealing with back pain for over a year. I do the knees to chest described earlier, it REALLY helps. Walking, a gentle stretch every half or so will make a huge difference as well. I try and do the Strong Women, Strong Backs exercises as time allows. </p>
<p>For me, sitting for long periods and driving the car for long distances are a challenge. Breaking it up with a walk, stretch, twist can really help.</p>
<p>I am sorry for your pain. I get really short tempered with pain and feel bad for anyone who pushes my buttons. If its a muscle injury have you tried bio freeze gel?</p>
<p>I am not a doctor but I unfortunately have undergone back surgery and am very familiar with the pain you describe. </p>
<p>Does the pain travel down your to your hip or leg or down to your knee or foot? Do you have any numbness or weakness in your foot? </p>
<p>I would see if your GP can get you an authorization for an MRI, if your back pain does not get better. Some people say they get great results with Chiropractic care. I am NOT one of those people. If you have a bulging or herniated disc, you do NOT want a Chiropractor to “adjust” or crack your back. They will usually take an xray of your spine and say your back needs to be alligned. An xray can only captures the boney vertebrae and not the “soft” discs between the vertebrae or the nerves. Unless you get a CT scan or MRI, you don’t know for sure whether you have a pinched nerve or not.</p>
<p>Try alternating ice with heat or icing your back for 20 minutes on and off. For me, ice gives me more relief than heat. If you have access to a swimming pool, try swimming laps. Core strengthening is very important and water can help stabalize your spine somewhat. I also get some relief with a Tenz unit, that sends little “prickly” shocks to my back area when sticky pads are applied and the device is turned on.</p>
<p>I would not take Tylenol because the Acetomeniphen in Tylenol, if taken in large doses, can be harmful. I get some relief with Naprelan 750 CR (controlled release), which I take at bedtime. You may want to take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory like Advil to see if that helps before going for a prescription NSAID like Naprelan or Naproxen.</p>
<p>Good luck and here’s hoping your pain is only muscular and not disc related.</p>
<p>Acute back pain like that is almost always the result of pressure on one or more of the nerve roots exiting from the spine. The pain can show up all over the place (down the arms, down the legs), even though the cause is pressure on the root near the spine. The pressure can come from a buldging disc in the spine and/or from inflammed muscles near the spine. Often, the painful muscle spasms are the body trying to prevent motion and causing further pain from a buldging disc. The injuries most often occur doing simple tasks – reaching for something, tying your shoe, but really are the result of years of wear and tear from flexing our lower back. The discs are like jelly donuts and you can only press on them so many times before the “jelly” starts to leak out.</p>
<p>Immediate job is to reduce the pain. Doctors will prescribe anti-inflammatory steroids, pain killers, muscle relaxants, etc. Time helps.</p>
<p>Once you’ve got to the point where the pain is gone or tolerable, you’ve got to use your available pain-free capacity to train the core muscles to keep your lower back from bending or twisting (like the guy wires holding up a TV broadcast antenna). Developing this core strength, to whatever extent you can, is the best long-term approach.</p>
<p>And, absolutely positively stop doing stuff (like crunches or situps) that cause wear and tear on the spine and discs. The discs only have “x” number of bend cycles and you don’t want to use the allotment up doing that kind of stuff – although following that advice really needs to start early on in life because it’s the accumulation over the years that does the damage.</p>
<p>One of the leading figures in this stuff is a PhD spine mechanics researcher in Canada, Stuart McGill. He has published several books/DVDs on the back that would be my first purchase if I had lumber spine issues. Here’s a condensed version in the form of a PDF article:</p>
<p>I had back muscle issues for years until I changed how I sit (no longer hunched over at the computer), stand, and sleep (on my side with a pillow between my knees). Exercise can help a great deal, but it won’t do much if, when you’re through exercising, your posture goes back to the way it was before. Since I figured this out I’ve been 99% pain-free, and if I do start to feel anything it’s always because I’ve been sitting in a bad position for a while.</p>
<p>jshain, Currently the pain is in my lower back (right side), but when I get a “twinge” it seems to zoom up and down my back. It kind of knocks the breath out of me for a second and then slowly gets better. The other morning I had one when I bent over the tub to wash my hair. About 10 minutes later it still hurt just bending my neck to see in the mirror while applying makeup. I told my husband I was getting an anatomy lesson on what was connected to what! I could bend my neck and feel the bend all the way to my lower back…really a strange feeling.</p>
<p>I walked last night and felt so good when I got home that I watched “Smash” instead of reading the 7 exercises book (I did start - just didn’t get very far). But this morning it really hurt again so tonight I will definitely try the exercises. I think I will also make an appt and try to get the MRI. However, I am not planning on doing anything beyond that until I give the exercises their 6 weeks to work.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the sympathy. I have a good friend that is really sick and I feel like a wimp to complain about this, but it does really hurt sometimes.</p>
<p>Again, I’m not a doctor, only a “veteran” with many years of CHRONIC back pain and one lumbar micro-disectomy under my belt in 2008 to get rid of my dropped foot. I no longer have a dropped foot but have run the gamut of remedies to no avail: PT, accupuncture, pain management/epidurals, hard-core pain meds, etc. etc. </p>
<p>It does not appear that you have bulging or herniated disc or nerve compression, however I would get an MRI if your back spasms persist. The fact that the pain is localized to your back area only is a good thing. Learning how to sit, bend and lift correctly are things we all could do better.</p>
<p>I wonder if getting a prescription for a muscle relaxer would help “calm” the spasms so your back could heal. You’d have to take them at night because they make you a little goofy, but worth the effort if they do the trick.</p>