Back injury and pain

November 2, 2015 1:58 PM

Last week my wife fell out of our hammock and hit her upper back against the ground-level metal bar of the hammock stand. Seven days later, she is still in constant pain, but x-rays of cervical spine came up with no fractures, and there's no visible bruising. Her primary care physician prescribed bed rest to go with her previously-prescribed ibuprofen and flexeril for MS. Do you have any other suggestions to help her manage the pain and recover?
posted by infinitewindow to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

Gentle yoga could help if the problem is sore muscles.
posted by entropyiswinning at 2:19 PM on November 2, 2015

Is she trying ice or heat? Sounds like she's got a whale of a bruise and either of those might help. If the muscles are in spasm physical therapy might also help. I'm in the midst for a different sort of back woes and am doing all of those things. Also hot baths or a hot tub if she has access might also help. And it could take a while to settle down. Sounds miserable - hope she feels better soon!
posted by leslies at 2:57 PM on November 2, 2015

Physical therapy could be very useful.
posted by heathrowga at 2:58 PM on November 2, 2015

X-rays are useless for anything but fractures - she should see an orthopedist specializing in the cervical spine. The doctor will determine if she needs an MRI (in all honesty the chances the doctor WON'T order an MRI are slim) which will show any herniation if there is one.
posted by amro at 3:37 PM on November 2, 2015

Sounds like she might have a subluxation of one or more of her vertebrae -- ie, it got moved slightly out of alignment with the rest of her spine. Super super painful, but fixable. Find a good chiropractor on Yelp in your area, bring in the xrays (they may do another set as well) and see if a few adjustments helps.

The chiropractor will probably suggest some gentle stretching exercises to help the adjustment stay. Find a good sports massage therapist (many chiro places will have these right in the office) to go along with the adjustments to help with the pain.

I would ask the chiro when it is safe for her to do yoga. It's not always a great idea to dive right in if there are issues with the integrity of the spine.

I've done this exact thing to myself (hammock rope snapped, curse the thing), and my chiro was able to fix the problem in three visits over the course of 10 days.
posted by ananci at 10:22 AM on November 3, 2015