Help fix my stupid back!

June 14, 2022 1:34 PM

I seem to have wrenched my back. I have never had back problems in my life so I have no idea what to do!

1.5 weeks ago I was doing yoga (I have done 20-60 minutes of yoga a day, every day, for the past 7 months) and I did this flip over on your back maneuver wild thing pose and I must've wrenched my back because the next day it started to hurt.

I figured the pain would pass in a few days but here it is over a week and a half later and it seems to have only grown worse. It started off just on my left lower back but now is my entire lower back. It's terrible. Just an awful ache that flares up if I bend over or get up from sitting. I cant imagine any other cause other than the yoga pose. I didnt fall or pick up anything heavy or do any great physical exertions. i did go kayaking a few days later but I kayak a lot, and this was a very short, gentle paddle.

I can still walk around and its not preventing my sleeping, but it still hurts so badly! I have tried soaking in hot baths with the jets on my lower back, which helps in the moment. Ive taken advil, and applied hot water bottles and icy hot. Again, it helps while I'm doing it but then wears off and the pain comes back with a vengeance. I have no prior back problems so this is all new to me. I'm in my early 40s if that is relevant!

I made an appointment with a chiropractor in two weeks and an appointment with a primary physician for end of June. Those were the earliest I could get them, but I cant imagine feeling this pain for another two weeks! It doesnt seem urgent enough for urgent care though.

Has anyone given themselves a similar stretching injury and can recommend good exercises/practices/anecdotes? I know you are not my doctor/therapist/etc. I would kill to see a doctor today but... in two weeks was the absolute earliest I could find.

posted by silverstatue to Health & Fitness (22 answers total)

Hanging over a laptop in not ergonomic furniture for a lot of my working day has caused my lower back to be very unhappy at times. Therapeutic (as opposed to purely relaxing) massages tend to bring me a lot of relief …. Clearly can’t speak to if they would be appropriate or do anything for you.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:41 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

honestly based on my long history of back problems, DO NOT exercise or stretch at all until better. if you think it is muscular (ie not a disc thing?) you should be taking an NSAID around the clock unless you have some counter indication with it. give it time, be gentle. be really careful if you need to sneeze or cough: brace youself!
posted by supermedusa at 1:53 PM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

I would also consider looking at a reflexologist. I have had a couple of bad back injuries (decades ago) and occasionally an ill-advised twist or bend will send a cascade of tweaks and twinges down my spine, and as I contort to ease one, another vertebra will issue complaints. I have found reflexology to be nearly miraculous in swift and lasting relief.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:00 PM on June 14, 2022

Naproxen (brand name Aleve) is way better than Advil in my opinion. I have had terrible back issues and was immobilized for hours by pain until a friend (who plays a lot of softball and golf) gave me some Aleve. Could actually get up and do things!
posted by spamandkimchi at 2:07 PM on June 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Assuming that it's muscular and nothing else, here's what works for me: alternate heat and ice, make sure to stand up every hour (set a timer) during the day and VERY gently stretch, ibuprofen, and time. It's the worst and I'm so sorry you're experiencing it!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 2:23 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Bob and Brad, back pain videos. There are many kinds of back pain, of course, but there are many ways to ease them with postural poses and very gentle stretching. If those don't help any, you should probably see an in-person doctor and get a referral to real-life physical therapists, but they're not really proposing anything so radical in their content that you can't safely do it at home and see if it repositions/resets whatever it is that got out of whack. If nothing else you'll get some structural anatomy lessons that might make it easier for you to explain to a doctor what kind of pain it is and where exactly it's happening.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:30 PM on June 14, 2022

I'd see a physio rather than a chiropractor. Chiropractic is not uncontroversial - you'll probably get some people chiming in here who love it, and others giving you links to people stories of people who've been given strokes by chiropractic neck manipulation, and everything in between.

Aside from the controversy over the scientific rigour or otherwise of chiropractic, my own experience was that a chiropracter only ever fixed things temporarily, meaning I had to keep going back every month or so, paying the guy more money each time. The physios I've seen have always been more invested in giving me exercises that will fix things long term - there might be more frequent initial visits, but their aim has been for the treatment to sort me out in a way that will stop the issue returning.
posted by penguin pie at 2:49 PM on June 14, 2022 [7 favorites]

Rest and ibuprofen. Also, try telehealth while waiting for your PCP, and consider that it might not be muscular—I once ended up in the hospital on IV antibiotics for what I thought was back pain from pulling a muscle while dancing, but turned out to be a serious kidney infection.

Anyway, I have had a lot of lower back issues recently that eventually led me to a long course of physical therapy—it’s taken a while but it’s actually working, so if yours persists, I would consider looking into that option. In the short term, NSAIDs and muscle relaxants gave me some relief.
posted by music for skeletons at 2:50 PM on June 14, 2022

If you are the owner of ovaries, you absolutely need to consider that this could be an ovarian torsion and if the pain gets bad enough for you to vomit, you must go to the emergency room as soon as you can. I had something similar happen to me—I twisted myself into an unfamiliar posture while cleaning and thought that I wrenched my back. Nope. My doctors think that an ovarian cyst was hanging out in my abdomen, ready to twist, and my weird reach pushed it over the edge into a full torsion. Is the pain wrapping around to your abdomen? If it is you need to see a doctor immediately.

Urgent care deals with stuff like this all the time. You deserve to not be in excruciating pain. If you can get to an urgent care without financial catastrophe I would do that. I’m so sorry you’re going through this!
posted by corey flood at 2:54 PM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Tom Morrison has a bunch of videos for recovering from back pain. He's very knowledgeable, having dealt with his own back injury. This video might be a good place to start.
posted by burntflowers at 3:15 PM on June 14, 2022

Another cause of back problems as you get older is “No Apparent Reason”, so you may not want to get too caught up on causes.

Collective advice from a large family of back-pain sufferers:

1. Pain is your body’s way of telling you not to do that. If standing, stretching, sitting, laying, whatever is hurting your back then stop.
2. Pain relievers can be a relief, but they can also mask the fact that you’re doing more damage.
3. The only real cure is time. Tedious, annoying time when your torso is basically out of action.

There are various exercises you can do to strengthen back muscles and prevent this sort of event, but once one has happened you pretty much have to ride it out.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:26 PM on June 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Just popping in to reassure everyone that it is not excruciating pain. I'd say on a scale of 1-10, it's a 3-4. Definitely not near vomiting pain or even eyes-tearing-up pain. But it sucks and I want it to go away, so I can go back to my normal life!

A lonnnnnnnng time ago (like 20 years ago) I was doing wheel in yoga and ALSO wrenched my back for a few days. So I never did wheel again! I guess we can now add wild thing to the list of forbidden poses. I am hoping this is the same thing but now... i'm in my 40s... so it will take a little longer to heal.

If it doesnt get better in a couple more days, i will go to urgent care to rule out anything more serious. In the meantime, I will rest and take alleve and try out these videos!
posted by silverstatue at 3:31 PM on June 14, 2022

Last summer I tweaked my back so that a whole range of motions became painful. The thing that helped the most (after otc painkillers) was a full back “posture corrector” sort of like backpack straps plus one across the stomach. It wasn’t that it provided support, but it did gently remind me to go slowly any time I made a movement that included my back. It drastically cut down on tweaking it during the day and I immediately started healing. After a week or two I could start propert stretching and strengthening.

Keep trying to see your PCP and agree with your plan to go to urgent care if it doesn’t start to improve very soon.
posted by Ookseer at 4:03 PM on June 14, 2022

> appointment with a primary physician for end of June

I'd strongly suggest directly seeing a sports-med doc / osteopath, getting a quick phone-based referral from your primary physician. Your primary doesn't not have as deep training to evaluate the probable osteopathic causes that can cause your condition, compared to the referred doc who will be much better at diagnosing slipped disk vs tight glutes, etc. (This was basically my experience.) Or bouncing you back to your gp if it's ovarion torsion, etc.

Frankly your primary may just diagnose in good faith slipped disk and bounce you to a physiotherapist who will correctly diagnose tight glutes, etc. anyway.

To find a good sports-med/osteopath, I'd call your local college/university's gym and sportsball group. e.g.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:16 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

I would not go to a chiropractor without at least getting evaluated by a doctor first. Personally, I wouldn't ever trust a chiropractor to do anything to me, but that's me. I know some people like them. But assuming your PCP rules out anything more serious, I'd go to a PT over a chiropractor. A chiropractor - at best - can do some adjustments to give you temporarily relief. A PT can give you exercises to help make sure this issue doesn't recur.

And this is a totally reasonable thing to go to an urgent care for. Some of the urgent cares in my area allow you to make an appointment, so you don't have to wait as long.
posted by litera scripta manet at 4:20 PM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Make an appointment with a physical therapist for as soon as possible. You might never have healed from that earlier injury and have some frozen muscles that could be reactivated with the right approach.

Also, walking is good. You want some exercise to keep blood flowing through your body, to promote healing.
posted by bluedaisy at 6:02 PM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

Bluedaisy is right! Walking is the only exercise i do with back on the fritz.
posted by supermedusa at 6:53 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

My go-to for lower back pain is ice. 20 minutes, applied to the lower spine.

Heat will make it feel better while I'm laying on the heat. Ice will calm the pain down for much longer.

Especially bad pain gets the ice/heat cycle - 20min high heat, 20 min ice, 20 min low heat. Repeat every four hours or so.
posted by Vigilant at 7:48 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is me last week, but a decade older than you. I ended up going to urgent care rather than waiting for my PCP appointment. Mainly, I wanted to rule out a kidney issue. She gave me a mild, non-drowsy muscle relaxer and Naproxen to use around the clock for about 5 days. Her advice was ice pack for at least 4 days then alternate with hot pack if I wanted. It has improved greatly, but is still sore (I was an 8 when I saw her, and a 4 now). She also recommended only a very light stretch after about 2 days like laying down and just pulling my knee towards my chest. I am to return in I didn't get relief, but think the progress I have had means it was just a deep muscle issue.
posted by maxg94 at 7:30 AM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

As someone with a chronic lower-back injury (i.e. I keep re-injuring it and it takes forever to heal), the long-term solution is strengthening the muscles in your back, core and glutes. In the short term, doing a few slow, careful stretches in the morning and evening help, #2, 3, 5 and 6 on this page.

This is just my experience and I am not a medical professional: with my muscle injury, the reason it seems to spread across my back to me is that my body is freezing up the muscles around the injury in order to prevent me from hurting it worse. This is an unscientific explanation and for all I know is completely wrong. (Maybe it's just that the other muscles are taking up the slack.) However, that's what it feels like. Anyway, if that's at all the case, gentle massage around the site of the injury may help relax some of the un-injured muscles and allow you to walk with much less pain.

My personal trainer also suggests magnesium supplements for cramping muscles of this sort. It may be complete coincidence, but my most recent bout eased up when I got back into the daily vitamin habit.
posted by telophase at 8:24 AM on June 15, 2022

It doesn't sound like you can rule out the possibility that you have herniated or slipped a spinal disk in your lower back. The level of pain can vary, so just the fact that you're not in excruciating pain is not evidence against it. Please make sure that your doctor considers this possibility. In terms of diagnosis, it's helpful to know that x-rays won't show herniated disks; you'll need a CT scan or MRI or possibly other test. (X-rays can rule out other causes such as a damaged bone, though.)

My wife did this during yoga many years ago. She ultimately needed back surgery—her pain was significant and progressed to excruciating over a couple of weeks. The condition was not fixable by exercise or physical therapy or etc.

My recommendation (but I'm not doctor) is to be careful, relax your back as much as possible, and avoid possibly making it worse, until your doctor appointment.
posted by StrawberryPie at 12:53 PM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Just a follow up here. I saw a chiropractor today and turns out, my L4 was twisted out of whack. My right side was a full inch longer than my left side! He popped it back into place and I immediately felt much better. I'm going to go back in a week to make sure everything stays in place. If so, he will give me PT exercises to make sure it doesnt happen again. If not... we'll try more advanced stuff.
posted by silverstatue at 11:59 AM on June 27, 2022