Back pain

[Andy]

Well I used to feel bad about asking for prayer for "minor" things but I am long past that point, I know I can bring anything before God and he will hear me like a caring father would, no matter how small it may seem. I know that God is good and he wants us to be happy and that if we have problems we should come to him first. Part of coming to him is asking fellow Christians for prayer when we are unhappy or in pain and so that is why I am writing this.

I have a minor but persistently bothersome upper back pain right now. I can do all the work I need to but it hurts all day and night and has for three days and I'm just sick of it. If I wake up in the night it is the first thing I notice before anything else and I feel it all day morning to night while I'm awake. The pain is in my middle left shoulder area, like if someone punched you in, or knelt on, the center of the back of your left lung. I am not even 40 yet and shouldn't have this kind of thing, but I had to lift some heavy/awkward things for my job recently (self employed) and I imagine that was the cause of it. I would appreciate your prayers for a fast recovery and protection from this in the future. I feel like I am doing what God wants me to with my business and want to continue on that path, and my physical health is critical to that.

Thanks,
Andy

[MrWolf]

Prayers sent as I know what you are going through. Sounds like a disc herniation catching a nerve. I would try traditional acupuncture, it used to work great for me (I am way past that point now). Good luck!

[w5pv]

Prayers sent for you and ll the casting brothers on this forum

[bangerjim]

Prayers work.......but so does medical science!

If chronic, check out the spinal injections that are for pain. Wife could not even get out of bed...severe back pain. After the 1st injection.....80% improvement within 3 hours. After the series of 3, she has very little pain even 3 years later.

Check it out! Well worth the $$ it costs.

banger

[RogerDat]

Left center of shoulder blade area of back is a prime spot for the pain of a bone spur in the shoulder socket (on this I have some experience). Once the little bit of protruding bone growth starts impacting the soft tissue and nerves it can get chronic.

Possibly upper back pain from heavy & awkward but when I pinched a nerve in the back a few times over the years it was often from a light amount of weight, just moved at the wrong angle. I know they doctors do not prescribe muscle relaxers for this as much any more but they do work for that type of injury. Nerve gets pinched, causes muscle to spasm trying to "protect" and "splint" the sore nerve. The muscle spasm ends up irritating the nerve which leads to more pain, then more spasm from the muscle. Trick is to break the cycle. Either through pain killers (advil or stronger) or muscle relaxers, or heat and massage. Or all three. I could generally take 1 muscle relaxer at night for about three or maybe four nights with some advil during the day and the spasm would clear up. Hot pad was just a bonus that made things feel better and probably helped a bit.

Prayer is good but pain has a cause, that is why God allowed for doctors, to find the cause. I see self employed so imagine medical expenses might be a bit of an issue but if you count on your own productivity for a living you really should find out what is injured and get back to a good place sooner rather than waiting for a condition to become chronic or impact your ability to make a living.

[Andy]

Thank you all for the prayers, I have great news that the back pain is completely gone. When I went to bed last night it was still there and when I woke up today it was gone and stayed gone. I did some light work in the morning and decided to trust that God had fully taken the pain away and I spent the rest of the day sawmilling (manual sawmill so it's a workout) and I'm completely fine.

I am all for seeing doctors and do so whenever I feel led to but I try to always remember to go to God first, as he is the ultimate healer.

I give thanks to God for taking this away and letting me get back to work without that nagging pain.

[Jtarm]

You got it dude.
Even minor chronic pain can make life miserable.

Best wishes!

[DLCTEX]

Good news. Praise God!

[Lloyd Smale]

get to a doctor immediately. My best friend had the exact same symptoms and he had lung cancer.

[tja6435]

My uncle had an aneurysm that presented as sharp back pain out of nowhere, he had time to say goodbye to his kids and that was about it once they determined the cause of his pain. Always better to get it checked out.

[Andy]

I am worried that the way I phrased things in my initial post may have made people think I had a chronic pain/serious medical condition I was ignoring. I want to be clear in saying that this had only cropped up for a few days, hasn't happened in the past, and was likely due to a specific awkward movement I had to do for work (reaching out far in front of me to lift the rear edge of a table top to flip it over, repeatedly). It was a "severe annoyance" level of pain and I thought about it frequently throughout the day, but one of my points in posting was that it is okay for us to go to God for even those small things.

I just say all this because I don't want someone to think I am ignoring an easily treatable or critically important thing. God is the ultimate healer and I will always seek him first, and I understand that he also made doctors to offer care to us for a reason. If I pray and ask for prayer and the issue goes away, that tells me that God wanted me to seek him on that and was glad to heal it for me. If he doesn't heal it, perhaps he needs me to meet that doctor for a reason, or drive to the hospital that day and meet someone at the gas station on the way for a reason.

I hope this came across the right way, I genuinely appreciate all the comments made, I just did not want to cause undue worry for something many would consider temporary minor or medium pain.

[Teddy (punchie)]

Hard to breath? As we get older well life is not for the weak. Ice the strained area. 8-10 minutes when bad. If swelled bad and still have full range should heel in 4-6 weeks. If after a few more days make sure you get checked out. I have ribs pull all the time have learn to reset them most of the time, need to go to chiropractor a few times a year. If I strain it bad it is weeks to get some relieve. It can be very de- soling, make you question all things in life. Learn to stretch and warm up to hard work. God Bless !! Teddy