My poor back

[abunaitoo]

Never really had any back problems.
Sore from time to time.
Stiff after doing lots of work.
But a few days ago, in the morning, I went to pick up the cat to give her her medicine.
Felt like a stabbing pain in the left side of my back.
Hobbled around and gave the cat her medicine.
Went to get the morning paper.
Went to feed the birds in the back.
It wasn't getting any better.
Found the heating pad and laid down on it.
Did that for a few days and it almost back to normal.
Still gets stiff sometimes.
How long does it normally take to go away????
I hate getting old.

[No_1]

Mine bothers me every once in a while. Last time was for about 2 weeks and of course it began right before I was to spread 150 cu yds of road base then cover it with 72 cu yds of lime rock. Like you, a couple of days of limited duty while relaxing on a heating pad brought me back to my normal state.

[XDROB]

I had to have my S1, L5 fused. Doc told my wife he did not know how I was even walking. I was in a lot o f pain sometimes. Now I'm doing well. Will be completely healed this Sept.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

[Wayne Smith]

Depends on the cause - if it is muscular a couple days does it. If it is a pinched nerve due to a bulging disk it can take 6 months or so for the body to absorb the bulge and relieve the pain.

[Brassmonkey]

Everytime I messed my back up. It's always in the morning, stretching and some mild excercise after waking will do it good.

[Half Dog]

I picked up my house shoes, which caused my back to go out. Med’s, bed rest, and 4 days later I was doing ok. Just a little stiff.

[Gator 45/70]

Lately I've taken to using some DMSO cream on the lower back when the pain kicks in, Get ya some !

[Burnt Fingers]

Sometimes it never goes away.

[tai95]

September 2019 a guy at work dropped a box on my head. I was a little angry finished up what I was doing and went on break. Went to stand up after the break and something felt off. Found a manager and told them what happened and had to start filling out paperwork. There is a 800 nursing number the company has so I had to call them and give them all the details. I was going to try and finish up my shift and call it a day. The nurse hotline was like nope you are going to the hospital.

I went to the ER (in a company provided cab), they stuck a neck brace on me and started doing xrays. The xrays showed something and they sent me for a ct scan. I was sitting in the room waiting and a doctor came in and asks me if I had been in a car accident recently. He said I had a fractured T5 and T6 and the disks between 5 and 6, 6 and 7, and 9 and 10 were ruptured. They finally set me up with a follow up appointment and I was able to go home.

A few days later I went to the spinal surgeon. He was an uppity holier than though dr who works for the sabres and bills. He came in the room in his $5000 suit looked at me and said there was nothing wrong maybe try PT. I went for a second opinion and he said I would need surgery. In the meantime workers comp made me go through 16 weeks of PT. I had the first back surgery in August 2020. The put cages in and that didn't work at all.

January 2021 I went in for the second back surgery. This one sucked but they cut out some of the disk and I have this huge mass of metal holding things on place now. I'm back to going to PT, but after the last surgery I have numbness in my arm and have lost a ton of strength in it. The best part is I still hurt as bad as I did on the day of the accident.

So how long will your back hurt? Who knows. I just know I wish I would have skipped the surgery and just dealt with it, cause every time they touch me something new pops up.

[Gator 45/70]

tai95, Sorry to hear about you're troubles !
Lawyer up !

[Scrounge]

Never really had any back problems.
Sore from time to time.
Stiff after doing lots of work.
But a few days ago, in the morning, I went to pick up the cat to give her her medicine.
Felt like a stabbing pain in the left side of my back.
Hobbled around and gave the cat her medicine.
Went to get the morning paper.
Went to feed the birds in the back.
It wasn't getting any better.
Found the heating pad and laid down on it.
Did that for a few days and it almost back to normal.
Still gets stiff sometimes.
How long does it normally take to go away????
I hate getting old.

I started doing physical therapy Monday, since mine is getting worse, and I've been sitting in front of a computer since April 2020. Sharp stabbing pain under the right shoulder blade. When I saw my doc a couple of Mondays ago, sleeping on a heat pad had mostly gotten rid of it, but putting SWMBO's wheelchair back in the trunk started it hurting again. Physical therapist suggested getting a transport chair. Small wheels, and much lighter than the old stainless steel wheelchair we've been using for 20+ years. Bought on after talking to her Monday, used it the first time yesterday, and today the back is much better. Even though SWMBO stole my heat pad. You might want to see your doc, get a referral to PT, and see what they can do to help you. I've got a dozen exercises that should help my back, and make it easier for me to do the exercise that I'm going to need to get rid of the dogfood bag's worth of extra weight I've picked up this past sedentary year. Mind you, I've had arthritis since I was 17, and back troubles since 1987, when I rode the Space Mountain ride at Disney World. My lower spine looks like eroded limestone mountains, not vertebrae, on the X-rays. So YMMV, but getting some professional help can't hurt that much.

Bill

[tai95]

tai95, Sorry to hear about you're troubles !
Lawyer up !

I have a great lawyer. I always pick a woman because they can be evil.

I try not to think about it too much though, because even though I hurt daily I'm still alive. Way more people out there worse off than me.

[MaryB]

Muscle spasm can take up to 2 weeks to totally have the pain go away if it was severe. I have fought them since high school when I was injured when someone slipped on ice at the top of the steps, I was almost at the bottom and ended up under 20 bodies...

Discs may or may not heal, older you get the more petrified discs get, they literally dry out. If it is a ruptured disc they can go in and remove the parts hitting the nerve.

[mozeppa]

turn around! ....yer preachin' to the choir!

i moved pool tables for 44 years.

[FISH4BUGS]

Best thing for many is PT and daily exercises. I had spasms so bad one day i literally cried out loud.
It hurt worse than being shot....but that's a story for another time.
MRI, PT and exercises is making it about as good as it will get. Sore most of the time but not so bad that I can't function.
Gardening and yard work helps keep me limber as I can be.

[Mk42gunner]

Real back pain, not from just strained or overworked muscles, has to be felt to be understood. Sometimes a chiropractor may help, I don't know for sure, I've never went to one.

My own worst experience I have absolutely no idea what happened, but my right MCL was blown out about the same time and it never hurt. The Kansas City VA did nothing about it for almost three years except give me a cane and drugs. Oh and they really wanted to burn some nerves in my back. That was not happening unless they could prove to me what was wrong.

Then one winter morning I am standing there breaking ice so the stupid horse could get a drink, and the tool I was using bounced back and hit me in the jaw. As I was jerking back, I felt a stabbing pain between my shoulder blades that almost made me cry.

As I picked myself up, I realized I felt better than I had for at least a couple of years. Knee still didn't work right though.

That spring I finally went to another doctor and he fixed it.

Robert

[AlHunt]

Unless a person has had chronic, never ending, day in and day out back pain for months or years, they just can't possibly understand. It can hurt 24/7 just standing still and then any motion (like turning to look to your side, not to mention standing, sitting, walking) makes it REALLY hurt.

For me, it's something in my low back and causes sciatica. Very hard to describe but weighted hamstring curls on a bench with hand grips so I can pull my upper body away from my lower body are a miracle cure. I'd imagine some kind of inversion table would work.

[iomskp]

I was doing well till I hit 60, I went on holiday arrived at the airport picked up my hire car 20 minutes down the road a little old lady turned into me I was doing 100 k per h, I bounced off another car and ended back where she hit me, broke T3 T6 and 7 ribs whiplash caused all sorts of problems, That was nearly 6 years ago I can't work, I have head aches all day every day, short term memory loss, I hate taking drugs the best I have done is 3 days and then I gave in The reality is it isn't going away nod and smile I'm still on the right side of the grass.

[gbrown]

Well, in 1999, blew my back out doing something stupid. Had MRI, Neurosurgeon wanted to do surgery, I put him off and got out of there. It healed, with self PT. Went to Bosnia for 9 months with my rich uncle, Sam, and came back fine. All was good til 2020. Then it blew out again. Nothing worked. Told the oldest, "If I wanted to have any quality of life, surgery." Had that in 8/2020. Laminectomy, L5/S1 fusion. My Back in Xray looks like a small railroad. So far, so good. A few clitches at the beginning, but got them ironed out. Just the last month and a half, I can put my socks on by myself. shoes on by myself. I can now bend and such. I go back in May for my 9 month checkup. Hope he will increase my activity level.

[MOshooter]

I completely understand your pain.
If you have a inflamed bulging/herniated disc?
Ice is your friend 20 min. every hour, I used ice packs wrapped in towels to reduce the inflammation and swelling.
I blew a disc out between L4 and L5 and tried PT over 2 years, I was bone to bone and living 24/7 in a back brace.

The pain was so severe, I couldn't walk any type of slightest grade, and couldn't even walk off of hard smooth surfaces, like the lawn. I slept in my back brace, the pain was so severe I couldn't hardly take the pain to sit on the stool in the morning to take care of business. I stood for 3-4 years straight to eat my meals at the kitchen counter, I couldn't sit in a vehicle to ride much more than 10-15 minutes before I would start locking up.

Finally had the L4 and L5 fused, spinal cord channel opened up? trying to take pressure off of nerves. They found some damaged and severed nerves in that area and repaired them best they could.
I was told before surgery my numb left foot should go away after surgery, 11 months after surgery I asked my surgeon about my numb left foot? The surgeon told me that I had managed to bulge or herniate every disc in my spinal cord and he wouldn't know where to start? 11 years later I still have that left numb foot, plus more numbness in my other foot.
I'm a longs ways from what I was, but grateful I'm still here.

Worked in the HVAC field 44 years, 25 of those as a HVAC contractor, and farmed 30 years mixed in those 44 years.
Lived by mottos "work hard, play hard" and "If I wasn't feeling it, I wasn't working hard enough".. I'm feeling it now! lol

[Garyshome]

Try some back stretches. Small effort goes a long way. Look them up online.

[abunaitoo]

It's almost back to 100%.
I'll take it easy for another week and hope to be back to 100%.

[abunaitoo]

Helped my friend again today.
Back did fine.
I guess I'm healed up.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Great!

[robg]

did the same .muscle problem saw physio she told me to lie on the floor and do a push up with my hips on floor to arch my back the other way .worked a treat, if it starts up again i do the exercise and the pain goes away.

[Rizzo]

I am surprised that no one mentioned going to a chiropractor.

I go to one when my back goes out and pretty much have instant relief afterwards.
There is still some residual "feeling" from the inflammation that was present but moving around after the treatment I can tell things are back in alignment.
Perhaps give it a try next time.

[Spooksar]

September 2019 a guy at work dropped a box on my head. I was a little angry finished up what I was doing and went on break. Went to stand up after the break and something felt off. Found a manager and told them what happened and had to start filling out paperwork. There is a 800 nursing number the company has so I had to call them and give them all the details. I was going to try and finish up my shift and call it a day. The nurse hotline was like nope you are going to the hospital.

I went to the ER (in a company provided cab), they stuck a neck brace on me and started doing xrays. The xrays showed something and they sent me for a ct scan. I was sitting in the room waiting and a doctor came in and asks me if I had been in a car accident recently. He said I had a fractured T5 and T6 and the disks between 5 and 6, 6 and 7, and 9 and 10 were ruptured. They finally set me up with a follow up appointment and I was able to go home.

A few days later I went to the spinal surgeon. He was an uppity holier than though dr who works for the sabres and bills. He came in the room in his $5000 suit looked at me and said there was nothing wrong maybe try PT. I went for a second opinion and he said I would need surgery. In the meantime workers comp made me go through 16 weeks of PT. I had the first back surgery in August 2020. The put cages in and that didn't work at all.

January 2021 I went in for the second back surgery. This one sucked but they cut out some of the disk and I have this huge mass of metal holding things on place now. I'm back to going to PT, but after the last surgery I have numbness in my arm and have lost a ton of strength in it. The best part is I still hurt as bad as I did on the day of the accident.

So how long will your back hurt? Who knows. I just know I wish I would have skipped the surgery and just dealt with it, cause every time they touch me something new pops up.

About that uppity doctor remember 50% of doctors graduate at the bottom of thier class,they all get paid the same when they start and this causes a real attitude in some. They should get paid on thier ability

[abunaitoo]

Never want to have any surgery on the back.
Mom did, and it didn't get better.
Thing with back surgery, once it done, you can't go back.
Guy I know insist on going only to chinese doctors.
To me they just want to take his money.
Keep on doing test, after test, after test, with no answers.
Last I heard they want to do some surgery on his brain.
Even his chinese eye doctor, who he's been going to for years, messed him up.
Eye so bad now, nothing can be done.
Doc told him me waited to long.
Sees the quack once a year.
This guy is a mess anyway.
Try to stay away from him, and the family.
They all turned out to be users.
Side note............
Doc made me take a blood test.
Everything is a little better that last time.
I must be doing something right.
If I could only figure what it is.