24 no injury, chronic lower back pain, doctors say I'm perfect

[dirtymc]

Hoping one of you may be able to relate to my situation.

I'm a 24 year old mechanic. Lower back pain started showing up when I worked at a tire shop. Requires lots of "improper lifting" using lower back rather than legs. Had no problems for a long time and they very slowly creeped up on me. I have very dull pain in my lower back, the onset of pain is very delayed from the cause, zero sharp pains. Over the past few years I've come to realize that using my back is the main cause of the pain, sounds stupid but for a very long time the source was very mysterious mainly due to the very long delay between the activity that causes the pain and the pain onset. All of the doctors/physical therapists say I'm 100% perfect and nothings wrong with me. X-rays, radioactive bone scans, range of motion, all perfect. Even running 5 miles doesn't make it hurt. I've had 2 episodes where I had to take a week off of work due to extreme pain. One time a few years ago at the tire shop, but when I returned, I could still do tires, just 20 hrs a week instead of 40. I eventually made a "full" recovery. Currently I work at a place where tires is only a small portion of what I do, and I had another episode where the pain got so bad I had to take a full week off. Spent the whole time laying on the couch. Except this time when I returned I can't do tires at all. One set will cause me pain. Once I returned I stopped doing tires completely. I haven't done any in months and almost never do ANY "improper lifting" anymore. Yet every time I try, it hurts. It's like I can heal back to a certain point where I normally have almost no pain, but i'm on the edge. The second I use my lower back, the pain will return. It's the kind of pain where stopping the activity doesn't offer relief. The last week I was on the couch I didn't do anything and the pain just doesn't stop at all, It was 100% all day every day till it finally got better. Taking lots of ibuprofen helps (800mg 3xday every day) but like the last time I had to take a week off of work, ******** (oxycodone/oxycotin) didn't even work. It only took 1/2 to 2/3 of the pain away.

I'm your average athletic guy 6' 175lbs. I'm really just hoping maybe someone here has experienced a similar situation and could shed some light. Every expert I've seen has no ****ing idea what's wrong with me, and is of no help.

[JayRoMe0]

Welcome to the 80-90% my friend. Don't worry you are completely normal and chronic lowerback pain is something EVERYONE (or most) people will experience at one time in their life.

Sounds like you have repetivley strained a muscle in the lower back region, causing it to be short, tight and weak (this is why you keep getting reinjured when you think it feels 100%)

Take it from me, i had exactly what you experienced. It would feel 100%, id lift something and it would take 5, sometimes 8 weeks to go away before I would reinjure it again.

Although it would be extremely hard to determine EXACTLY what muscle is overstretched and strained but the most fittest athlete when succumb to an injury can run all day, but cannot stand for more than 1 hr ( something similar to what I had).

The body will heal, you have to give it the right conditions. It sounds like you have a grade 2 tear, these usually take 4-6 weeks to be completely pain free and 'normal' but in actual fact it takes A LOT of time for the muscle to be what it was before the injury, a good PT and proper treatment can speed up this process significantly if you can find out what muscle is weak and tight and correct it by strenghting and strectching it you can prevent causing your repetitive strains in the lower back area.

Msg me if you wanna know more about my injury, looking forward to hearing ur progress with this injury.

EDIT: i assume you saw doctor so im ruling out any disc injuries, but have you had an MRI, can you curve your back with no pain, twist etc, any numbness or tingly feelings?

[dirtymc]

i assume you saw doctor so im ruling out any disc injuries, but have you had an MRI, can you curve your back with no pain, twist etc, any numbness or tingly feelings?

Yea, discs are fine, Doctor said mri was basically a waste of money unless I was considering having surgery (I'm not). I can contort myself into any position with basically no pain, except doing decline bench press sometimes hurts. No numbness or tingly feelings. It sometimes moves towards my buttocks though, especially on the right.

[Yoy0]

Yea, discs are fine, Doctor said mri was basically a waste of money unless I was considering having surgery (I'm not). I can contort myself into any position with basically no pain, except doing decline bench press sometimes hurts. No numbness or tingly feelings. It sometimes moves towards my buttocks though, especially on the right.

Then it's probably not your back at all.

Try feeling around the lower end of your glutes and compare, do you notice that one is tighter than the other?