Excruciating lower back pain- help ASAP

[splurgein]

Last week I was doing squats and due to improper form I severely injured my lower back. After one week of complete bed-rest, lower back stretching and heat I did my lumbar back MRI. These were the results:

1. Straightened lumbar curvature- likely due to muscle spasm
2. Degenerative changes as multiple Schmorl's nodes& mild central collapse of L5 vertebra.
3. Lumbar Spondylosis with disc desiccation & narrowing at L2-3 & L3-4 levels.
4. Mild non significant disc bulges at all lumbar levels.

The report is really scaring me. Please suggest me what should I do. And would lower back stretching help in anyway??

Seriously, it's not pain its punishment.

[darscogre]

Last week I was doing squats and due to improper form I severely injured my lower back. After one week of complete bed-rest, lower back stretching and heat I did my lumbar back MRI. These were the results:

1. Straightened lumbar curvature- likely due to muscle spasm
2. Degenerative changes as multiple Schmorl's nodes& mild central collapse of L5 vertebra.
3. Lumbar Spondylosis with disc desiccation & narrowing at L2-3 & L3-4 levels.
4. Mild non significant disc bulges at all lumbar levels.

The report is really scaring me. Please suggest me what should I do. And would lower back stretching help in anyway??

Seriously, it's not pain its punishment.

I feel for ya man....ive injured my back multiple times and it sucks. People who have never experienced it dont realize just how awful it is. From my personal experience, don't just lay in bed, try your best to do what limited movement you can, even if its just standing up and walking super slow around the house. Cause even thou laying there is most comfortable, it causes the muscles to tighten even further. Thats why you tend to be even worse in the mornings after waking up.
Also, i saw that you applied heat.....but Ice is really much better at this stage, cause you want to treat the inflamation. The inflamation is what makes those muscles lock, to protect the injured area. Ice will constrict the blood flow and then afterward you remove it, it makes fresh blood rush to the area and helps reduce that inflamation.
Once you're feeling better make sure you stick to keeping your core strong so that will help give you some prevention from injuring yourself again.

[Clayton7510]

I feel for ya man....ive injured my back multiple times and it sucks. People who have never experienced it dont realize just how awful it is. From my personal experience, don't just lay in bed, try your best to do what limited movement you can, even if its just standing up and walking super slow around the house. Cause even thou laying there is most comfortable, it causes the muscles to tighten even further. Thats why you tend to be even worse in the mornings after waking up.
Also, i saw that you applied heat.....but Ice is really much better at this stage, cause you want to treat the inflamation. The inflamation is what makes those muscles lock, to protect the injured area. Ice will constrict the blood flow and then afterward you remove it, it makes fresh blood rush to the area and helps reduce that inflamation.
Once you're feeling better make sure you stick to keeping your core strong so that will help give you some prevention from injuring yourself again.

A little over a month ago, I also had a back injury. I ruptured my L4-L5 disk and I had impingement on the S1 nerve that left my left leg weak and half numb and it gave me a nice dose of sciatica. I also found that I have an L3-L4 bulge and stenosis (narrowing) in my lumbar region which exacerbates the problem. I've been doing physical therapy along with bi-weekly traction and it has helped significantly. Anyway, I feel your pain.

Talk to your doctor if he hasn't given you some kind of plan for recovery/physical therapy and/or anti-inflamatories at a minimum. If he's not a specialist (or at least a sports medicine doctor) then talk to someone who is!

+1 on the ice! I lived for the first two weeks of my injury with an ice pack on my back. You want the swelling to go down - ice helps, especially in the beginning.

Walk around if you can, take some anti-inflamatories (my doc gave me a week of strong anti-inflamatories and then just had me take Advil - a poor substitute IMO) and get someone (like a PT) to help you stretch and exercise to help facilitate your recovery. At the beginning take it easy and in the words of my doctor, "If it hurts or makes it worse then stop."

To give you some hope: when I first saw my doctor (and my PT) he said the severity of my injury would likely require surgery. But less than two months later, it's looking like that won't be necessary. I am in the gym lifting. I do cardio (on the bike & elliptical). I just stretch a lot more now (I start back with Yoga next month too), I don't put any load on my back, I wear a back brace and I am always conscious of form and posture. It makes training interesting for sure. But healing is priority #1. Lifting insane weight is not even a close #2 right now.

Lots of people bounce back from back injuries. It just takes a lot of time, care and patience.

[JohnSmeton]

I would go to a good chiropractor if you can. If not try foam rolling and lower back mobility exercises. dont do anything like bent rows, deads, squats that can interfare with healing, untill your healed.

[splurgein]

I feel for ya man....ive injured my back multiple times and it sucks. People who have never experienced it dont realize just how awful it is. From my personal experience, don't just lay in bed, try your best to do what limited movement you can, even if its just standing up and walking super slow around the house. Cause even thou laying there is most comfortable, it causes the muscles to tighten even further. Thats why you tend to be even worse in the mornings after waking up.
Also, i saw that you applied heat.....but Ice is really much better at this stage, cause you want to treat the inflamation. The inflamation is what makes those muscles lock, to protect the injured area. Ice will constrict the blood flow and then afterward you remove it, it makes fresh blood rush to the area and helps reduce that inflamation.
Once you're feeling better make sure you stick to keeping your core strong so that will help give you some prevention from injuring yourself again.

yeah man pain is just killing me. I have injured it before also but this time the pain is at it's extreme. Last week I wasn't able to walk,wasn't even to wear my shoes. Now I'm able to walk, but my back is damn stiff, it feels ask if it's gonna break.
I thought Ice was helpful during the first 48hours only then we should use heat??
Thanks mate

[splurgein]

A little over a month ago, I also had a back injury. I ruptured my L4-L5 disk and I had impingement on the S1 nerve that left my left leg weak and half numb and it gave me a nice dose of sciatica. I also found that I have an L3-L4 bulge and stenosis (narrowing) in my lumbar region which exacerbates the problem. I've been doing physical therapy along with bi-weekly traction and it has helped significantly. Anyway, I feel your pain.

Talk to your doctor if he hasn't given you some kind of plan for recovery/physical therapy and/or anti-inflamatories at a minimum. If he's not a specialist (or at least a sports medicine doctor) then talk to someone who is!

+1 on the ice! I lived for the first two weeks of my injury with an ice pack on my back. You want the swelling to go down - ice helps, especially in the beginning.

Walk around if you can, take some anti-inflamatories (my doc gave me a week of strong anti-inflamatories and then just had me take Advil - a poor substitute IMO) and get someone (like a PT) to help you stretch and exercise to help facilitate your recovery. At the beginning take it easy and in the words of my doctor, "If it hurts or makes it worse then stop."

To give you some hope: when I first saw my doctor (and my PT) he said the severity of my injury would likely require surgery. But less than two months later, it's looking like that won't be necessary. I am in the gym lifting. I do cardio (on the bike & elliptical). I just stretch a lot more now (I start back with Yoga next month too), I don't put any load on my back, I wear a back brace and I am always conscious of form and posture. It makes training interesting for sure. But healing is priority #1. Lifting insane weight is not even a close #2 right now.

Lots of people bounce back from back injuries. It just takes a lot of time, care and patience.

Man you are already lifting weights?nice. I seriously lost all my hope that I would ever be able to lift anything or ever gonna hit the gym again.
Just met a local orthopaedist, he said part of my back has been damaged permanently but it won't bother me in anyway and also I need to do complete bed rest for 2 more weeks but after reading your and darscogre's comment I seriously doubt that bed rest would a good idea coz my stiffness is increasing day by day. The good thing is there hasn't been any nerve damage yet. So doc has advised me not to lift weights for another 2-3 months

Doctor also gave me plenty of meds which include Acetaminophen & ******** Hydrochloride tablet,Deflazacort tablets,Eperisone Hydrochloride Sustained Release & Diclofenac Sodium Sustained Release.

Should I see a sports injury expert also?or Its better to wait for a while??
What's the thing with traction?? I have heard sometimes it exacerbates the problem.Is it really helpful??
Thanks a lot mate your experience gave me hope

[splurgein]

I would go to a good chiropractor if you can. If not try foam rolling and lower back mobility exercises. dont do anything like bent rows, deads, squats that can interfare with healing, untill your healed.

Can you please recommend some good lower back exercises?
In this pain I can't even think about lifting weights for a while.

[Clayton7510]

Should I see a sports injury expert also?or Its better to wait for a while??
What's the thing with traction?? I have heard sometimes it exacerbates the problem.Is it really helpful??
Thanks a lot mate your experience gave me hope

If it were me then I would see a doctor that specializes in sports medicine. Certainly listen to your ortho, but also realize that his specialty is not necessarily rehab. That's why I have a doc that specializes in sports medicine and a PT. However, our injuries are a little different. But I hear you about the pain. I could barely walk for the first couple of weeks right after my initial injury.

Traction is for treating herniated and bulging disks. It's basically like a more extreme version of inversion therapy where your spine is pulled to create negative pressure in order pull displaced disk back into position. I don't know if it helps or not. But it feels pretty good and my symptoms are improving, so I take that as a good sign

+1 on staying away from any exercises that cause you to bend at the waist or directly put pressure on your back. I was also advised by my PT to eliminate overhead presses too. That cuts out all the exercises JohnSmeton listed plus a few others, including crunches and shoulder presses. I also can't do any barbell work right now since they are a little harsher on my lumbar.

As for lower back exercises, I'm surprised you would even consider that now. But I guess I'm not too surprised since I tried easing into lower back extensions a couple of weeks ago and I didn't even get 1 inch of movement before I thought I might pass out from the pain. Stretching and stabilization exercises are going to be your friends for core strength: planks and the like will go a long way. A lot of my PT exercises are very similar to Yoga poses, so as soon as I feel like it will do more good than harm, I'm starting back with Yoga (probably a couple of weeks). But before you do anything additionally strenuous, talk to a doc - one that is geared towards rehab, just my 0.02.

[Meraviglia2]

Have you tried some NSAIDs like naprossene or just paracetamol?

[splurgein]

If it were me then I would see a doctor that specializes in sports medicine. Certainly listen to your ortho, but also realize that his specialty is not necessarily rehab. That's why I have a doc that specializes in sports medicine and a PT. However, our injuries are a little different. But I hear you about the pain. I could barely walk for the first couple of weeks right after my initial injury.

Traction is for treating herniated and bulging disks. It's basically like a more extreme version of inversion therapy where your spine is pulled to create negative pressure in order pull displaced disk back into position. I don't know if it helps or not. But it feels pretty good and my symptoms are improving, so I take that as a good sign

+1 on staying away from any exercises that cause you to bend at the waist or directly put pressure on your back. I was also advised by my PT to eliminate overhead presses too. That cuts out all the exercises JohnSmeton listed plus a few others, including crunches and shoulder presses. I also can't do any barbell work right now since they are a little harsher on my lumbar.

As for lower back exercises, I'm surprised you would even consider that now. But I guess I'm not too surprised since I tried easing into lower back extensions a couple of weeks ago and I didn't even get 1 inch of movement before I thought I might pass out from the pain. Stretching and stabilization exercises are going to be your friends for core strength: planks and the like will go a long way. A lot of my PT exercises are very similar to Yoga poses, so as soon as I feel like it will do more good than harm, I'm starting back with Yoga (probably a couple of weeks). But before you do anything additionally strenuous, talk to a doc - one that is geared towards rehab, just my 0.02.

Thanks for such a detailed explanation....you certainly have a lot of experience in this type of injury...

btw a few months back I did 3months of rehab because I had tore my right knee's meniscus so was restricted to certain upper body exercises and home knee rehab exercises. Then last month my PT told me I could resume all of my exercise's including squats(just partial squats though). So to compensate for the lost months I overdid everything and landed with a lower back injury.. .now again I would have to skip gym for 2 months or more to repair my back...man its quite frustrating.

Anyways..Yeah I took your advise and met a sport's injury expert, the same one who helped me during my meniscus tear. He gave me a couple of stretching exercises and only one muscle relaxant (unlike the ortho who gave me 5-6 meds) . He said pain would subside with time but till then dont even think about lifting anything. Like you he said the same thing that I should walk as much as possible, and do all of my daily activities and if possible start jogging and eventually running after awhile..but I like to take his suggestions with a pinch of salt coz sometimes he tries to make me optimistic about my injury but instead I get over-optimistic and overdo things..and land with another injury :P .So whats your opinion about that??
and Hey afaik, planks put a lot pressure on the lower back.. doing planks would be a good idea??

I forgot to tell you that my ortho also said if by 6weeks the pain doesn't subside we would have to use cortisone injections. This really scared me.

Thanks mate..I hope we both have a speedy recovery

[splurgein]

Have you tried some NSAIDs like naprossene or just paracetamol?

Yes initially when I wasn't able to walk or even stand erect I took diclofenac but things were more serious than I thought...so ortho suggested me many meds including some steroids and also said if by 6weeks the pain doesn't subside we would have to use cortisone injections. This really scared me, so I saw PT who specializes in sports medicine.He gave me only muscle relaxant and some stretching exercises. So, now I am in bit of quandary whether to take ortho's meds or the PT's??.but currently my pain is worse than what PT says

[Jbaker1121]

damn man. I know only part of your feel. Bulged disc in my L5 - pain lasted all summer and is starting to come back with increased lifting / sitting in class all day.

you'll probably feel better after the cortisone injection, but apparently they hurt like a bitch. I did PT all summer at a sports doc and it did help to relax it and make it feel better and in the end they said no on the shot, however being back at school and lifting more it's been acting up (my L5 bulge led to sciatica so my whole hamstring and leg would hurt; couldn't sit comfortably etc. the most comfortable I was was laying on my back with a pillow under my lumbar…..

You'll get through this OP. Go to PT, let them massage you and stretch it out to get rid of some of the swelling. I would continue taking the meds too (I'm no doc)

If it doesn't get better I would go for the shot. They hurt, but it will help a lot.

good luck!

[DrJKiel]

Yes initially when I wasn't able to walk or even stand erect I took diclofenac but things were more serious than I thought...so ortho suggested me many meds including some steroids and also said if by 6weeks the pain doesn't subside we would have to use cortisone injections. This really scared me, so I saw PT who specializes in sports medicine.He gave me only muscle relaxant and some stretching exercises. So, now I am in bit of quandary whether to take ortho's meds or the PT's??.but currently my pain is worse than what PT says

What medications? If it's as bad as it sounds, you should be on an NSAID (diclofenac is one example) and a muscle relaxant. If you have a nice doctor, they gave you a narcotic like vicoden for break through pain. Rest and stretching is the way to go. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQX9ViXuNhQ

Also, when you get back to squatting... fix your form... or just stop squatting. No reason to put yourself through this more than once.

[splurgein]

What medications? If it's as bad as it sounds, you should be on an NSAID (diclofenac is one example) and a muscle relaxant. If you have a nice doctor, they gave you a narcotic like vicoden for break through pain. Rest and stretching is the way to go. Check out this video

Also, when you get back to squatting... fix your form... or just stop squatting. No reason to put yourself through this more than once.

My PT gave me only-Eperisone Hydrochloride sustained release & Diclofenac Sodium Sustained Release tablet
and my ortho gave me- Acetaminophen & ******** Hydrochloride tablet,Deflazacort tablets ,Sustained-release pregabalin with methylcobalamin.

Can I take the PT's medicine along with the ortho's??

Thanks for the video mate..was really helpful

[splurgein]

Yeah I am gonna continue with my meds and stretching and will wait for 6 weeks before considering a shot (as my doc said)...I have heard that these injections really hurt..I hope my pain alleviate's within 6 weeks.

btw did stretching or walking around help you reduce your stiffness??

Thanks mate!

damn man. I know only part of your feel. Bulged disc in my L5 - pain lasted all summer and is starting to come back with increased lifting / sitting in class all day.

you'll probably feel better after the cortisone injection, but apparently they hurt like a bitch. I did PT all summer at a sports doc and it did help to relax it and make it feel better and in the end they said no on the shot, however being back at school and lifting more it's been acting up (my L5 bulge led to sciatica so my whole hamstring and leg would hurt; couldn't sit comfortably etc. the most comfortable I was was laying on my back with a pillow under my lumbar…..

You'll get through this OP. Go to PT, let them massage you and stretch it out to get rid of some of the swelling. I would continue taking the meds too (I'm no doc)

If it doesn't get better I would go for the shot. They hurt, but it will help a lot.

good luck!

[DrJKiel]

My PT gave me only-Eperisone Hydrochloride sustained release & Diclofenac Sodium Sustained Release tablet
and my ortho gave me- Acetaminophen & ******** Hydrochloride tablet,Deflazacort tablets ,Sustained-release pregabalin with methylcobalamin.

Can I take the PT's medicine along with the ortho's??

Thanks for the video mate..was really helpful

Don't mix those meds. Go back to ortho or to your primary care doctor to get it sorted out.

[splurgein]

After 10 days I again went over to my orhtopaedist. This time he checked my vitamin d level and I was severely deficient in it..It's around 9 and sufficient should be greater than 30. So the doctor said that vit d deficiency is the only reason why my back pain wouldn't go away so he has put me on vitamin d supplements and fish oil and nothing else. Is it possible that vit d is the only reason for my back pain considering my pain started after lifting? what about muscle spasms because my back is still stiff?

And also for 1-2 years I have been using ON's fish oil and MV but still my vit-d levels are so low. Should I get myself tested again from somewhere else??

Please help!!

[BlackWolf111]

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