lower back pain?

My lower back went out on me playing basketball. I couldn't walk for like 3 days. Went to get x rays and had a really bad herniated disc. Got some medicine, went to the chiropractor, didn't do anything physical for like 3 months, gained about 20 pounds, and now started working out again. I'm going full speed and my back feels great. But I always have that fear that it might go out again.

 

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This used to happen to me all the time between the ages of 18 and 25 when playing basketball (especially when going after rebounds). I would be out of commission anywhere from 2-5 days, then it'd get better and I'd feel completely healthy again... until it happened again. I got it xrayed once and they saw no problems (arrggh!). I eventually hurt my back again and my leg started going numb back in 2003. I got an MRI and it showed that I had ruptured a disc pretty badly and gotten sciatica. Crazy pain! I got surgery on it because without it, my leg was slowly getting weaker and weaker and pretty soon I'd be dragging it around behind me.

 

If you have some extra fat combined with lack of exercise, your back can become a big problem. Even 10 pounds of extra weight to carry is bad.

 

had back spasms before, and strained it again about 6 months ago. it's just now getting right, but that's bc i'm bad about resting injuries.

one thing i've learned is to stretch stretch stretch. also, keeping your core strong will help alleviate pressure on your lower back.

 

Probably too much reverse cowgirl.

 

had lower back pain from sports, went to a chiropractor for a few weeks and it hasn't bothered me in 10 years.

make sure you go to a reputable chiropractor, though. there's some shady ones out there

 

OK, reading this kind of scared me. Seeing the word SURGERY scares me. I'm 25 and this happened like 5 months ago (going after a rebound). I know that numb feeling in the leg you are talking about.

 

The numb feeling in mine was caused by the ruptured material from the disc bumping up against the sciatic nerve. But for me it was pain combined with numbness. I couldn't walk for more than about 5-10 feet without agony. Vicodin, Tylenol, and *gulp* Vioxx, did nothing for it. Mine was a pretty sever herniation though according to the neurologist.

FYI : I had microdiscectomy surgery and it wasn't a huge deal. I walked out of the hospital the same day (albeit slowly and wasn't allowed to lift anything over 5 pounds for a few weeks). I think the surgery probably took a couple of hours and the incision was like 1 inch.

 

i would recommend NOT going to any chiroquacktors.

http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/chiropractic.html

 

Yes, the doctor that took care of me told me the exact same thing you wrote in the first sentence. But thank GOD the shot and drugs they gave to me worked. He showed me my x rays and said that the space between my disc should be white, but it was just a blank space and if the pain continues than surgery would be the next step. After a couple of months not doing anything, I started to feel 100 percent and slowly started to work out again.

Hearing the word surgery makes me want to throw up, but after seeing what you wrote, it doesn't sound bad. Thanks for easing my mind a little. Here's to hoping my back doesn't go out anymore. Lower back pain sucks!!

 

That's pretty much what happened to me... and I kept re-injuring it over and over playing basketball. Each time it would be really bad for weeks and then go away...

...and then one day I re-injured it again... and it never went away. That was about 4 years ago. All the doctors I've gone to say the same thing: the pain will get worse no matter what I do, though obviously basketball and such would make it worse a lot faster. So, they all tell me to live with the pain until I can't handle it any more, or my legs go numb, whichever happens first... then get spinal fusion surgery.

So, in short, be careful.

 

Deadly twist: Neck adjustments can be risky

please don't do this. doctor, yes, chiropractor, no. good luck.

when i've had lower back pain, it's been from things like standing too long, or driving too long, sleeping in a funky postion or weight lifting.

 

Damn man how long did it take you to recover from back surgery? Im 21 and been having sciatica pain since I was 16. Im thinking about getting surgery to finally get rid of the pain. Im going to try out Inversion therapy first for a few months to see if it does anything before I get surgery.


TC, I recommend you get an inversion table because its supposed to help back problems out alot. I just got one today and about to try it out before I go to sleep.

 

Keep your abs and core strong and stretch your hamstrings. Most people with low back problems have really tight hamstrings and some extra baggage around their midsection.

 

Damn really? My dad had back surgery before I was born, which was 21 years ago, and he said he was in the hospital for more than a week. He said after he got out of the hospital it took him several weeks before he could even walk normally.

 

Yeah, we actually waited a month to see if it would start to get better or worse. Sometimes a bulging/herniated disc can fix itself if it's not too bad from what I understand. He gave me steroids, but that didn't help, either. it was getting worse. He asked me to stand on one foot and raise up on my toes. I could do it. He said, we're going to try that again in about 2 weeks. It was harder the next time, but I could do it. We tried again 1-2 weeks later and I couldn't do it anymore. That's when we basically decided to go the surgery route before the damage was irreversible. I recovered about 90% of the strength and 95% of the feeling in the leg, but it never was perfect afterwards.

Hopefully you don't keep re-herniating it. I gave up basketball in my mid-20's because I kept hurting my back. The last time it happened, I was actually writhing from the pain from kidney stones. Yes, that's right... I had to pass 2 kidney stones with a herniated disc in my back and sciatica.... while at the Summer League in California on vacation. Oh joy.

 

Yeah, back in the "old days" they had to practically rip your back open to do the same surgery. I researched it before having the surgery and the horror stories from 20-30 years ago... damn! The same surgery I had required you to be out of commission for weeks.

Again, though, after the surgery, it's not like I could go running around or anything. I was walking around slowly, but I walked out of the hospital, up stairs, etc. I had to stay in bed at home unless it was absolutely necessary to get up, too.

 

BS. Chiropractic is the only thing that ever helped me at all.



Let me tell you an entirely true story about a close friend of mine who grudgingly went to a chiropractor. And I can even tell you who the chiro is and where he is... Dr. Paul Peterson in Sacramento, CA: http://www.spineuniverse.com/chiropage.php?chiroID=2625
I had never been to a chiropractor either before the very friend this story is about told me what happened to him.

Anyway, my friend Ted (his real name, incidentally) over a period of time was having this odd problem where he was getting some really bad ulcers all down his throat and esophagus. He figured it was nothing and would eventually go away, but it got worse and worse, to the point where eating a simple sandwich felt like ingesting shards of glass.

So he goes to all kinds of doctors, surgeons, every type of specialist he can think of, and no one has a damn clue what's wrong with him. This goes on for weeks. It even gets to the point where the doctors decide he must have been ingesting cocaine or some other narcotic, so they shot him up with truth serum to see if they could get him to confess to the having done so. Naturally, that wasn't the case.

So this throat thing is obviously his primary concern. However, on the side, he's been having a little back pain. A friend recommends Dr. Peterson to him. He'd never been to a chiropractor before and thought it was all BS, but the friend convinced him to go. So he goes.

He gets to Peterson's office, and says he's been having a little back trouble. So he lies on the table, Peterson feels his back for all of 2 seconds before saying something like "my my... you must have the worst indigestion ever." Peterson cracks his back a few times and says "you should be able to eat solid food in about 6 hours." Sure enough, Ted was indeed eating solid food again, largely pain-free, by the end of the day.

He hadn't even mentioned to Peterson when he came in that he was having throat problems.

2 days later, Ted when back to his doctors and told him the problem seemed to be gone, but to please check to see if any of the ulcers were still there. They weren't. They didn't believe him when he said a chiropractor fixed the problem.



I can't speak to all chiropractors, but the ones I've been to are serious medical professionals who know what they're doing. I trust my chiro before anyone else.

You reference chiropractors who screw up. Well that's great. My primary care physician (who I went to before I'd ever heard of Peterson) decided it was a good idea to do nothing but chuck a ton of ibuprofen at me. 6 months later, after following his instructions to the letter for that period of time, and also trying alternate anti-inflammatories, my stomach got so screwed up that I could barely eat for 3 or 4 months straight. I went from being a pretty skinny guy to a really skinny guy... I lost about 20 pounds, and believe me when I say I wasn't exercising, and I didn't have much to lose in the first place.

To this day, I don't have the stomach I used to. I get upset stomachs MUCH easier after eating greasy food, and I get bad gas much easier as well. My primary care physician not only failed to fix my back problem, he created a whole new one that may be with me for the rest of my life.

All doctors screw up sometimes. All types. You could write horror stories about any of them, including chiros. That doesn't mean all chiros suck.