My back's killing me!

I strongly recommend seeing a Dr. Don't screw around with your back.

In the mean time, lay on your side, in the fetal position with a pillow between your knees.

Ive always found Aleive is the best OTC medicine you can take for a bad back.

 

My father-in-law believes the best thing is to lie on your stomach and prop yourself on your elbows so your back is curved the other way. Then read for ten minutes in that position.

 

Go see a doctor before doing anything else. You could just aggravate something and make it worse. All back pain isn't as simple a diagnosis as a stiff or pulled muscle. For all you know you could have herniated/ruptured a disc.

 

If you have access to a gym or a playground that has a chin-up bar, do the following:

Grab onto the chinup bar and just hang from it without your feet touching the ground. Gently swinging your legs forward and backward. Try it for about 30 seconds, or as long as you can.

It stretches everything out, and it works for me every time. I've been suffering from scoliosis since I was a teenager.

 

Go to a chiropractor. I've been going on occasion for 20 years when I need medical attention (I'm borderline needing it right now!).

20+ years ago I went to an orthopaedic guy who sent me to a physical therapist who made me worse. Then he wanted to cut on me. I cancelled and went to a chiropractor.

I've been managing it pretty well for over 20 years now. The chiropractor can/will give you several sets of simple exercises to do--- depending on what your problem is.

 

My dad firmly believes in hitting yourself in the groin. Makes you forget all about your back immediately.

 

I don't disagree with those that are telling him to go see a doctor, but that is assuming he can see one TODAY. It takes me a week just to get in to see my doctor.

And with back pain that bad, you really can't wait around a week.

DeAleck,

I would do stretching exercises like hanging from a pull-up bar or lying flat on your stomach and stretching your arms forward.

Chiropractors are good but be aware that they will want you to come in and see them ALL THE TIME. In other words, they want you to become addicted to them.

You are better off in lifting weights. Since I started working out over 3 years ago, I have nowhere near the trouble with back pain like I used to.

 

Chiropractor's get really really mad when you call them "fake doctor's" repeatedly. Believe me, I've done it a couple of times.

 

Funny, this happened to me Sunday. I went and had it looked at and it was a pulled muscle(lower back). They gave me happy medicine and told me to relax and to not lift anything heavy. I also went and got a massage....it helped out alot.

 

Great point.

Doing anything else at this point, including excercises, would be asinine since he doesn't know what is even causing his pain.

It could be the difference between a bulging disk and then actually rupturing it.

 

Many people on here know I had a back injury that nearly crippled me. I would recommend a SKILLED physical/massage therapist and maybe even an accupuncturist. Doctors are great but they often just give you something to relieve the pain and nothing to fix the symptoms unless they are willing to refer you to rehabilitation. My experience was that with doctors I had three choices: live with it, surgery or pain medication, that was it.

I went through massage therapy treatment, some physical rehab and that fixed a problem that caused me to not be able to walk correctly for over a year.

 

i've had several incidents of back problems throughout my adult life. the only thing that ever helped was acupuncture. this case seems to be something along the lines of a strained muscle since it was so immediate. however, a ruptured disc doesn't seem out of the question. take this event seriously. see a doctor if you can.
good luck.

 

Ice your pulled muscle then go to a massage therapist ~ if the pain continues go see a doctor. After you heal seriously consider going to some sort of gym to strengthen your back muscles; this will help more than anything else.

 

Jeff, I was given the same three choices. Before that, I did massages, physical therapy, chiropractors...nothing work. After seeing a neorosurgen, he told me the same thing...live with it, medicate it, or surgery. I finally opted for surgery, getting two operations done two weeks apart.

During the first surgery, the doctor found that the outer sheath on my sciatic nerve had begun to tear away from my spinal cord. No amount of therapy was going to fix that.

dealeck, don't jack around with your back. Trust me, I've been thru it all. In fact, I'm having more problems now (associated with my cervical problem) that need to be attended to. I feel your pain....literally.

 

Take a bath, and then wrap a hot towel around your head. And then make yourself some soup, get a nap...

 

Some of the statements made above are exactly why I say don't do things like twisting or stretching exercises until you know what the problem is - you could severely rupture a partially herniated disc or something if you're not careful.

See a doc. It could be something simple like a muscle strain or something way more serious like a herniation.

 

I sprained my back several weeks ago (I had pain shooting down one of my legs) and I did some research and found some back exericses that have really, really helped. A doctor called Robin McKenzie developed a self-treatment series that has been adopted by physical therapists all over the world

I strongly reccomend getting this book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_1/002-9211033-5823264?v=glance&s=books&st=*

Read the reviews on the Amazon site. They should have this in your local library.