Temporarily out of commission.

I decided to do a lot of work at home on Friday. Early in the morning I was lugging steel into my towing trailer and I felt my back pull,but decided that it wasn't serious enough to quit working. I seeded and moved dirt and rocks and set three raised bed gardens after the back problem. It really hurt but I figured that it was a muscle pull and would be ok by morning.

Last night I hardly slept a wink because of the pain. Today I went to a chiropractor and after the visit it doesn't really feel any better. I am scheduled to go see him again on Monday. Hopefully it will be better.

It isn't very bad if I'm in my recliner,but the second I get up I have sharp pain in the lower back and all along my left leg. It hurts so bad I am almost afraid to get up for anything.I might try to venture to the studio later but for now I am staying horizontal or semi-horizontal. The off the shelf pain killers I took don't seem to help at all. I have some whiskey in the cupboard and I can't say I wasn't temped to medicate with some of it.I usually keep that for the occasional sip when I get a cold.

It could be better but it could be a lot worse.

Copy that. I'm all too familiar. Once you feel that initial twinge, you know you're in trouble. Yeah, it doesn't seem like much at first, but the next day...you're done for.
Forget the chiropractor.
Ibuprofen and ice. And time.

You must have pinched a nerve in your lower spine. If the chiropractor couldn't find it, it will be a matter of time before the aggrevated nerves settle down. 

Uggh... I feel for you. 

As one back doctor said, tearing a muscle in your back is very rare, and a bound nerve is usually the result of accumulative damage. It may have spasmed however. As others have mentioned, Ibuprofen is a pretty decent NSIAD and analgesic. You will need to suffer for a couple of days, but once mobile, get back on your feet. As another doctor said, the best medicine is to "keep moving". The pain comes from cooling down and stiffening up. 

Having suffered many years of extreme and debilitating back pain, I have learned the vast, vast majority of back pain of the nature you describe is due to muscle imbalance (front to back, or side to side). To prevent future injury, exercise is the key (and works very well let me tell you). The jury is still out on the benefits of stretching, and its now too late for ice (works best in the first hour to help reduce inflammation).

That being said, please do go to your Dr and get an x-ray to ensure you have not herniated a disk.

Yuck.

Don't need no pinched nerve thingee...take care ...

Nasty.

A good friend of mine has been suffering with back pain for a couple of years but he only recently decided to get it checked out.

Result? A slipped disc, an operation, and 5 weeks off work recuperating.

I don't know if exercise is good idea at this point. Especially if it is a disc. You might aggrevate it. Anti-inflamatorys, water, and staying still until the pain subsides might do you better. I had a rotated disc once from a work situation. Anti-inflamatorys and bed rest for five days. Then the ostiopath I went to layed me on a table, placed one arm across my shoulders, the other across my  rib cage and... crunch!, realigned that disc. It was loud, lol, but it was better immediately. Sometime the muscles attached to those discs tighten up and movement only aggrevates the situation.

 Crg- The chiropractor I went to did that same alignment. You could hear bones popping when he had me on the table and moved my shoulder one way and my hip the other way. I think he did set me then but apparently the problem is deeper.

They put electrical stimulation on my back for 15 minutes. Its interesting how they determine what the proper "level" is. They keep turning the control until you say it's too much. I must be pretty tolerant of it because it was so high my butt cheeks were dancing around on their own and I could have swore I smelled bacon cooking. It did feel good for that 15 minutes.

 Foxwolfen-  I have a back doctor from my last injury back in like 04' and they insist in the MRI mainly because it shows bone and tissue whereas the X-ray will only show the bones. As you say it could very well be a muscle but it feels really like something gave in my spine. The catch 22 is that when I stand something puts pressure on my leg nerve which hurts like **** so I start limping on one leg and this puts even more weight on the region that is pressing the nerve lol. Yesterday I shaved laying on the bathroom floor looking into a hand mirror.

 Thank God for my wonderful wife who waited on me all weekend. I still had to get up for the necessary things. Today I went to work and only told one person about it. I can't be seen by my specialist until Friday morning so I'm dealing with it until then. 

 We all get these curve balls now and then. I hope I don't read about any others for awhile.

Wishing you the best Starise.

I hope the condition recedes and or your specialists finds a solution quickly.


best regards,
mike

While chiropractors do serve a useful purpose, most of the visits to them are pretty useless and unnecessary.

I had a chiropractor tell me once that if people would simply stretch, warm up, and exercise a bit more than we do, there would be very few people going to see them. 

Our back muscles are like the antenna guy wires that keep the antenna standing straight up (our spines) and we don't do enough exercise or work (many folks have desk jobs) to strengthen them sufficiently to handle the work we put on them on rare occasion. 

Pulled and strained muscles are the result of exceeding the limits of a weak muscle. They hurt quite bad until they recover in a week or so. Most people do not realize they are overworking the muscles when they are doing it.... it's only the next day or later in the evening after they set down that the pain comes on. We get in a rush to get things done and end up pulling and lifting improperly... using our backs rather than our legs and arms..... winches are a great tool to use too on heavy things. Backs.... not so much. 

This of course is very different from a ruptured disk, a slipped vertebrae or some other physical issue with the spine and the nerves, but those things, while painful are a bit more rare than the pulled muscle thing from the weekend warrior projects. 

Ibuprofen will ease the pain.... and doing some yoga stretching should also help. The muscle wants to contract a bit so stretch it gently. Yoga is good for the gentle stretching. Don't bounce into a stretch, just smooth and easy...hold it at the point...(you will know/feel the point) and ease off. repeat. 

Ask for what you want...Deal with what you've got...

Anything else may spook the cattle.

That's the best advice an old ranch hand gave me, anyway.  Oh, he also said, "Carry a big stick into the hen house or the rooster will claw your eyes out."  Cowboy wisdom...

I missed this thread somehow but have too much experience in this area!  Surgery and most drugs are almost NEVER needed (though they tend to be the first two options doctors go to).  If you'd like I could PM you a link to something for you to read. 

I've had the exact scenario you described and it took a couple of trips to the Chiropractor to get it straightened out (no pun intended).  If you have a GOOD one, his goal is to fix you and not have to see you again.  If you have one that suggests you visit often, or worse, offers a coupon book, then I'm afraid you've got one of the quack versions and you'd be better off finding a new person!  The cause is pretty straight-forward but, just like when the corner of a page in a book gets bent, it doesn't return to being straight on the first attempt.  You need a couple of follow-ups.  You'll find that alternating ice and heat help to reduce the swelling allowing the doctor to get to work better.

For the record, I used to have really bad back issues to the point where I would get spasms that dropped me to the floor.  The doctors were recommending surgery because my L3 and L4 had disintegrated.  I decided to look for alternate options which actually led me down the path toward a PhD but, ultimately, taught me that there are FAR more things out there that we're not usually led to believe are possible.  It took 3.5 years, but I actually regrew those discs and blew away my doctors (every cell in your body is always being replaced, bones just take the longest - up to nine years).  The other issues I had were due to a tilting pelvis and improper back support which disappeared with a few chiropractor sessions (which I had avoided my whole life), a few exercises and better knowledge of how to treat my back.

Your back is like a tall pole with guy wires supporting it.  When one wire is too tight or too loose, the pole can get bent or twisted.  Getting all of your muscles and tendons to work correctly is the main goal here.  In between your vertebre are soft discs that can act like a clown's baloon (the one's they make animals from).  When they get pressed down on one side the push out the other.  Spinal decompression (which usually occurs while sleeping) is required for these to naturally move back into their correct place.  Surgery only fixes the symptoms not the root cause.

Anyway, as I said, if you'd like I could PM you something to read about this.