DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Lower Back Pain

Ok, so I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I strained/tore the muscles in my lower back.

I think it happened while I was sleeping, because my bed was lumpy, and over 3 days it started hurting worse and worse.

I cant bend. I cant lift my legs up. My back feels so weak. There is sudden sharp pain if I try to bend in any way. It mostly seems to be on the right side.

So I tried sleeping on the other side of the bed, and it feels better, but still majorly hurting.

Based my internet diagnosis I have a strained back.

Its been two weeks now, amd still hurts. I have not been to the Dr.

I am sitting here with a heating pad.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone has advice on the quickest way to heal this.

I have had sciatca pain in the past, but it was totally different. I beat it into submission with tons of NSAIDs.

This is totally different and not a nerve problem. (I dont think)

I have chronic back pain, some days are worse then others and on the bad days I use one of those vibrating pads that you put in a chair and sit/lean up against that for up to a hour or so. It's kind of like going to the chiropractor but not as intense. I also have one of those shiatsu massage units that you put in a chair to use and I use it every so often to loosen my back up.

I don't have much experience with back pain, but have sprained a lower back muscle once before. I remember feeling that awful pain, like the muscle was on fire or being stabbed.

I remember it taking a while and struggling to get comfortable. Using some heat seemed to help, stretching once it was warm, massaging it in the shower, and then resting (on my stomach seemed to be the best)

Ouch…

If you want to greatly reduce this happening again, you gotta, gotta, gotta get into a daily stretching routine.

Maybe 30 minutes/day will do.

- rockyhilldawg, M.D.

You might need to head to the Dr. for some muscle relaxers. Then you might need to head down to the Serta store and find a new mattress. At least try turning and or flipping the mattress. Rotating your matterss is something you should do every 4-5 months.

We tend to sleep on the same portion of matterss. It needs to be rotated just like we need to rotate tires on the car.

I agree with this advice. Also, maybe rubbing in some Ben-Gay or another muscle rub might make it feel better. Nothing worse than lower back pain.

Get better soon EveDawg

Really hot baths should also help.

I have occasional bouts of ‘low back’ pain. Mine stems from my SI joint. It’s fairly common to mistake SI joint pain for low back pain.
Here’s a link with some treatment options.
Good luck. Mine usually takes 3-7 days to resolve. https://www.braceability.com/blogs/articles/sacroiliac-joint-pain-exercises

Do you spend a lot of time sitting? That can lead to all sorts of issues.

Be sure to take breaks if you are sitting for extended periods of time. Also, start a stretching program. You can google tons of free exercises. Here is one quick search example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=stretchi...=firefox-b-1-ab

Good advice, but don't do any stretching until you know what the pain is from.

Eve: I periodically have the same issue. My stomach will not tolerate NSAID's but if you are OK with them, try Aleve. It is simply a lower strength NSAid. You need to correct what is causing the issue; try pinning it down. If you are a back or tummy sleeper, that can exacerbate the problem.

I go to a chiropractor once a month for ultrasonic and heat/vibration preventative maintenance. (Thanks Canada - no charge). I also watch my posture, especially sitting, as this is usually the source of my problem.

aleve and lots of water will help lots of water. heat by the spine may be hurting it i would stay off the heat. Heat is good for muscles bad for the spine. When I have neck pain I ice my neck and heat my shoulder. when I have lower back I dont do either. New mattress will help I like tempurpedic. they take some getting used to but I love it.

Thanks guys. I have a memory foam mattress. I never thought it would get lumpy, but guess it can. I am not able to flip the bed with the sore back, so I'm sleeping on the other side of the bed for now.

Good point.

Go to the doctor and figure out what is going on. It's not really possible to diagnose these types of injuries on the internet and lower back isn't something you want to take chances on.

Eve sweetie if your in severe pain and you have health insurance then you should immediately go to the doctor NOW. It's not necessarily a pulled muscle since you mention it's only on one side of your back. For instance you could have a small kidney stone that is making that area inflamed and your back muscles are tensed up from it.

But for argument's sake let's say for some reason you just can't go to the doctor and it's a muscle strain ...

1. Stop over heating it. Heating pads are terrible to use on muscle strains because it makes the tissues too relaxed and then when you go to move they over exert. If you insist on using one then only use it for 15 minutes at a time and then waiting for at least 5 minutes to get up and moving AFTER you let the muscles cool off a bit from the heat therapy.

2. If your using over the counter medicine only use advil. Start with 2 pills to rev it up when you first wake up then maintain as normal on the box directions. Advil is an anti inflammatory which is best for use on muscles that are inflamed.

3. Certain foods can also help. The one I recommend the most are cherries. If your store sells pure cherry juice extract then have a whiskey shot worth twice a day. It's a little expensive but this regiment will help a lot with arthritis and daily muscle pain too. I have been using it for a very long time and it helps tremendously.

A salad with baby spinach, kale, fresh tomatoes, olive oil for dressing, almonds or walnuts for texture. All berries and oranges are great for helping too but eat them raw and not juiced so it fills you up more and you get more fiber to fight off all that sugar. If you have to eat grapes then eat the red ones only.

Fatty fish are also good like salmon, mackerel, and tuna. I'm not a fish person so I use black bean vegetarian chilli instead with no red meat.

4. Foods that hurt the healing process of muscles are red meat, processed meats with too much salt, soda of any kind, bread products of all kinds, all forms of lard, and fried food is especially harmful for people who are suffering from inflammation.

5. Water treatment is awesome for chronic back pain. For cold water grab you a few floating noodles and put them under your armpits and then go out to the deep end where your feet don't touch the bottom and simply float for an hour or two. Gravity will pull your spine back into alignment and greatly relieve the stress. Then go lay in the sun and warm your back up again or you can go use a hot tub/jacuzzi and soak up the heat but keep it to only 15 minutes for the same reason you as the heatpad. Floating in the pool is one of the best treatments in the world for chronic back pain. I mean it's not even close. Not swimming, just floating.

6. Glucosamine supplements can also help but they take several weeks till they start to make you feel anything. However with long term usage they can greatly help with joint related pain and back pain related to the spine.

Thank you <3

I do plan on going to the Dr next week. Or the Urgent Care, I havent decided yet.

Might be a long shot but my guess is that you sacroiliac joint might be out of place on the right side.

Fairly easy way to check is I find you can lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on floor... lift your bottom and come back down to set your pelvis... then straighten your legs. Have someone check to see if one is longer than the other (check at your inside ankle bones to see if one is farther down the the othher)

If they are off, and you don't have any true bone length differences, then one of you're SI joints is off... fairly easy to out back in place... either see a chiro, a PT or PM with your rfamily sites and I may be able to talk you through how to do it yourself.

Mine goes out every couple of months and you'd be surprised how many people with back pain thwt I find this is the cause...

better go get it looked at. Could be a disk issue.

I would take aleve over advil.

seeing a massage therapist has always done me wonders..hope you feel better soon.

Probably just twisted it tying somebody up.

Should worked the 'kinks' out though...

If only that was what happened lol

Just out of curiosity, do you have pain shooting down your butt into your legs? That's what I have when my back "goes out"...

Only way for me to fix it is just to stay as calm as possible, take some meds, and wait it out... usually takes 4 to 5 days before I'm up and around and another 3 or 4 before I really start to feel "normal" again.

My doctor gave me some very specific stretches to do, mostly for my legs, hamstrings, quads, calfs.... plus core work to stabilize the abs, lower back, butt, etc.

A few other things to consider or try, one since I know you are on the computer all day, get a stand up desk... you can buy one or you can rig one out of boxes.. standing up for 2/3 to 3/4 of your work day will take a ton of pressure off your lower back. Another thing that seems to help me is to sleep with a pillow between me knees, since I also sleep on my side.

Just don't go to a chiropractor, those people are sadists who get a perverted joy out of contorting your body into positions it doesn't want to go and inflicting the maximum amount of pain on a human being allowed by the Geneva Convention, then they make you pay them for it.

I dont have that pain, no.

Mine feels like all the muscles in the right side of my lower back were literally torn in half.

It hurts less when I move around instead of sitting around a lot.

I dont know. It seems like classic back strain, I will go to Dr to coroborate.

I have never been to a Chiro. I know people who swear by it. I know people who get Chiro for their horses. And swear by it. But it all seems like hocus pocus to me. I'd rather get a massage.

Probably a pinched nerve could be from just sleeping on it wrong. The pinch tightens the muscles near by. Water water water will help. The muscle pain is caused by acid in the muscle the water flushes it out. Probably nothing serious if this is the first time it happened. Did this happen after sleeping after drinking?

I dont remember if I was drinking,

It happened gradually over 3 days till full affect.

The bed definitely made it worse / seemed to be the cause.

So I thought maybe it was just a cramp. But its not going away.

Do you sit a lot?

I do sit a lot. Most of the time. Sometimes I walk my dogs or exercise.

But I know I need to be more active.

Spend some money on a good bed and hopefully it will never happen again

I promise I am not being critical. When I tore my meniscus, I spent a lot of time sitting working on my art, taking two on-line courses, and on this board to break up the monotony. I wasn't walking as much. Didn't run at all.

I was going to purchase a back brace, but hen I started researching and came across the page I posted earlier....well...one similar to it. I kinda figured it out.

All of that compression on your lower back from sitting so many hours is horrific.

jfan is right. Get an MRI before anything else. I didn't go about it that way. I was in so much pain that I started trying some of the exercises that I found in my research. If it hurt too much, I would back off. I also made an appointment before I began the exercises, but it takes a bit of time to get in.

When I finally got in, they did the MRI and my back spine looked pretty good. I remember the doc saying "I hope my back looks that good when I'm that old." LOL........only old people will get that one.

Anyways, she agreed w/my self treatment. But, she gave me options. Keep self-treating, getting a shot, scheduling therapy, etc. I chose to self-treat. I figured if that was a true option, than it was the one I should pursue.

It's worked. I still have some back issues, but that is more because of me not always eing diligent in performing my exercises.

My wife is in the medical field and I was a decent athlete who faced some medical issues. I am not a medical expert, but I would suggest that trying to self-help your issues is preferable to drugs and/or surgery. I would turn to those types of treatment as a last resort.

Yes, what I read is that most typical back injuries can heal with proper rehab.

I hope it is one of those.


I dont want to open the Pandoras box, but a long time ago I was put on Prednisone for a long while due to my Crohns, and it disolved my bones. I had a bone density test around age ~30 and it said I had the bone density of a sixty year old woman. (osteopenia) And some questionable lumbar vertebre.

So, fast forward to now when Im 46.

It could be something bad.

I dont feel it is.

It is very typical back strain symptoms.

But it could be.

I have to go to Dr and jump into the rabbit hole.

Got cha.

I do agree w/jfan and others that you need to get it checked out, Eve.

I was just trying to offer a bit of a positive outlook that perhaps the news will be good and you can ....as they say..."self treat" the issue.

And I do know you have the video game thing going on, so I assumed you sit a lot.

Either way......................good luck.

Speaking as someone who let his back go until it was a total wreck, get it checked out ASAP.

this is important too

Oh my! The visual...

So, just an update on this. I switched from aleve to tylenol, and used the heating pad alot, and my back is feeling much better. I would guess its at 50%. Before it was at 5%.

I guess I will try to encorporate more stetching and work on core, when my back is fully healed.


I was going to yoga, but stopped because it tweaked my back a few months ago. Maybe I will go back. Its just very intensive.

Most often, when I feel like I've "tweaked" my back, what is actually going on is I just have REALLY tight muscles. The body is an interconnected chain. When you have a pain, nine time out of ten the cause will be above or below the point you are feeling it.

In particular: psoas, piriformas, hip abductors, glutes, hammys, quads.



When one or more of those are tight (particularly when multiples are tight!), it exerts a pull on the muscles upward in the chain, usually causing you to hunch over into an "old man" walk, this puts strain on the lower back to try to compensate, this results in you feeling lower back pain. Regularly stretching those parts of your legs and core will go a long way.

That would be the opposite of my experience guess every condition is different.

I went on vacation once when my back was hurting a bit. I ended up rowing a boat because I had to on a daily basis.
I thought this was going to be problem. Turns out it made me feel much better! Just a thought it may put you in traction.

Glad you are feeling better. The new bed is still a great idea.

Oh I agree. I push myself every day to see if I can bend a little further. Try to stretch it out some. It does help.