HELP! Back Locked Up.....

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gwilli

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Hey folks,

It's all I can do to sit upright and type this but I am looking for some word of wisdom. Six hours ago I was playing rough with my dog, sat up cross legged on the floor. He drew back and as I leant forward to grab him I felt a click in my lower back.

This immediately floored me and it took half and hour (and an awful lot of pain) to get to my feet. Whilst I was down there, I experienced spasms but thankfully, these passed.

So now I am lopsided. I can barely walk but am leant heavily to the left. Sitting, standing, laying - all are uncomfortable.

I went to A&E (that's ER for our American Cousins) and faced with a three hour wait to see a Doctor, decided to take the nurses advice: High strength Ibuprofen and rest, sat in a chair with a heat pack on my lower spine.

Thing is, I started a new job only last week and am concerned this could spell a long lay off already, meaning I am unlikely to keep it. I am due to go back in a day and half after the Christmas holiday.............could be tricky.

So anyway, save wrangling on, I wondered if anyone else has experienced this type of freakish injury. I am an otherwise healthy male, 28yrs old with no prior back complaint.

- Do you think there's any chance of making it to my desk on Thursday?
- Do you have any idea what it could have done?
- Am I likely to have sustained a long term injury?

All help and advice greatly appreciated, especially from anyone with personal / professional experience?

RegarRAB
G-Willi
 
Hi I wonder if an MRI of the spine can be obtained over there. I wonder if the vertabrae dislocated a bit. Some spine problems make a risk of paralysis. Were X-ray or other tests done?

I am not telling what to do and the decisions are always yours. At any time if this is slowly done and feels worse it must be stopped immediately. If it were me I would try to lean forward with the top 1/2 of the body from hip level up straight (all of spine as straight as possible and head also not tipped back or forward in alignment with the rest of the spine) and putting my hanRAB on my thighs very gently and very slowly put pressure on the thighs to see if this will align the bones a bit. I have heard of other people hanging from a door very gently and slowly. I would not allow the head to hang backward if this is tried but face in normal standing alignment with the spine toward the door.

After that would be done I would drink a bit more water than normal for a day or even two days to see if the discs could be rehydrated.

Ibuprofen has cause so many agonizing stomach aches I avoid it as if it is plague.
White willow bark tea has sometimes be used in moderate amounts for pain relief but if too much is taken may act a bit like aspirin since it does contain natural salycilate according to a source I read years ago.
Have a nice day! :wave:
 
Welcome to the board. As you guessed, it is really impossible to say what you have done -- there are a nuraber of things that all have similar symptoms. When I hear of a sudden movement that causes that instant pain and lack of mobility, I usually think of a disc that has herniated. But a muscle can also stretch oddly and cause almost as much discomfort and can take awhile to heal.

Statistically 90% of low back pain will heal on its own and be gone within six weeks. Also the amount of pain does not necessarily correlate to the seriousness of the injury. A pulled muscle or ligament can be extremely painful and a ruptured disc, visible on MRI, may not hurt at all.

Resting for a couple days, icing and taking anti-inflammatories may provide sufficient relief for you to begin gentle stretching and mild exercise. The only way to know whether you have herniated a disc would be from having a MRI.

Back pain can be excruciatingly painful but it is not usually considered a medical emergency unless you were to develop bladder or bowel involvement, or sudden weakness in a lirab, such as foot drop. Then you would need to return to the A&E.

I hope it is something minor and you will be able to return to your new job.
 
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