To be worried about this back pain

[nursingcomplete2014]

I suffer from health anxiety so don’t know if it’s that or if I should be worried/go back to doctor.

i had a personal training session in the gym 2 weeks ago and she really went hard and made me lift some pretty heavy weight and do some kettle bell swings, the whole time she was trying to tell me how to do them right but it was hurting my lower back and she also gave me heavier weight than I usually use and told me to “push myself”. Since then I have had awful lower back ache, some days worse than others, it’s usually when I move in a certain position. Walking eases it. I can feel the pain when I go into the position she was making me do the weights in so that makes me think maybe I’ve pulled a muscle.

went gp last week, who took a urine sample and said it could be start of water infection or it could just be bacteria from the sample pot used and anyway gave me a course of antibiotics which I have now finished. No other symptoms just the back ache but I’m panicking that it could be something sinister.

has anyone had a pulled muscle or anything that sounds like this could be or how long lots likely to last.

of note, I have scoliosis but it has never caused any lower back pain.

Did the GP do any movements or anything with you, like lying on the bed and raising your legs etc? If so they'll have ruled out anything more serious and will just be a muscle strain. Especially given that you can track it back to a specific incident, its most likely a pulled muscle which unfortunately can take ages to heal. Advice is to keep moving normal as much as possible, and take anti inflammatories to reduce swelling to let you move as much as possible.

I would also stop seeing that PT... i had a PT for about 3 years, and have a weak lower back. As soon as i mentioned something causing me lower back pain, she reduced weights, slowed down movements, and if no improvement in pain, changed to an alternative movement to change posture. Your PT sounds shit if she doesnt know how to adapt to this, and just told you to push on through it.

Gp did lie me on the bed and pressed some parts of my back but didn’t ask me to lift legs or anything.

i agree I will never be going back to that PT she was a replacement as my usual one is on Mat leave. I’m so annoyed with her if that’s what has caused this. I didn’t know a pulled muscle could last this long, I was expecting a couple of days

I’m a power lifter and I pulled something in my lower back deadlifting in January. I felt it go, I usually left heavy and have never had any back issues before in the almost 10 years I’ve been doing it.

I paid for a private physio who was really thorough, did lots of stuff with me and assured me it was a strain to one of my vertebrae, nothing serious (I thought I’d slipped a disc!) but it would take a good while to heal. It’s only just starting to feel normal again. She gave me some gentle exercises to do and told me to keep
moving.

If you can afford it then I’d do the same, just to put your mind at ease.

Thanks @Floofyfoofy did you see a gp of just go straight for physio?

Straight for physio as know the nhs waiting list is months long and you need to have the condition for a longer amount of time to get referred.

A muscle strain can last a while. Ideally you need to avoid straining it further and maintain gentle exercise and movement, use ibuprofen to reduce inflammation. It is not likely to be serious and should ease eventually but could certainly take some weeks.

If the GP tested your urine and found an infection then presumably you did in fact have an infection? Giving antibiotics otherwise seems odd.

Re: scoliosis. I have had it my whole life and it suddenly started bothering me in my thirties. It is possible all of these things are contributing to the back pain but none of them seem likely to be at all serious. Give it time to heal OP, don't repeat the movement or carry weight.

If a PT suggests something you feel is too much you do need to say so or simply not do that, say you need a lighter weight etc. Don't push through, a good PT wouldn't want you to and wouldn't if you said it felt too much or they was pain. Nobody can make you do an exercise.