to be exceptionally pissed off with my sodding back

[FerrisBueller]

it hurts.

it felt better yesterday. I thought I'd be fine to work tomorrow but woke up today and it is bloody horrible again.

bollocks.

YANBU at all, I have a horrible back too and frequently get annoyed at it. I find heat pads really help, overnight, but yours sounds worse than mine if you are off work with it.

Commiserations.

just saw your name and thought you may be turning on your snore machine to get out of going to work tomorrow...

but really, you do have my sympathy, i have recurring back problems also. See how you go today, and book an appointment with your gp tommorow to get a physio/osteo/chiro referral. Take it easy.

Mines awful too....what's wrong with yours? I hhave slight scoliosis and a bad home office chair.

mine been bad since having my daughter, i'm off to the doctors friday to hopfully get something sorted

general knackeredness. have dodgy lower disk but this is a new bit higher up - only muscle but bloody killing me.
GP is shit. I hate the hefty drugs as they make me feel weird. and hurting makes me dog tired. Self indulgent whinge over. I know it could be worse and there are others with much much worse things to deal with.

Poor you, you have my sympathies.

I get awful lower back pain, probably from having to use a walking stick, latest bout lasted from August to a couple of weeks ago. I was so pleased it'd finally cleared up when I got terrible sciatica last weekend. I'm veering between being utterly miserable and furious that my bloody crap body has done it again!

Hope you feel better soon.

Was just going to post the same.

Woke up this morning and it has gone again, after six months of being fine

I am now walking like I've shat myself.

My dp has damaged discs in his lower back. One thing that really helps (this will sound wierd) is if he gets up in the morning, walks about a bit - 5 minutes or so - then goes back to bed for half an hour. A physiotherapist he had once recommended he sis dhie. Apparantly, the lining of the discs swells overnight, and doing this helps redure the swelling. He does it every day (sets the alarm half an hor early) and it makes a big difference. he really notices if he doesn't.

Not sure if this is of any help but my DH has been suffering from bad back pain for about the last 9 months. He had a slightly slipped disc which wasn't bad enough for surgery but still very painful.

He sees an osteo regularly but it was very slow to improve.

Anyway osteo recommended he get one of these inversion tables

Not sure exactly which one he bought but it was about £120 (although you can get them cheaper)and it has made an amazing difference. He uses it for about 10 minutes a day and he noticed a real improvement after about a week.

Trouble is they are quite cumbersome and you do need a bit of space to keep it in (ours is adorning the corner of the lounge at the moment but we are going to move it into our spare room.) But well worth a thought.

Full sympathy here! Saw the thread title and hoped that it wouldn't be you still struggling!

I've had chronic back pain for about 2 years now, on a cocktail of drugs every day. Hope yours gets better soon.

Full sympathy here too. Slipped 2 discs next to each other 3 years ago and have had occasional flare-ups ever since.

Aside from the (expensive but brilliant) osteopath the thing I've found has really really really helped is pilates. I've not had any incidents since I started doing it properly, it's obviously protecting my back so when I do something that would normally cause it to go I might get a little bit of stiffness/soreness but not that awful spasming and getting stuck in position! You can get pilates on the NHS now - worth asking to be referred imo.

Anyway I fully sympathise with the grumpiness. YAdefNBU.

I heart diclofenac.

I am now walking like I have pissed myself- not only a major improvement, but I am sufficiently out of it not to care

Haha, I take diclofenac so often it doesn't have that effect anymore! Probably a good thing, I've got to drive soon.

How's your back holding up OP?

"My dp has damaged discs in his lower back. One thing that really helps (this will sound wierd) is if he gets up in the morning, walks about a bit - 5 minutes or so - then goes back to bed for half an hour. A physiotherapist he had once recommended he sis dhie. Apparantly, the lining of the discs swells overnight, and doing this helps redure the swelling. He does it every day (sets the alarm half an hor early) and it makes a big difference. he really notices if he doesn't.

I'm c and p ing this because it made such a difference to dp and I don't want anyone to miss it!

Ferris, how about massage? Do you know the tennis ball self massage trick? (put tennis ball is long sock over your shoulder and you can squirm around on it, the sock is so you can pull it into the spot. Surprisingly soothing. Hope you feel better soon.

seeker, I can see how this would help. My old doctor said to get up every 2 hours and walk around for 10 minutes or so. If you are able to get up and walk. I think it helps loosen up the body a little.

YANBU - back pain is awful, as it totally invades your life. So hard to just forget about it and carry on!

I strongly agree with the Pilates recommendation - my DH had long-term, recurring back problems due to a prolapsed disc and since starting Pilates about 6 months ago has only had occasional twinges. I also do Pilates and find that my back is much stronger too (used to have regular problems with sacroiliac joint, now rarely feel any pain).

Just make sure you find a specialised, highly trained teacher (there are plenty about), not one of those jack-of-all-trades type teachers that will just "go through the motions" at the local gym.

Oh and osteopathy is a marvel too, especially in the short term.