I have injuries to my back. The main one took several YEARS of going to gp's. A&e and finally being referred to specialists to get diagnosed.
Treatment has been discussed inc surgery which has been dismissed as too risky (High chance of paraplegia resulting, med chance of quadriplegia. I'm currently still upright but can't manage to sit or stand more than a few hours a day. Not only due to pain but numbing meaning my ability to control my legs, even arms sometimes is affected).
I too have had people with NO MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE query my condition and timing of severe pain/inability to walk far.
It's frighteningly easy to permanently injure your back. My first injury was incurred doing something MILLIONS of people do every day but doing it in a tense state and I must have done it slightly awkwardly.
The pain fluctuates. Plus if I have plans I'll up my painkiller use, plan to have rest days in the run up, have a soothing bath beforehand to help. Then I'm usually also scuppered for the 2-3 days after - I'm talking almost completely bedridden and needing help to stand to go to the loo!!
Stress makes pain worse for 3
reasons:
Your muscles are tense
Your nervous system is 'hyped up'
You're mentally on edge and more conscious of things that make matters worse.
Plus as pp says if she were studying for exams more time spent in crappy "office chairs" at a desk do not bloody help! When I was at uni after hurting my back I set my desk up at home so I could sit in my armchair rather than an office chair.
In addition in protecting the injured/painful area you end up putting pressure on another area through over-compensating (or simply because you have to move differently). As a result of my back issues I've had problems with my knees, feet and shoulders too.
My legs can give way with no warning, I can lose grip on things I'm holding... Not fun
Main problem due to car accident over a decade ago - was X-rayed and checked out at the time, it either wasn't spotted it wasn't developed enough to be noticeable, plus as I ALREADY had back issues some symptoms were put down to those.
In my case it's mainly nerve pain which is a fucker to treat as most painkillers don't touch it - they relieve the pain of the surrounding muscles which helps a bit.
I was also on crutches while pregnant (causes whole heap of other nonsense to deal with) and wearing a very unattractive belt thing to support the bump! Again after a slip in a shop.
I'm now coming up on 18 years of dealing with it. Frankly it gets tiresome having idiots with no training, knowledge or even empathy questioning what it's like to live basically always in pain.
I'm only 46 and yet I'm currently looking into getting a bath lift! Because lately a couple times I've really struggled getting out and dd is nowhere near strong enough to help, plus has a disability of her own.
You describe her as a 'friend' yet are almost completely negative about her. You're welcome to my pain even just for a day if it'll make you even a tad more thoughtful.
People walking around with unwitting serious injuries to their spine and neck happens with more frequency than it should! X-Ray's don't always pick up small but significant in placement fractures, soft tissue injuries. People if they feel 'OK' don't always accept treatment. Rare for it to be fatal but it does happen - remember Natasha Richardson?
Re "what's causing the pain?" Could be any number of reasons. You don't know her medical history to know what the injury is, where it is, how it happened etc - even with all the info sometimes even specialists don't know.
Ultimately her medical and educational issues, whatever they might be are NONE of your business.