To think once you develop back pain it never goes away?

[FairTurtle]

I've had this now for 6 weeks, out of NOWHERE. It's constant. I've seen a chiro and an osteo and it's still no better. GP isn't concerned. NO HISTORY of back problems whatsoever. I'm 28 and healthy besides this. Wtf??????? Yoga poses and core strength exercises aren't helping.

@dontbelievewhatyousee Good to hear! How long did it take until you were pain free?

I never thought I’d be able to get off the floor when I hobbled into the physios office but every session I’d get a sports massage and it helped easy to tension that gets built up when you don’t move bits of your back due to pain. Gradually more and more mobile and less pain each week, it was weekly sessions I might add.

I would say 12 weeks.

@dontbelievewhatyousee Ah, good to know! So your physio did both massage and exercises? I'm really struggling to find someone who does this.

I'd see someone else OP - it's not normal at your age.
I'm 44 and beside a lower back pain episode that lasted for 3 weeks 10 years ago, I never had back pain. Not boasting, just to say that it's not a feature of age!

There can be many reasons, your bed, your arch support, your posture, the exercise, your teeth even... but only a specialist (not an osteo or a chiro) can tell you.

I went to a physio and they gave me exercises to do, massage and accupuncture. The main thing that went in though was that I have to do the exercises every day...and I can really tell when I haven't been bothering to!

Also move more, move more in the day.....

@FastFood What kind of specialist? Like, an orthopoedic doctor?

I appreciate that people are talking about natural things for what in a lot of cases could be nerve pain or an inflamed nerve. They could have gathered every osteo, chiropractor, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and Pilates instructor back to back and they still wouldn’t have done me one bit of good. You know what finally did after three years? A radio-guided injection of steroids I think combined with lidocaine, in a planned series of two, by a board-certified nerve and spine specialist.

I believe all of these things (Pilates, osteos, acupuncturists - maybe not chiropractors, or at least some of them) have their place. But if the pain has already lasted more than six weeks, or worse, if the pain has lasted years, I wouldn’t be doing things to try to “fix” the pain that could all be exacerbating it. Keep moving, gentle stretching, and try to get a specialist referral, because they do take QUITE some time, but after six weeks, it’s what the medical establishment should be doing for you. If the pain miraculously disappears, you can cancel it.

@5YearsLeft I'm not sure what medicine can do for me though. I've been told it's not a disc issue, and they don't give steroid injections if it's just muscular (like it is in my case).

I hurt my back at 18 (nursing) and suffered badly for over 20yrs.. I thought this was my lot in life..

I had 3 pregnancies in my late 20s/early 30s and was actually bed bound for over a month with one..

Sciatica to the soles of my feet... In agony most days... I actually had a 'bad back chair '.. I couldn't sit on a sofa.. I struggled to put my knickers on most mornings..

Physio/£1000s in chiropractors/ taking daily volterol/painkillers...

Just before I turned 40 a friend dragged me to yoga..it changed my life..(not the uuuummm side of it, but the physical stuff) it took about 6mths of daily yoga to feel the benefit but eventually I came off all medication..

I'm over 60 now and have no daily pain.. and if I get backache because of hoiking around my humongous grandson there's yoga positions that I do and it's gone again..

Never a day has gone by in the last 20 years have I taken my recovery for granted..

@FairTurtle Well, I would want to see an orthopedist or an orthopedic spine specialist. If your “muscles” are hurting your back, remember a few things:

• They’re probably connected to your spine back there, since it’s back pain.
• It’s always nerves. Even if your muscles are “communicating” that you hurt, it’s nerve endings in your muscles called nociceptors that are doing that communicating. So you might be able to try a medication that helps with nerve pain from a neurologist.
• If you don’t heal, there should be a reason. Are your nerve endings in those muscles inflamed after an injury or a virus? If it’s from sitting in the wrong position, you may need much more specific lumbar support, and you need to see someone who can recommend that like occupational health.
• Who said it was muscular, what tests have you had that prove that, and what reasoning did they give? (It may be that it was the most logical at the beginning just based on physical examination, but now that you’ve tried everything to fix a muscular problem and you’re just as bad, a muscular problem isn’t the most obvious now).

The point of a doctor is to get to the heart of an issue and then come up with a plan. If you’re not better, you need to see another doctor and your symptoms are very different now: you’ve had it for X weeks and it doesn’t improve when you x, y, z (all the things that didn’t help) and it does improve if you a, b, c (anything that helped, even temporarily).

I know someone who developedn unexplained back pain mid forties when running. It got worse and interfered with their running.

They decided to seriously* take up weight training to strengthen their back and core.

*I say seriously but what I mean is very focused very regular programmed training under the guidance of a specialist trainer rather than some random punter down the typical gym.

The reason I know this is because it solved their problem and they waxed lyrical about the benefits of this for back problems.

@Marylou62 So glad to hear yoga solved ir for you! I do do some yoga, but maybe I can look into different poses. If you're happy to share, are there any specific YouTube yoga practices etc that you do, that help?

@Marylou62 Also, did it take you 6 months to feel the full benefit, or any benefit at all? Just curious about this. As if your friend took you to one class, how did you know it was the right thing to do to keep going/how did you motivate yourself to keep going if you weren't sure at that point if it was helping?

I had cortisol injections in my lower back following a RTC. It's been brilliant ever since.

In the moment relief, but sometimes it's the only way I manage to get to work

I bought a rechargeable one from Amazon, no batteries to faff with, I love it !

@elevens24 What's RTC?

I had exactly the same, an L5/s1 disc bulge, the pain was horrendous, I finally had surgery 2 weeks ago. Touch wood seems to have worked.

See an osteopath, they are brilliant and although back trouble rarely disappears once you have it, they can minimise it for you.

@FangsForTheMemory Nooooooooo don't tell me this

if you learn about why we experience pain, it's easy to see how it becomes chronic, the mind perceives a threat and sent out pain as a safety message, sometimes these signals get confused and you have to do brain training to rewire the pain pathways. This is what the entire curable app is about

I had similar. The nhs guidance where I live is NO scans as ‘backs are strong’ and ‘pain isn’t damage’. After being to physio etc under the assumption by them it was slipped disc, after paying for a private MRI it turns out I have severe degenerative disc disease and all that was making it worse. Get investigations if possible.

@Cityandmakeup I've been told that "degenerative disc disease" will show up in most people over the age of 30, hence there's generally little benefit to having scans? My friend who is a GP (so not a specialist) also said research shows there's no correlation found between people experiencing pain with visible disc issues, and vice versa, hence why scans aren't recommended.

Agree. I broke my back in 4 places a year ago, I couldn't move. It's better now, but not right.

I have just been through weeks of awful back pain, caused by poor posture at my desk. What worked for me was a medical massage. I have had three sessions, a week apart, and I have one more session to go. I have gone from such pain that no painkillers touched it to almost can hardly feel anything now. They said that my muscles contracted in the wrong areas and overstretched in the other wrong areas. The first session was agony but it has really eased now. They also gave me some stretching exercises with a resistance band. Try to find a medical/sports injury/post surgery type specialist massage centre (not a spa type massage). I'm in London so have one locally. It's worked for me. It was so debilitating so I really feel for you.

@Xhakalaka this is so useful, thank you! Just so I know what go Google, is it "sports massage"? I live in W London so hopefully can find something local.