I’ve injured my lower back! Now what?
Whether sudden or gradual, the onset of lower back pain is not a pleasant occurrence. As with most health and medical issues, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you feel lower back pain coming on, make sure to discontinue the activity that is causing the pain. However, such advice is of little value when the onset of pain is sudden and severe. For many people, there is an acute cause of lower back pain such as lifting heavy objects or traumatic sports injuries. In such cases, the thought of prevention may seem futile as the primary objective for most affected individuals will be to get out of that pain. In this post, I will discuss the best ways to manage pain in the immediate aftermath of a lower back injury. However, those who suffer lower back injuries are prone to doing so again in the future. Since a positive outlook is key in life, as well as in managing and overcoming lower back pain, try to see this as an opportunity to make yourself healthier now so that you won’t injure yourself even worse in the future.
Make an appointment with a doctor
Always consult a medical professional when dealing with health matters. However, sometimes it can be some time between when you call to make an appointment and when the doctor can actually see you. Because of this, make sure to book an appointment soon after you injure your lower back. If the pain clears up, you can always cancel your appointment. However, if it’s a few days before the doctor can see you, make sure that you’re taking care of yourself in the meanwhile.
Rest (but not too much)
If you’ve hurt your lower back, the best thing you can do is to rest it. Cease or diminish your planned physical activities for the day and go take a load off. Continuing with physical activity may make the injury worse while lengthening your recovery time. Take the rest of the day off, as well as the next day if possible. Make sure you have a comfortable place to rest and sleep. When I first hurt my back, I spent some time relaxing on my back on a carpeted floor. For whatever reason, that’s what felt the best for me, though that may not be the case for everyone. Something like a daybed or a yoga mat might suit you better. Make sure you have a comfortable mattress as well. For people with lower back pain, a ‘Goldilocks’ mattress will likely be ideal. Too hard and there won’t be enough give to cushion your joints. Too soft and you may end up sleeping in a ‘v’ shape with your lower back bowed in, which can be painful for a bad lower back. Something like a sleep number bed may be ideal so you can choose your own firmness, otherwise a trip to the mattress store may be in order if your current bed is not comfortable.
A few days off is reasonable after sustaining a lower back injury, however don’t use your pain as an excuse to cease all physical activity. If you take more than a few days off from staying active, your muscles may start to atrophy, putting you at greater risk of injury in the future. After a couple of days of rest, try to go for a relaxed walk, a lazy swim or something similarly low-impact. If you feel up to it, consider doing some light core work to start strengthening your stabilizer muscles. Some light stretching can feel good too, and a daily stretching regimen can be beneficial and aid in staying flexible and mobile in the future.
Manage your pain
In the immediate aftermath of a lower back injury, there are a number of over the counter medications that you can use to take the edge off the pain as well as manage inflammation. Ibuprofen (advil), acetaminophen (tylenol) and aspirin are all widely available. Just make sure to follow the dosing guidelines listed on the bottle. Taking too much ibuprofen or aspirin can be hard on your kidneys while overdoing the acetaminophen can put a lot of strain on your liver.
Your doctor may prescribe you pain medicine as well. Here it is doubly important to strictly follow dosing guidelines, especially with narcotics. Some of this medication can be very addictive as the current opioid epidemic clearly indicates. If you are in severe pain, by all means take the medicine your doctor gives you. Just make sure that you don’t get hooked as withdrawal from such medicine can be painful in its own right.
Determine the nature of your injury and plan accordingly
If you’ve followed the above advice, you may very well be feeling a good deal better. If you are feeling 100%, then you may even be tempted to hold off on a doctor’s visit. However, if you are still feeling enough pain and discomfort to keep you from enjoying your normal day to day activities, it is well worth a trip to see a physician. There are two main sources of lower back pain suffered as a result of physical activity: muscular strain and a herniated disc. You can also have back pain from a fractured vertebrae but that is usually the result of a traumatic injury, the kind that is caused by a car accident or a bad fall. The treatment and management of such an injury is solidly in the realm of your doctor, and as such, I will focus on ways to live with, manage and overcome pain from muscular strain or disc herniation.
When you go to your doctor for lower back pain caused by an activity related injury. There is a good chance that he will just reiterate my earlier advice. That is, he will tell you to rest up and manage your pain, then send you on your way. He will most likely chalk up your symptoms to muscular strain and tell you to be careful in the future. If your doctor believes that you merely have lower back strain, then you are lucky. You likely did not cause any permanent damage and should be back to normal within a few days. Use the unpleasant experience of suffering lower back pain as motivation to get fit and healthy. Learn more about lower back strain here. However, if your symptoms are severe and persistent enough, you doctor may order an MRI to see if you have a disc herniation. X-Rays will turn up damage to bone, and since your spinal discs are soft tissue, more advanced imaging is often necessary for a diagnosis.
If you have suffered a herniated disc in your lower back (the L5S1 disc is a common injury point), don’t panic. Searching the internet for herniated disc treatment can often turn up scary words like ‘surgery’ or ‘spinal fusion’. However, such options are often reserved for the absolute worst cases and situations. Oftentimes, conservative treatment such as rest, pain management and exercise will be enough to help you recover. However, as always, defer to what your doctor recommends. Learn more about lower back herniated discs here.
Whether you’ve strained your back or herniated a disc, make sure you stay positive. When I myself was diagnosed with a herniated disc, it was certainly a blow to my morale. Physical activity was important to me as a college athlete, and the thought of living with such a condition and having to limit myself took a mental toll. Slowly but surely though, I was able to overcome my pain, resume and excel in my sport, and pick up powerlifting, something I never thought I’d be able to do with a bad lower back! The key to this was staying positive, starting small and progressing slowly but surely. Learn more about resuming physical activity after a lower back injury here.
