Author Topic: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!  (Read 22899 times)

callmetater

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I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« on: February 11, 2009, 08:06:08 AM »
ok heres the story...sorry for the long post.

one of my dogs, a 120 lb rottweiler, had recently been diagnosed with kidney failure.  over the last 2 weeks he started getting really bad to where he could not get up to his feet so i was having to pick him up every time to go outside to make his peepees.  my lower back started getting sore from having to do this but no real biggie...anyway last wednesday was the day that i decided to put the poor guy down and relieve him from his misery.  it just so happens that wednesday morning was deadlift day as well, and i hit it hard and heavy.  the vet came wednesday afternoon to do the deed to my dog, and i decided to bury him on my property.  i spent 3-4 hours digging his big azz 4 foot deep grave in texas black clay soil (if you dont know what that is, it is some tough azz dirt). 

needless to say, my lower back was killing me afterwards.  i took the next 4 days off of work and working out to mourn and recoup my back.  my back is still killing me...the last 2 workout days i have had to cut short because of the pain. 

any good ideas on how to rehab it?  i dont have med insurance and am pretty tapped on cashflow due to vetbills etc.  i dont want to stay out of the gym....

ozman

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2009, 11:13:39 AM »
rest my friend

rest

Geo

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2009, 11:52:08 AM »
sorry to hear about your dog....


you should have got some mexicans to dig his grave !

callmetater

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2009, 01:23:19 PM »
good idea, but i owed it to my dog to do it myself.  i knew i was going to overdo it and kill my back when i got about halfway...i googled some stretching exercizes and it seemed to help for a little while but the pain comes back.  i cant even bend down to wash my hands in the sink without grimacing in pain...it really sucks.

i could really use a couple of hot asian chicks to walk on my back naked then flip me over and give me a happy ending.

KSA

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2009, 02:50:56 PM »
Maybe you have a pinched vertebral disc.

Take care of your spine.

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/back-pain

leonp1981

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2009, 04:16:07 PM »
Rest it as much as you can.

A static stretching routine will help to alleviate the lower back pain.

Go to the doc's just to make sure it's nothing serious.

Geo

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2009, 04:56:14 PM »
good idea, but i owed it to my dog to do it myself.  i knew i was going to overdo it and kill my back when i got about halfway...i googled some stretching exercizes and it seemed to help for a little while but the pain comes back.  i cant even bend down to wash my hands in the sink without grimacing in pain...it really sucks.

i could really use a couple of hot asian chicks to walk on my back naked then flip me over and give me a happy ending.

get a heating pad...

I've been on the verge of going into emergency in the past, and that heating pad and some rest has done the trick !


it's all about being patient !

jpm101

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2009, 07:53:11 AM »
Had a couple of Lab's and one white German Shepard, in the past, that had to be put down. One of the toughest thing I ever had to do. Sorry about your dog, know how you might feel.

Rest by all means, with a heating (one that can cling to the body) pad. Try some light stretches with the pad on. Some say alternate hot and cold packs every 10 minutes or so. Though heat seems to be more of a common method today. Heat rub's can be effective also. If that seems not to help, than KSA may be correct. Pinched nerves are not that uncommon. Might want to see a chiropractor or think about deep sports massages. But not by those pretty Asian girls, which we have herds of around San Diego. That is a good thing.

When back to the gym, go for light reps in any back exercises. And higher reps, like 15 to 20. But do not over stretch at first. Had to rehab my back after disk surgery, in college, and found that doing GoodMornings, with just the bar at first (30 to 50 reps) really helps a lot. For you, maybe not. For me, a big yes. Good Luck.

Side Bar: Geo has been on the verge of going into a emergency mental hospital ward (Tri City, Oceanside) many a time. People around here wish he would have. Seek help Bro!
F

Redwingenator

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2009, 12:50:26 PM »
In general there are 3 main causes of low back pain that are commonly related in a vicious cycle.

1) The most common cause is due to irritation of the facet joints. The small joints in the back of the spine are highly innervated and can produce significant pain when they jam together. The jamming can also cause periostitis (bone inflammation) of lamina in the vertebra above in cases of significant disc degeneration. Lumbar extension (leaning backward) tends to exacerbate the symptoms and flexion tends to relieve it.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or inguinal pain, and/or buttock pain, and/or leg pain not extending below the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Knee to chest stretches
  D) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

2) Next we have tears in the annulus (disc) which is actually more pain sensitive then the facet joints. Annular tears are a common cause of low back pain and they produce more pain with each subsequent injury as nerves follow the tear growing deeper into the disc. Increasing the overall health of the disc with supplements like glucosamine sulfate and spinal decompression are the 1st place to start. Increasing core strength helps to reduce the possibility of repeated injury.  Annular tears are the precursor to slipped discs and allowing adequate healing of the disc is important so the condition does not progress.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or anterior, and/or thigh pain, and/or flank pain.  Self help remedies include: 
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Hanging from a pull-up bar to allow the low back to decompress.
  D) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

3) Last there is a "slipped disc" or disc protrusion/herniation/bulge. This is where the disc bulges out and puts pressure on the nerves that make up the sciatic nerve that runs down the leg. This is the most serious and debilitating injury. Sitting tends to aggravate these conditions and in severe cases coughing and sneezing are far from pleasant. This is much more complicated then pressure on a nerve as the wrapping around the nerve being compressed also contains blood vessels. So a disc bulge not only can put pressure on the nerve but also the blood vessels around it creating an ischemic hypoxia and buildup of metabolic byproducts which complicated the symptoms further.  Sometimes leg pain is the first symptom which tend to be the hardest patients to treat.  The initial presentation of low back pain with leg pain presenting over the next few days has a better clinical outcome.  Symptoms include: Low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or shooting/buring/numbing leg pain usually past the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  D) Spinal decompression is vital for disc injuries, but it needs to be a specific form of decompression as generalized forms will aggravate medical disc protrusions.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

These 3 events tend to create a cycle of low back pain. Injuries to the disc accelerate degeneration (loss of disc height) As the disc height reduces more weight is transferred from the disc to the facet joints and causes the facets to degenerate and jam together producing more pain. Progressive disc and facet degeneration can lead to stenosis and chronic ischemic hypoxia as the structures of the low back are slowing "choked off" due to a loss of size of the spinal canal and osseoligamentous canal. Keep in mind that the degenerative changes take years to progress.

Trying to diagnose which condition is causing your symptoms relies on the skill of your doctor. MRI is useful in confirming exam findings but can sometimes confuse the situation by showing asymptomatic findings. Most people have disc protrusions on MRI but they do not produce symptoms, so it really comes down to finding a doctor with excellent clinical skills in dealing with low back injuries. Any doctor that tells a patient "you just pulled something" either is not well versed in the mechanisms involved in low back pain or does not think the patient is able to comprehend the problem and "dumbs it down." All of the causes of LBP I listed result in some muscle spasm. Annular tears and disc bulges both have monosynaptic reflexes that result in muscle spasm and treating the muscle spasm only delays treatment for the actual cause of the symptoms.  All of these conditions typically do respond well to Physical Therapy and Chiropractic care.  Acute disc protrusions should not be treated by any high velocity manipulation as there is a risk or creating further injury.  Gentile spinal decompression can be used in the acute stages, but acute disc injuries are best treated after 72 hours in the sub-acute phase.

callmetater

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2009, 02:00:22 PM »
thanks for the input folks.  i have been applying heat with a heat pad but it feels like its not hot enough...for me anyway.

i am pretty sure it is NOT a disc/vertebrae problem.  i had back surgery about 16 yrs ago and had disc removed and a fusion done on my lumbar spine.  the pain i am having is definitely a pulled muscle or strain, the pain is on the left side of my back, deep into the muscle.  if it doesnt get better in a couple of days, im gonna go to the local massage school for a sports massage..they charge about 45 bucks for an hour.  i pulled a rib muscle a couple of years ago (the kind where you cant take a deep breath without it feeling like you are getting stabbed in the ribs) and it did wonders. 

chiropractors scare me... the last time i went to one, i ended up in the hospital the next day having my back surgery.

Redwingenator

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2009, 02:48:24 PM »
thanks for the input folks.  i have been applying heat with a heat pad but it feels like its not hot enough...for me anyway.

i am pretty sure it is NOT a disc/vertebrae problem.  i had back surgery about 16 yrs ago and had disc removed and a fusion done on my lumbar spine.  the pain i am having is definitely a pulled muscle or strain, the pain is on the left side of my back, deep into the muscle.  if it doesnt get better in a couple of days, im gonna go to the local massage school for a sports massage..they charge about 45 bucks for an hour.  i pulled a rib muscle a couple of years ago (the kind where you cant take a deep breath without it feeling like you are getting stabbed in the ribs) and it did wonders. 

chiropractors scare me... the last time i went to one, i ended up in the hospital the next day having my back surgery.
Your previous injury is a classic example as to why acute disc protrusions should not be manipulated with a high velocity manipulation.  I'm guessing you walked into a D.C. in severe pain.  The D.C. put you on your side and pushed on your low back.  Millions of these maneuvers are safely performed every year and it remains a safe and effective treatment for low back pain.  However, safe treatments can have horrible outcomes when performed at the wrong time on the wrong person.

I'm guessing you had an L5/S1 fusion.  75% of the flexion extension of the lumbar spine occurs at that level.  The problem with fusing that level is that the L4/L5 disc now has to do 75% more work then was ever intended.  This increased workload results in accelerated degeneration of the levels above the fusion.  Considering your history of previous low back pain and surgery I would treat for a disc injury until proven otherwise.  I would advise against using heat.  Initially the heat helps to reduce the muscle spasm associated with the injury, but it's the inflammation around the injury that is contributing to the muscle spasm.  Treat the inflammation and the spasm will slowly start to reduce.

I hope your low back starts feeling better soon  :)

KSA

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2009, 04:02:50 PM »
When you will train again, avoid deadlift if you want to save your spine. Dangerous exercise.


callmetater

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2009, 11:28:00 AM »
update....the back is feeling better.  played racquetball last night and it actually loosened things up.  still a bit sore but way more manageable than before...

johnny1

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2010, 09:43:36 PM »
In general there are 3 main causes of low back pain that are commonly related in a vicious cycle.

1) The most common cause is due to irritation of the facet joints. The small joints in the back of the spine are highly innervated and can produce significant pain when they jam together. The jamming can also cause periostitis (bone inflammation) of lamina in the vertebra above in cases of significant disc degeneration. Lumbar extension (leaning backward) tends to exacerbate the symptoms and flexion tends to relieve it.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or inguinal pain, and/or buttock pain, and/or leg pain not extending below the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Knee to chest stretches
  D) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

2) Next we have tears in the annulus (disc) which is actually more pain sensitive then the facet joints. Annular tears are a common cause of low back pain and they produce more pain with each subsequent injury as nerves follow the tear growing deeper into the disc. Increasing the overall health of the disc with supplements like glucosamine sulfate and spinal decompression are the 1st place to start. Increasing core strength helps to reduce the possibility of repeated injury.  Annular tears are the precursor to slipped discs and allowing adequate healing of the disc is important so the condition does not progress.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or anterior, and/or thigh pain, and/or flank pain.  Self help remedies include: 
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Hanging from a pull-up bar to allow the low back to decompress.
  D) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

3) Last there is a "slipped disc" or disc protrusion/herniation/bulge. This is where the disc bulges out and puts pressure on the nerves that make up the sciatic nerve that runs down the leg. This is the most serious and debilitating injury. Sitting tends to aggravate these conditions and in severe cases coughing and sneezing are far from pleasant. This is much more complicated then pressure on a nerve as the wrapping around the nerve being compressed also contains blood vessels. So a disc bulge not only can put pressure on the nerve but also the blood vessels around it creating an ischemic hypoxia and buildup of metabolic byproducts which complicated the symptoms further.  Sometimes leg pain is the first symptom which tend to be the hardest patients to treat.  The initial presentation of low back pain with leg pain presenting over the next few days has a better clinical outcome.  Symptoms include: Low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or shooting/buring/numbing leg pain usually past the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  D) Spinal decompression is vital for disc injuries, but it needs to be a specific form of decompression as generalized forms will aggravate medical disc protrusions.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

These 3 events tend to create a cycle of low back pain. Injuries to the disc accelerate degeneration (loss of disc height) As the disc height reduces more weight is transferred from the disc to the facet joints and causes the facets to degenerate and jam together producing more pain. Progressive disc and facet degeneration can lead to stenosis and chronic ischemic hypoxia as the structures of the low back are slowing "choked off" due to a loss of size of the spinal canal and osseoligamentous canal. Keep in mind that the degenerative changes take years to progress.

Trying to diagnose which condition is causing your symptoms relies on the skill of your doctor. MRI is useful in confirming exam findings but can sometimes confuse the situation by showing asymptomatic findings. Most people have disc protrusions on MRI but they do not produce symptoms, so it really comes down to finding a doctor with excellent clinical skills in dealing with low back injuries. Any doctor that tells a patient "you just pulled something" either is not well versed in the mechanisms involved in low back pain or does not think the patient is able to comprehend the problem and "dumbs it down." All of the causes of LBP I listed result in some muscle spasm. Annular tears and disc bulges both have monosynaptic reflexes that result in muscle spasm and treating the muscle spasm only delays treatment for the actual cause of the symptoms.  All of these conditions typically do respond well to Physical Therapy and Chiropractic care.  Acute disc protrusions should not be treated by any high velocity manipulation as there is a risk or creating further injury.  Gentile spinal decompression can be used in the acute stages, but acute disc injuries are best treated after 72 hours in the sub-acute phase.
Great post and quiet accurate from 1-3 and the self help remedies.

K-1

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2010, 11:18:58 AM »
In general there are 3 main causes of low back pain that are commonly related in a vicious cycle.

1) The most common cause is due to irritation of the facet joints. The small joints in the back of the spine are highly innervated and can produce significant pain when they jam together. The jamming can also cause periostitis (bone inflammation) of lamina in the vertebra above in cases of significant disc degeneration. Lumbar extension (leaning backward) tends to exacerbate the symptoms and flexion tends to relieve it.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or inguinal pain, and/or buttock pain, and/or leg pain not extending below the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Knee to chest stretches
  D) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

2) Next we have tears in the annulus (disc) which is actually more pain sensitive then the facet joints. Annular tears are a common cause of low back pain and they produce more pain with each subsequent injury as nerves follow the tear growing deeper into the disc. Increasing the overall health of the disc with supplements like glucosamine sulfate and spinal decompression are the 1st place to start. Increasing core strength helps to reduce the possibility of repeated injury.  Annular tears are the precursor to slipped discs and allowing adequate healing of the disc is important so the condition does not progress.  Symptoms include low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or anterior, and/or thigh pain, and/or flank pain.  Self help remedies include: 
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Hanging from a pull-up bar to allow the low back to decompress.
  D) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

3) Last there is a "slipped disc" or disc protrusion/herniation/bulge. This is where the disc bulges out and puts pressure on the nerves that make up the sciatic nerve that runs down the leg. This is the most serious and debilitating injury. Sitting tends to aggravate these conditions and in severe cases coughing and sneezing are far from pleasant. This is much more complicated then pressure on a nerve as the wrapping around the nerve being compressed also contains blood vessels. So a disc bulge not only can put pressure on the nerve but also the blood vessels around it creating an ischemic hypoxia and buildup of metabolic byproducts which complicated the symptoms further.  Sometimes leg pain is the first symptom which tend to be the hardest patients to treat.  The initial presentation of low back pain with leg pain presenting over the next few days has a better clinical outcome.  Symptoms include: Low back pain, muscle spasm, and/or shooting/buring/numbing leg pain usually past the knee.  Self help remedies include:
  A) Only ice for the 1st 72 hours, then alternating ice and heat 15 min each.   
  B) Lay on the floor and put your legs up on a chair/couch.
  C) Limiting sitting as much as possible.  (Sitting compresses the disc and can increase symptoms and slow healing.
  D) Spinal decompression is vital for disc injuries, but it needs to be a specific form of decompression as generalized forms will aggravate medical disc protrusions.
  E) Anti-inflammatory (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Naproxin)

These 3 events tend to create a cycle of low back pain. Injuries to the disc accelerate degeneration (loss of disc height) As the disc height reduces more weight is transferred from the disc to the facet joints and causes the facets to degenerate and jam together producing more pain. Progressive disc and facet degeneration can lead to stenosis and chronic ischemic hypoxia as the structures of the low back are slowing "choked off" due to a loss of size of the spinal canal and osseoligamentous canal. Keep in mind that the degenerative changes take years to progress.

Trying to diagnose which condition is causing your symptoms relies on the skill of your doctor. MRI is useful in confirming exam findings but can sometimes confuse the situation by showing asymptomatic findings. Most people have disc protrusions on MRI but they do not produce symptoms, so it really comes down to finding a doctor with excellent clinical skills in dealing with low back injuries. Any doctor that tells a patient "you just pulled something" either is not well versed in the mechanisms involved in low back pain or does not think the patient is able to comprehend the problem and "dumbs it down." All of the causes of LBP I listed result in some muscle spasm. Annular tears and disc bulges both have monosynaptic reflexes that result in muscle spasm and treating the muscle spasm only delays treatment for the actual cause of the symptoms.  All of these conditions typically do respond well to Physical Therapy and Chiropractic care.  Acute disc protrusions should not be treated by any high velocity manipulation as there is a risk or creating further injury.  Gentile spinal decompression can be used in the acute stages, but acute disc injuries are best treated after 72 hours in the sub-acute phase.

This is great information. I just recently had to take "the show" to the chiropractor to see what was going on with my lower. I just recently moved , so I expected some stiffness but it carried on for days. and began to stiff up neck and all which = no gym, sparring, training nothing.

Finally went in and he took xrays and the whole nine. Lower bone showed some "degeneration" and neck had some bad angles apparently in the spine..he said it wasn't from the physical contact in training though...just accumulation over my lifetime which was not bad since I caught it in time at 32.

Anyway, had inflammation in lower back so like your advice did the ice thing with heat and have to wear a belt. Did the electro thingy on lower back and he did adjustment that day...I felt like a million bucks but he said I needed to come in for a few more visits.

Also he laid me down and my right leg was shorter than left by almost an inch an d half. Looked at xray and my hips were off. We fixed that also the next visit. The chiropractor is cool, wants me to bring in my wife so he can teach her how to adjust me if i'm off again.

I always knew the spine was extremely sensitive (from football past) but he really taught me a lot that day and i'm looking forward to the rest of my visits. He said I should be better than ever when all done.

Gregzs

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Re: I fried my lower back....rehab help needed!!!!!!!
« Reply #15 on: November 27, 2012, 11:38:12 AM »


My back has been bothering me the way this guy describes. I will probably get around to seeing my doc soon.