Back Issues

[getTwisted]

I hurt my back a month ago and I was literally doing nothing.

Back Story: I have a pretty active lifestyle (up until this winter). I play a lot of golf, hunt, stay outdoors as much as possible. Before doing anything strenuous with my back I usually stretch, mostly for golf, I stretch before and after my rounds, I do not exercise however. I have pulled muscles before, no big deal. Ibuprofen and taking it easy for a couple days always does the trick.

My Wife and I had our first child last year. Up until it started getting cold in December I was still pretty active. After that I found myself staying inside with the baby and not doing much.

Fast forward to a month ago: I was holding our baby in the recliner, we both fell asleep, I must have been in an awkward position, not really sure. My wife woke me up, I went to bed, then the next morning my back was killing me. The pain is under my shoulder blade on my right side. I could not turn to my right at all the first day. The next day I got my full range of motion back but the pain was still there. The pain gradually went down but never goes away.

I take a hot shower in the morning along with ibuprofen, stretch during the day, ice it after work. Every morning I wake up with mild pain and stiffness and it gradually gets better throughout the day, but the next morning its the same over again, never changes. I hope that I can wake up one morning without being in pain, but a month has gone by with no such luck.

Anyone else had similar pain or experience and fixed it?

I realize getting older doesn't help but a month is a little ridiculous.

 

[scott9050]

First: See a Chiropractor. I used to have problems with sciatica that was so bad that I could not walk for several days. I was shown a way to stretch laying down that popped my lower back and took pressure off the sciatic nerve and I have not had an attack in 8 years.

Second, get one of these:

http://www.homedics.com/massage/back-massagers/quad-shiatsu-massage-cushion-with-heat.html

I have one and they do absolute wonders.

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

Chiros can be amazing.

 

[Blown 89]

Chiropractors are charlatans, go see a real doctor.

 

[thomas91169]

Chiropractic care helps, but if its muscular, getting your spine cracked isnt going to help.

Its funny, I was gonna make a thread just like this. Two weeks ago, I was driving and sneezed in my car and pulled a muscle under my left shoulder blade. SNEEZING! I couldnt sit down, it was excruciating to drive, especially my car with how rough the ride is.

My doctor wants me to undergo physical therapy to strengthen my core, so it prevents a sneeze from pulling it again. Sounds like a waste of money to me. Ive pulled muscles before and just gotten muscle relaxers and it fixed it within a day or so, but this doctor is some holistic weirdo and now im being pressured by significant other to do what he says.

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

Chiropractors are charlatans, go see a real doctor.

So ignorant. Guess if my tooth hurts, better go to the Doctor too huh?

 

[Dbzguy]

Injured my back close to 10 years ago and been dealing with the repercussions ever since. It hasn't been that bad of an issue for the most part but when it goes out it usually puts me out of commission for a few days to a week. Then it'll be fine for months and months. Funny thing is that even stress will cause it to go out which really sucks cause it wasn't anything I overdid physically. Stretching exercises do help though and for me when it gets real bad 800mg IBUs are my savior lol.

 

[getTwisted]

Chiropractic care helps, but if its muscular, getting your spine cracked isnt going to help.

Its funny, I was gonna make a thread just like this. Two weeks ago, I was driving and sneezed in my car and pulled a muscle under my left shoulder blade. SNEEZING! I couldnt sit down, it was excruciating to drive, especially my car with how rough the ride is.

My doctor wants me to undergo physical therapy to strengthen my core, so it prevents a sneeze from pulling it again. Sounds like a waste of money to me. Ive pulled muscles before and just gotten muscle relaxers and it fixed it within a day or so, but this doctor is some holistic weirdo and now im being pressured by significant other to do what he says.

I think its muscular, but don't know for sure. I use to do core exercises everyday when I was playing golf competitively and my back felt great then. I'm going to get back into it again soon but I'm afraid if I start trying to exercise now it will make it worse.

 

[Blown 89]

So ignorant. Guess if my tooth hurts, better go to the Doctor too huh?

I go to the dentist rather than an acupuncturist.

 

[gaspasr]

Meloxicam and flexeril

 

[thomas91169]

I go to the dentist rather than an acupuncturist.

Which is funny because dentistry was also seen as a quack medicine.

 

[Mr. Mach-ete]

If you are out of alignment your muscles become fatigued, strained, and start to spasm. Go see a chiropractor to get adjusted, in 2 weeks you'll be feeling much better.

 

[Joeysnk]

Prolotherapy. I just went through this after a car accident. i had a burning sensation around / between my shoulder blades. helped a lot.

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

Which is funny because dentistry was also seen as a quack medicine.

Ding ding!

You go to a specialist is the point.

 

[Teethy]

I was about as skeptical as it gets on Chiropractors but I started experiencing some shoulder pain doing bicep curls about two months back. Obviously knowing that was out of the ordinary I stepped a bit closer to the mirror to see where the problem was and I noticed my left shoulder was sitting nearly an inch higher than the right. I let a week go by to see if it straightened out and it didn't. There is a chiro that lifts at the gym and I asked him to take a look at it. He was a concierge chiropractor and brought a table and a few bags and boxes of equipment to my house and set up in the kitchen. He did a long evaluation and then got me back in line inside of about 30 minutes.

That's where things got a little more fun. He told me that because I had been out of line for an extended period of time my muscles in my left shoulder were actually pulling in a way that would pull me back out of line. This would have been a great time to sell me one coming to him every few days for months to get fixed but instead he fixed the muscles as well. I laid face down on the table and one at a time he put needles into different points on my back and shoulder. When the needle would hit I would feel the muscle spasm and he'd dig into it with his thumb and massage it out very similar to a deep tissue massage. He didn't call it acupuncture but 'dry needling' instead.

None of the adjustment or the needling hurt at the time. I will say before I went to bed that night I was EXTREMELY sore everywhere he worked but two days later I was back in line with no pain anywhere. One visit that lasted just a little bit over an hour.

I think like most things in life there are good ones and bad ones. Maybe I just got lucky but I was in disbelief that he could fix those problems so quickly in one visit and I wouldn't have to return.

 

[scott9050]

Same with the sciatica I experienced. The doctors I went to blew me off and suggested Ibuprofen or prescribed muscle relaxers which did not help. I went to the Chiropractor out of desperation and found a real solution much to my amazement.

 

[WFOLS1]

+1 for the chiropracter (going to mine today, actually). Even if you think its muscular, you could still be out of adjustment/alignment... all the nerves from your brain run through your spine, if you pinch a nerve anywhere in the spine it can make the associated muscle spasm causing the pain.

Also, listen to what Teethy said, the longer you are out of alignment, the harder it is to get back to normal. Numerous visits to the chiro may be in order. It took me months to get back to normal after ignoring back pain for about a year.