Wife threw her back out. What to do?

[GoneForever]

This happened to her once before about a year ago. This morning she bent down to let the dog outside and basically dropped to the floor in pain. The lower right side of her back is killing her. She cannot walk. Has to crawl and lay on her side. She took a hot bath but it didnt help much. We put some bengay on and it soothed it a bit but she still cant walk. We iced it and that didnt do shit. She took 600mg ibprophen and that didnt help either. When this happened before it took her about 3days to recover. When she trys to walk she feels like she is gonna pass out from pain. When I massage the area she can feel it in a certain spot in her lower back. Any idea what this is? Would this be a pulled muscle or a sprain or what? We are thinkin about going to the ER but would rather save the $1000 if they are just gonna give her pain meds and say to rest. Anyone have any ideas? Massage it? Heat or cold? Thanks

 

[RONJON]

Id say go to a phy. therapist pay the 30 dollar co-pay and get her checked out...IMO

Good luck
RONJON

 

[csuperman]

i has this happen a year ago just getting out of a chair and fell over in pain i couldnt barely walk and as a matter of fact friday night i tweaked it doing warmup squats. When i went to the dr. they gave me an antiiflamitory, and a shot of tordol? The only way they can tell if something is actually messed up is to to a mri a xray will not show anything if its a disk or something like that.

 

[jm425]

I hurt my lower back years ago doing hack squats and couldn't do any exercises that required lower back for 6 months. Last year I started going to a chiropractor and my back has been getting much better. Your wife may want to try to go to a chiro to see if he/she can make things better. This would be a cheaper alternative to going to the ER and getting pain killers that only mask the pain. Hell, some insurance companies cover alternative medicine like chiros like mine does.

 

[MAINEVENT]

Keep icing it even though it doesn't "feel" like its helping. Up the ibuprophen to 800mg every 4-6 hrs and help her do some VERY light stretching. Have her lay on her back and pull one knee into her chest, one leg at a time. Hold it for 15 seconds and repeat with the other leg. Do this a couple times every few hours as well.

Then take her to her chiro tomorrow or have her get a massage.

Honestly, i see this a couple dozen times a day.....sounds like the vertebrae is 'out of alignment' causing pain and distress, as well as compression to the nerve. Should take 1-2 treatments.

 

[GoneForever]

Thanks guys. She has been icing it and taking hot baths and using heating pad. She says its much better feeling after heating pad, ice seems to not help much at all and I think its making it worse but she cant isolate that yet. She's been able to do the streches but not after just icing it, she's gotta wait a bit then. She is sleeping on the floor tonight with some padding under her knee's. If tomorrow she still cant move were gonna do urgent care.

 

[JETHRO TULL]

Main, thanks for posting that advice.

Keep icing it even though it doesn't "feel" like its helping. Up the ibuprophen to 800mg every 4-6 hrs and help her do some VERY light stretching. Have her lay on her back and pull one knee into her chest, one leg at a time. Hold it for 15 seconds and repeat with the other leg. Do this a couple times every few hours as well.

Then take her to her chiro tomorrow or have her get a massage.

Honestly, i see this a couple dozen times a day.....sounds like the vertebrae is 'out of alignment' causing pain and distress, as well as compression to the nerve. Should take 1-2 treatments.

This sounds terrible...if it happens to me..I'll remember that advice.

 

[Snooze]

This happened to her once before about a year ago. This morning she bent down to let the dog outside and basically dropped to the floor in pain. The lower right side of her back is killing her. She cannot walk. Has to crawl and lay on her side. She took a hot bath but it didnt help much. We put some bengay on and it soothed it a bit but she still cant walk. We iced it and that didnt do shit. She took 600mg ibprophen and that didnt help either. When this happened before it took her about 3days to recover. When she trys to walk she feels like she is gonna pass out from pain. When I massage the area she can feel it in a certain spot in her lower back. Any idea what this is? Would this be a pulled muscle or a sprain or what? We are thinkin about going to the ER but would rather save the $1000 if they are just gonna give her pain meds and say to rest. Anyone have any ideas? Massage it? Heat or cold? Thanks

I think you might have to put her down. a shot gun will do the trick.

 

[Test_Eagles]

I've never really got the philosophy of alternate heat/ice. It has to be one or the other. The purpose of ice is too restrict blood flow to the area and slow down cell metabolism. When less metabolism is going on you have less cells dying and releasing inflammatory factors to kill other cells.

When you apply heat you do the opposite, you increase the flow of nutrients to try to heal the injury speeding up metabolism. You expand the whole area, reducing the pressure on the nerves from the fluid and blood in there and hence temporarily relieving the pain. Straight after an injury, typically there is damage and a significant number of cells have lost their blood flow. If you apply heat in the first 48-72 hours you accelerate the death of these cells and hence other cells in the area.

The usual story is you should only ever go ice in the first 3 days, ideally every 2 hours. That is the story with joint injuries anyway, ankle, knee, elbow etc... Back I can't be sure about.

I have a few PDF's exploring the effectivness of cryotherapy if you want them.

 

[DatBtrue]

Wife threw her back out. What to do?

Let her back in.

 

[gymrat215]

I've never really got the philosophy of alternate heat/ice. It has to be one or the other. The purpose of ice is too restrict blood flow to the area and slow down cell metabolism. When less metabolism is going on you have less cells dying and releasing inflammatory factors to kill other cells.

When you apply heat you do the opposite, you increase the flow of nutrients to try to heal the injury speeding up metabolism. You expand the whole area, reducing the pressure on the nerves from the fluid and blood in there and hence temporarily relieving the pain. Straight after an injury, typically there is damage and a significant number of cells have lost their blood flow. If you apply heat in the first 48-72 hours you accelerate the death of these cells and hence other cells in the area.

The usual story is you should only ever go ice in the first 3 days, ideally every 2 hours. That is the story with joint injuries anyway, ankle, knee, elbow etc... Back I can't be sure about.

I have a few PDF's exploring the effectivness of cryotherapy if you want them.

what are you saying is best heat or ice? im assuming ice? since u mentinoed the eat destroys cells im a little confused..very intresting though.
my chiro says ice is the best way to go ive gotten good results from both though?

 

[Massive G]

Bromelian will greatly ease the inflammation and pain.
4-600 GDU's 3 times a day before meals.

 

[zephyr22]

yeah heat and ice....

Continue motrin 800mg Three times daily or every 8hrs. Max dose in 24hr peroid is 2,400mg. Also remember that motrin can really tear up your stomach in large doses for a continued duration. So make sure to take with food. Heat causes vasodilation causing more blood flow to the area thus bringing repair proteins and infamatorie actions. Next ice helps reduce swelloning in the area, then repeat. Stay on the motrin for 10 to 14 days. If you take her to the urgent care or ER they will want a CT scan or MRI. Now depending who the radiologist is or how bogged down in other cases. You may not get a reading until a few days later. However they will give her some central acting muscle relaxant, some antiflamatorie and possibly a mild narcotic for the pain. The thing is if its a infamed sciatic nerve, or a pinch in the qudal equina(the nervplexus running in the leg lower back area) there is esentially nothing you can do. The thing is to correct why the area is becomeing inflamed.....Is she active? Strong lower back and abdominals. History of injurie to the area in the past is concerning me. Has she had some old CT scans or MRI of the area???? Im just treating this like I would with any patient I have. Let me know if i could be of any more help.

 

[zephyr22]

one more question...

Is she on any medications routinely. Medicine she takes on a daily basis??? Only reason is motrin can increase bleeding issues. And at a high dose such as this I dont want your wife to have any problems with that. Birth control is a big one that increases bleeding times. The prob is sometimes women with inc bleeding times during menses end up becoming severely anemic because of hemoglobin losses etc....Just thought Id let you know about that as a side bar.

 

[Blade_HST]

Sciatic nerve impingement (piriformis syndrome) or SI dysfunction, impossible to tell from a description - but I doubt it is a herniated disc. You can have her try McKenzie pressups to see if that alleviates the pain, start with this:

**broken link removed**

and see if she can work up to this:

**broken link removed**

Rest and pain killers will NOT be the solution.

Go see a qualified massage therapist, I recommend ART (Active Release Therapy), chiropractors aren't always a good thing as they may make the proper adjustment - but fail to go for the root cause thus making the problem re-appear.

 

[GoneForever]

Is she on any medications routinely. Medicine she takes on a daily basis??? Only reason is motrin can increase bleeding issues. And at a high dose such as this I dont want your wife to have any problems with that. Birth control is a big one that increases bleeding times. The prob is sometimes women with inc bleeding times during menses end up becoming severely anemic because of hemoglobin losses etc....Just thought Id let you know about that as a side bar.

Only T4

 

[GoneForever]

Continue motrin 800mg Three times daily or every 8hrs. Max dose in 24hr peroid is 2,400mg. Also remember that motrin can really tear up your stomach in large doses for a continued duration. So make sure to take with food. Heat causes vasodilation causing more blood flow to the area thus bringing repair proteins and infamatorie actions. Next ice helps reduce swelloning in the area, then repeat. Stay on the motrin for 10 to 14 days. If you take her to the urgent care or ER they will want a CT scan or MRI. Now depending who the radiologist is or how bogged down in other cases. You may not get a reading until a few days later. However they will give her some central acting muscle relaxant, some antiflamatorie and possibly a mild narcotic for the pain. The thing is if its a infamed sciatic nerve, or a pinch in the qudal equina(the nervplexus running in the leg lower back area) there is esentially nothing you can do. The thing is to correct why the area is becomeing inflamed.....Is she active? Strong lower back and abdominals. History of injurie to the area in the past is concerning me. Has she had some old CT scans or MRI of the area???? Im just treating this like I would with any patient I have. Let me know if i could be of any more help.

She's very active. Her dad said he got the same thing the past. Never had a ct or mri of lower back b/c it only happened once in the past about a year ago. Same problem. I guess I woudlnt know if she has a strong lower back but she does lift and is in great shape and runs marathons,etc... She said its feeling much better today but unfortunatly she had to go to work. She' got one of those heat stickie pads on her lower back now but has been stretching and when she woke up this morning she said the pain was much better than yesterday.

 

[Sassy]

I see this happened a couple of days ago. I hope she is starting to feel better. It sounds like you got plenty of good advise. I've done this too many times to count now. The thing that helps me the most is when it first happens to get a massage. Then to continue with ice packs and naproxen sodium (Brand name: Aleve). For some reason ibuprophen doesn't seem to help me much, but Naproxen does. Stretching exercises are a must!

 

[zephyr22]

HST....About your comment...

First of all I did not say that muscle relaxers or narcotics were the anwser. Secondly maybe some massage therapy etc... is a good idea. However not at this time. You, see when there is a large amount of inflamation in an area it is best to rest and use antinflammatories. Sorry but I practice medicine and can tell you this is the way we treat these injurys. Now this is all said without having a MRI or CT scan of course to see what truly is the problem. Muscle relaxants and narcotics are only given to be able to function until the inflamation resides. It is not a permanent answer.

 

[zephyr22]

Cont the protocol I had advised earlier....

However get her in to see her general pratctioner and tell them about the problem so they can get to the root of the problem in order to stop this from happening again. Keep me updated.