Acute Back Pain: Don’t Just Lie There – DO Something!
My condolences to any of you (1 in 4 by most accounts) who have suffered with the excruciating experience of acute back pain. This can occur when you least expect it. Perhaps you thought you were just going to get out of bed on that particular morning. Oh, no! Think again. You find yourself stuck like a turtle on it’s back. Or maybe you were drying your foot, standing on one leg bent forward when kazaam! – you can’t straighten up. Perhaps you were sitting and reached for something downward and just a little out of reach. Yeow!
It’s not just pain you’re feeling, as you really can’t move very well at all. It’s also fairly terrifying. Because it’s really scary when you suddenly can’t move at all and you’re in really bad pain.
Further condolences are extended to those of you who, out of desperation, somehow got yourself to an emergency room. I too experienced this years before becoming a physical therapist. Not an uncommon occurrence to seek help in an ER when you’re in desperate pain and scared out of your wits. But ER departments are looking for life threatening emergencies, and miserable as you are, pain (without any associated trauma) is not life threatening. This may account for why ER visits for acute back pain are mostly rated unsatisfactory by 80% of those surveyed (NIH research 2/16/2016).
The ER is not where we belong if we know what to do when this happens to us. The acute back spasm occurs when muscles have already been strained, quite often from something we don’t even recall doing or by something we were trying to ignore. A mild backache is annoying, but we often just keep going full steam ahead and put up with the discomfort. Or take a pill, or something else, to help us ignore it entirely.
What needs to happen to get out of this misery to a much less miserable state is to get our spines erect again. It still won’t be easy to bend, but being stiff in an erect position is way better than not being able to stand up straight at all. The immediate goal of any back pain self-care is to be able to stand erect and arch backwards slightly.
Here’s what you do: either get on hands and knees, on a bed or on the floor, whatever works better. Or stay standing but put your hands on the seat of a chair or on your knees with your feet spread wide. Round your back upwards stretching out your back. Now granted, you probably won’t be going very far, but small, slow movement is what this is all about. Try taking a deep breath, or focus on your breathing, to help calm down.
After you’ve done that, then go the opposite way, letting your back sag and look forward or upwards if you can. Some of you might recognize this as the yoga move of cat-camel. Again, go as far as you can and then round your back again.
Move slowly, back and forth 3-5times. You should find that after a few repetitions you could go further in both directions. It’s not going to be “normal”, full range of motion kind of movement, but your spine is moving! This is key!
When you’re in the back sag/arching position, try to stand up keeping your back straight and looking forward or slightly upward. Breathe deeply and try to have the thought – “OK. I’m going to be OK. This will take a few days to be all better but I’m standing up straight and I’m going to be OK”. Once erect, more or less, start walking slowly while pulling your belly in towards your spine to get those deep spinal muscles working right again. When your back is in spasm, the deep muscles are pretty much on the blink.
Keep walking slowly, trying to lengthen your spine as you walk (try to be as tall as you can). Then stop walking and (with hands on hips) arch backward slightly in standing. Then back to walking some more or stretching slowly some more.
When sitting (which is best to only do for brief periods of time – it just won’t feel very good) have lots of support behind your back to keep the back pretty straight and sit on a firm chair. Avoid low chairs like the plague. Try to sit tall (at the edge of the chair) with feet on the floor and pull your belly in towards your spine. Keep your back straight when you stand up. Take frequent short walks. Then take longer walks occasionally pulling your belly in to the spine.
If you’re doing all this, then you can take some pills to help with the pain. Of course there are some other moves that can be done (and that are in my book “The How Of Ow: A Whole Body Approach To Pains, Strains and Aging Well), but this is a good place to start.
Stay tuned for the next post!
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