Lower back pain

[the Ferret]

[peterbaron]

^^+1^^

[cooldrum_imp]

pdedse, How was visit to the doc? Any answers as too the cause? Hope you're feeling better.

[Gone in 60]

Yeah, how did it go? I tried a chiropractor once. Didn't go well. His answer was to have me hold different crystals till my back felt better.
Maybe I went to the wrong chiropractor.

[Mtneers]

In both the fall of 2021 and 2022, I experienced severe back pain. I was initially diagnosed with acute sciatica in that I could not fully stand erect and required a cane to walk. In 2021, I went thru multiple PT sessions before I could stand upright. I spent 40+ nights on the couch sleeping curled on my side because I could not lay flat on a mattress. The pain eventually subsided through a prescription of 300 mg of gabapentin. It took a week to wean off that drug…100 mg of gabapentin.
I thought it was under control until the fall of 2022 rolled around. The pain resurged and I then became under the care of a chiropractor ( never believed in them until then). His initial diagnosis when I “walked” into his office was…”you’re a hot mess”. After multiple chiropractic sessions coupled with multiple PT sessions again, it was only incrementally getting any better. The next treatment, after an MRI, was a diagnosis of spinal stenosis. This was followed by two steroid epidural injections. Not fun. I now seem to have it somewhat under control, but it is an L-4 L-5 vertebrae issue putting pressure on my spinal cord.
During 2021, the physical therapist told me if I didn’t stretch daily, I would be back. I didn’t and I was. Now, I go through about 8-10 different stretches two times daily….religiously. I haven’t taken a multiple day overnight trip on a bike for a couple years. The rallys have been my only cycle travel in the last two years. The last multiple day overnight trip, I believe, was a 2022 trip in early summer to Maine with A-man and KiowaEagle.
I now wear a back support when I ride or attempt any yard work. The worst is using a weedeater or hand tool, such as with a shovel or a rake. So, I limit my exposure to those as much as possible. Ironically, and thanks to you know who, and, as hard as it is to comprehend, it doesn’t seem to bother my tennis play as long as I remember my age and space days between play. The chiropractor told me the amount of riding I did in the past (last 3 touring bikes 40k+ miles each, all lower 48 states, 6 trips across the Mississippi) probably attributed to my back issue.
I’ve been riding since I was 8 years old. I’m not ready to quit by no means.
Hopefully, 2025 will allow me to once again to take a multiple day cycle trip.


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[Cormanus]

I remember the first time my back went out. I was lifting a filing cabinet completely wrong out of a delivery van. I thought I had been shot in the back. I was laying on the ground screaming, and someone ran up to me. I said I was shot, and the other person said "You're not bleeding anywhere!"

I could start the story of my back pain with those words. What is it about blokes and filing cabinets?

It hurt like hell when I did it and was helped by time and massage. It’s left a tender area that flares up periodically. Physiotherapy and targeted exercise helps and life goes on until it happens again.

My deepest sympathy to those of you who have to manage it daily.

[Gone in 60]

I remember the first time my back went out. I was lifting a filing cabinet completely wrong out of a delivery van. I thought I had been shot in the back. I was laying on the ground screaming, and someone ran up to me. I said I was shot, and the other person said "You're not bleeding anywhere!"

I could start the story of my back pain with those words. What is it about blokes and filing cabinets?

It hurt like hell when I did it and was helped by time and massage. It’s left a tender area that flares up periodically. Physiotherapy and targeted exercise helps and life goes on until it happens again.

My deepest sympathy to those of you who have to manage it daily.

I was young and dumb, working for an office supply company. The delivery guy was out that day, so I was driving the van. At one stop, I needed the filing cabinet that was behind the one next to the van door. So, I leaned across the first one, reached out for the one I needed, and tried to lift it.

Probably the worst possible way a human can lift a heavy object.

Needless to say, that started me down the road of any random thing setting off my lower back. Once it was a hard sneeze...

[Cormanus]

I was middle aged and dumb and picked up my 2-drawer cabinet full of paper as I had done so many times before. I twisted as I lifted. The rest is history.

As my father used to say, “There’s no fool like an old fool”.

[pdedse]

pdedse, How was visit to the doc? Any answers as too the cause? Hope you're feeling better.

Ah! Thanks for asking. I had a good meeting with doc today and he wants to do x-rays first (done!) to check Sacroiliac joints, and then, if they don't see anything obvious, move on to MRI for sciatic nerve check. Said the shooting pain from waste down back side and legs tells him to do both these tests before any physical therapy suggestions as the type they will have you do will depend on these two test results.

He prescribed a muscle relaxer and ibuprofen till he gets the x-rays back. But he also said ok to exercise, walks, swim, to use my inversion table...just not to go too crazy with any one thing, and if something does seem to make it worse, then stop.

He gave me a serola belt which feels as I imagine a 17th century corsette would have felt, just not for the waist, but lower. It tightens you up quite a bit and is designed to help lower back and "normalize functiong of the sacroiliac joint". So much new verbage to learn.

But at least I got started instead of just going through the same thing each day.

[the Ferret]

Well, lets hope its nothing serious enough that they recommend surgery.