Back problems

[Beccybaboo]

20 year old young girl.Had back pain for past 4 weeks now, done nothing different as I would normally. Since last Monday I've also had shooting pains into my right leg, up my spine, into my chest and into stomach. Called for an ambulance and they said they was nothing wrong with me. My back totally went shortly after paramedics left. I'm now a week on, no better, can't even walk up stairs or bend without back going and in complete agony. Doctors have prescribed me with Co codomols which are doing naff all. Any advice?

[joe69]

Sorry to hear of your pain.

Back pain can be and is one of the worst pains anyone could suffer from.

To be honest it doesn't take much to pull a disc or sprain the back, it's a very delicate area.

In the early stages of my back pain, they put me on co-codamol, on which didn't do anything for me. I was then finally put on morphine, tablet for on which did help. The only thing is morphine, is after being on a while your body gets used to it, then this stops pain relief. Then you will need weened off them.

I hope you get pain relief very soon.

Take care

Joe

[earthwitch]

The NHS works on the theory that most back pain will resolve itself in a few weeks, so they don't tend to do much straight off. You could possibly ask your GP if you could see a physio. Physios can be very useful as they can show you exercises that help stretch out your spine, so it doesn't go into spasm or pinch nerves so much. If it doesn't reduce after a couple of weeks of physio exercises, keep going back to your GP. Ask about a specialist referral either to rheumatology or orthopaedics, but that definitely isn't something they will usually do until you have tried everything else.

As far as the meds go, has anyone given you anti-inflammatories like naproxen or ibuprofen? They can actually be much better then even strong pain meds like cocodamol as they deal with the inflammation that causes the pain. If you get them on prescription it will usually be at a higher dose than the over the counter dose, but you do need to take them regularly for a while to have the full effect. If you haven't been given them, then that's something else to ask your GP about.

[deejames]

Try to keep moving Beccy. If you just lie down it could get worse so even if it hurts a lot keep moving about carefully and gently. Ice on the area is brilliant for easing the pain. 15 minute on , 45 minutes off. All day if necessary . the old bag of frozen peas will do nicley. It will get better. And once it is maybe you could think about how you can protect yourself for the future. Posture ? Weight ? Amount of exercise ? Sitting hunched over lap tops or computers? A back going wrong tends to repeat itself if you don't change the reason why it got bad in the first place.

Hope its better soon

Dee

[johnsmith]

This sounds like a possible muscle control problem. The NHS knows practically nothing about this sort of problem as it is not studied by medical consultants.

The people who do study it are Alexander Teachers, Massage Therapist, Yoga teachers and others who treat muscular pain.

You need to see a chiropractor to deal with a possible muscle spasm. If the problem is due to a muscle spasm you should feel better after the muscle is unspasmed.

Hope this helps.