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Ow, my back.
McGibs
TorontoRegistered User regular
TorontoRegistered User regular
So, over the last year or so my back has been getting progressively shittier, to the point where it's probably safe to call it chronic back pain. Not surprisingly, this probably resulted from sitting in a computer chair for the majority of every day for the last decade and a half. The pain is located in my lower back, right above my sacrum, and is really effecting my ability to walk (if I had to say, run out of the way of an oncoming car, I'd probably just collapse). Putting weight on my feet at certain angles twinges some deep-tissue nerve and feels like I'm getting stabbed in the pelvis. While I sleep the pain seems to... gather strength... spreading to the muscles in my lower back, and I usually have to wake up early, and walk around a bit until it subsides during the day.
I've been to a chiropractor, who seemed like a quack, a local doctor, and a podiatrist. Both the real doctors essentially said that, yeah, I was spending too much time sitting down. I should stop doing that so much, and also try to do some stretches. I also got some prescription orthotics for my shoes, which seem to help a little bit, at least with the leg/hip pain, if not the root back problem itself. The list of suggested stretches doesn't seem to help too much, as my pain seems to be more of a nerve issue, than a muscle issue (specifically, the nerves that are running through my hip bones), and I can't really get a stretch that hits that spot.
My question to H/A is where can I go from here? I'd rather not be a hunched, cane wielding, hobbilite before I'm thirty. Does anyone else have similar experiences and found solutions? I'm considering buying a standing desk to work at, but any suggestions would be much appreciated!
I've been to a chiropractor, who seemed like a quack, a local doctor, and a podiatrist. Both the real doctors essentially said that, yeah, I was spending too much time sitting down. I should stop doing that so much, and also try to do some stretches. I also got some prescription orthotics for my shoes, which seem to help a little bit, at least with the leg/hip pain, if not the root back problem itself. The list of suggested stretches doesn't seem to help too much, as my pain seems to be more of a nerve issue, than a muscle issue (specifically, the nerves that are running through my hip bones), and I can't really get a stretch that hits that spot.
My question to H/A is where can I go from here? I'd rather not be a hunched, cane wielding, hobbilite before I'm thirty. Does anyone else have similar experiences and found solutions? I'm considering buying a standing desk to work at, but any suggestions would be much appreciated!
McGibs on
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In terms of general behavior - do as much walking and upright stuff as you can, as plopping in front of the TV or computer after working a desk all day is bad.
I go to the gym three times a week, are there any specific back/ab exercises I should start including?
For me, it was 80% the way I was sleeping and 20% the way I was sitting. I had gotten into the habit of staying up too late, and dozing off in my chair. Bad things happen with posture when you do that. Anyway, the fix for me was to sleep on my back (rather than my side) with my legs elevated. I used a pillow under my feet, kicked the dog off the bed, and made the lady scoot over when it was time to sleep. Because I go to sleep later and my GF goes to sleep ridiculously early, I used to just try to get in where I fit in. Well, that doesn't work for me anymore and my old man bones, apparently.
So, I would take a strong look at your sleeping situation. If your mattress is too firm and you sleep on your side, your hips could be out of joint with your back and that's bad news if you're a heavy sleeper. That's mostly what got me, I think. I haven't had the problem since I changed my sleeping up, but I've also lost significant weight since then, which I'm sure helps.
Good luck!
Don't give up on the stretching- you may not feel like you're reaching the right spot, but sometimes improving the condition of everything around the right spot really does help. Especially leg stretches for the muscles that reach your pelvis.
I use a problem called "Workrave" to remind me to stretch and get up from my desk regularly. The program is a little dopey-looking, but it basically just pops up and tells me to stretch at my desk every 10 minutes and get up and take a break every hour. It doesn't disturb my mental flow too badly. It's hard to be sure, but I think it has reduced the severity of locking-up-neck-muscles-with-horrible-neck-pain events in my life. I highly recommend using something, even a quiet phone alarm, to interrupt the pattern of being so absorbed by what you're doing on the computer that you lock up all your muscles for three hours without realizing it.
It sounds like walking is mostly helping you, rather than making things worse, so if you can walk a little more (park further from everything you drive to, say, if you drive), that might be a workable lifestyle change.
I would say that if you have chronic pain, that is not resolving like you say. You should get to a doctor and start a plan of action. It seems like you have gone to a couple doctors and they each tried 1 thing and then the collaboration was over between you two.
When I talked to my Ortho specialist, it was if this doesn't work whats next, then what and what after that. All the way up to replacing the disks or fusing the vertebrae. Fortunately PT has helped for me. But there is no way I would have just dealt with it and hoped it went away. Life is to short to suffer in silence.
Go see a doctor.
Now.
I went to physical therapy for about 3 weeks (though I really only needed one.
They showed me a bunch of stretches to do and exercises for when the pain went away.
Took maybe a month and a half of seriously doing them till I felt 100% again.
- My own personal experience was carrying my backpack full of school books over only one shoulder. This led to back spasms, which were hugely painful but subsided quickly with some therapy and wearing the second strap on my backpack always. So basically if you are carrying heavy loads at all just try to even them out as much as possible.
- Sleeping can be a big one- if you have the wrong mattress you can be doing harm to your back. I can't give you specifics other than "firmer mattresses can be better for your back generally", but really if you try out a new mattress for a few days you might find the pain goes away a bit.
- if you're exercising your back at the gym, make sure you spend an equal time on your abs/core. Bodies are funny that way- if two sides of the body are very different in muscle tone you can definitely get pain as a result.
- Obviously sitting for long periods is bad. They have newfangled stand up desks you can work at, and if those aren't available just get up and walk occasionally.
Hope that helps!
The big tricks of the trade, for a standing desk, are...
- get a bar height chair for when you want to sit; I thought I'd use this a lot, but in reality, I rarely sit; studies on standing classrooms show that about 70% of the kids prefer standing all the time, while 30% of kids like to sit about a third of the time
- get a foot rest, about 6" high, so you can shift your weight whilst standing
- get thin, firm, padding for your floor; padding that is too thick or too soft actually hurts your feet
- make sure your monitors are eye level; you end up tilting your head when looking down, giving you neck aches, so I ended up using books to raise up my monitors
My standing desk and bar chair came from IKEA, about $300 total. My foot rest is just a random piece of 6" pine that I had lying around, that I sanded the edges off of.