Torso, Lower Back Pain
2009-09-29 – 2009-12-08
Grade: 3
this started after the Patuxent meet, but I think was caused by doing the "plank" exercise at the core class; maybe from ice skating?
10.16 feeling better (90%) but still stiff and "popping" sound from back - pain includes hard "bruised" feeling in tailbone, sharp pains in hip, and excesive stiffness upon twisting. Laying prone on stomach helps some. Using 2 tylenol or 2 advil every 4 hours.
10.28 - hurts and feels stiff now for last 3 days of inactivty. pain localized in lumbar spine. In fact, it hurts more today than it did when I was last exercising. Note that this felt healed and I went back to core exercises (inlcuding push ups w/out "plank") and pain returned in a week and is now (as of 10.28) a "3"
At its peak this hurt bad enough that I went to the DR believing that I might have a kidney infection or perhaps a slipped disc, although I never had pain in the leg. Some of the worst pain was right at the end of the spine on the tailbone. This felt like someone had hit it w/ a hammer. Most of the pain was associated w/ the right side of my back, but it hurt everywhere in lower back. Note that in the beginning, my lumbar pad actually made the pain worse, which has never happened before. The DR said no to the UTI, but that it might be a slipped disc because those don't always hurt in the leg.
Things that helped:
- tylenol + advil sometimes at the same time
- sleeping on the floor, w/ a pillow to support the knees
- mild stretching, but not too much
- ice on lower back
- storebought heating pads
- icy/hot + ace bandage
- rest - unfortunately I tried to exercise through this, even doing some extra long runs, but I think that prolonged it and finally made it worse.
- mentally seeing at least some progress each day.
10.31 - feeling better - about a 1 to 2 severity. only tylenol. able to go back to some exercising, but keeping it limited. Amazing how out of shape I feel after 1 week.
11.1 - did the brown course. even after shortened O meet felt very stiff in the car. this was so bad as cause pain when lifting right leg (like sciatic pain). this lessened later.
11.2 - biking feels ok while exercising but pain and stiffness returns after
11.3 - swimming, same effect - feels ok while exercising and shortly thereafter, but later pain and stiffness returns. Sitting either at work or in the car is particulaly difficult. took 1 tylenol and 1 advil. Looking back over last month, I can at least say there has been at least some improvement, but I am now convinced this is worse than a pulled muscle.
11.4 - felt the best I've been for a month. sat all day in a class w/out significant discomfort, but took 4 advil. Later, driving home in a 2 hour traffic jam, I had shooting pain in the right hip and under right leg. This was relieved by getting out of the stupid car.
11.6 - feeling much better. only 2 tylenol this morning and much less stiffness. I am thinking that it was the core class that caused the problem. Able to ride the stationary bike w/out stiffness after today
11.10 - took 2 tylenol after run today (and swim this am) but still able to do soccer. Hip hurts on left side.
11.16 - ran the blue course yesterday, which produced some stiffness and achy pains. hip pain is gone and sciatic pain is gone. took 2 tylenol last night but nothing today.
11.19 - normal sleeping. not using lumbar pad at work. no tylenol. some small residual stiffness and twinges.
11.23 - sharp ache on right side of lumbar area returns after biking on Saturday and running on Sunday. general ache after waking up this morning. still tolerable.
11.24 - still some sharp aches in the same lower right lumbar area. lumbar pad alleviates it, but staying away from that too much b/c before that seemed to cause more discomfort eventually.
11.29 - slight return after a bike ride 1 week ago. Ok today.
12.7 - while I can still "crack" my lower back sometimes, I need to do virtually nothing to manage pain or stiffness anymore so this is pretty much done.
see log above.
12.8 still occasionaly get that "pop" in the back and an odd stiffness in the hip - left side this morning but sometimes it can be right side. However there is really nothing more to treat in this injury.