Threw My Back Out Again

[Mr_Luke]

And it always seems to happen that way. I injure my back and then don't realize I need to see a chiropractor until a Friday night, and now I have to wait until Monday to get an appointment. I think I did it when I changed my oil Wednesday by the way I sat myself down and kind of plopped my butt down on the tarp I place under my car. I should have known better than to make a sudden movement like that, that's usually how I injure my back.
I saved good money on a DIY OCI, but now I have to pay $35 for a chiro appointment.

 

[alarmguy]

I don't know if this will help but I do know back pain, intense back pain, yet I haven't suffered in years now.
Lets say I am outside doing some heavy stuff, pulling up trees or whatever. If when I am done I get in the house and feel the slightest little back stress I take these flexible kind of ice packs out of the freezer, they look like little blue beads in a thick plastic bag/envelope. I tuck it half way down the waist of my pants under my belt and of course the upper part above the belt line and just walk around with it or do whatever I am doing in the house including laying flat on the carpet to REALLY press the icepack into my back for a little while.
My back gets super numb and skin incredibly cold and I DONT remove the pack for maybe an hour until it gets warm.
ITS LIKE MAGIC for me, by the next day, feel zero back stress.

 

[walterjay]

I don't know if this will help but I do know back pain, intense back pain, yet I haven't suffered in years now.
Lets say I am outside doing some heavy stuff, pulling up trees or whatever. If when I am done I get in the house and feel the slightest little back stress I take these flexible kind of ice packs out of the freezer, they look like little blue beads in a thick plastic bag/envelope. I tuck it half way down the waist of my pants under my belt and of course the upper part above the belt line and just walk around with it or do whatever I am doing in the house including laying flat on the carpet to REALLY press the icepack into my back for a little while.
My back gets super numb and skin incredibly cold and I DONT remove the pack for maybe an hour until it gets warm.
ITS LIKE MAGIC for me, by the next day, feel zero back stress.

That prevents inflammation of the back muscles. My chiropractor has recommended something similar.

 

[HankHill]

You know you have back problems when you take advil BEFORE you're gonna use it

 

[Mr_Luke]

I don't know if this will help but I do know back pain, intense back pain, yet I haven't suffered in years now.
Lets say I am outside doing some heavy stuff, pulling up trees or whatever. If when I am done I get in the house and feel the slightest little back stress I take these flexible kind of ice packs out of the freezer, they look like little blue beads in a thick plastic bag/envelope. I tuck it half way down the waist of my pants under my belt and of course the upper part above the belt line and just walk around with it or do whatever I am doing in the house including laying flat on the carpet to REALLY press the icepack into my back for a little while.
My back gets super numb and skin incredibly cold and I DONT remove the pack for maybe an hour until it gets warm.
ITS LIKE MAGIC for me, by the next day, feel zero back stress.

My lower back seems to feel warmer in that area.
I'll apply ice to it.

 

[#18FAN]

Do you physically workout few days a week including back strength training in any of them days?

 

[JeffKeryk]

Stretching is the best for me. Youtube yoga for lower back.

 

[Mr_Luke]

Do you physically workout few days a week including back strength training in any of them days?

I work out and do some back exercises at home.
I sometimes can go a year or more with no chiro appointments.

 

[#18FAN]

I work out and do some back exercises at home.
I sometimes can go a year or more with no chiro appointments.

Do you strength train the back with weights you need to build the muscle and believe it or not strength train the core to help back issues but I'm no doctor listen to him first he wants you coming back.

 

[RazorsEdge]

I work out and do some back exercises at home.
I sometimes can go a year or more with no chiro appointments.

The biggest joke in the world is a chiropractor. I've seen more people get messed up physically from their treatments.

Not sure what exercises you are doing but your back is pretty specific area that needs to be worked in different ways to not be a weak link.

 

[hemitruck]

Try physical therapy. They also work the stomach area to build up core strength.

 

[Owen Lucas]

The biggest joke in the world is a chiropractor. I've seen more people get messed up physically from their treatments.

Not sure what exercises you are doing but your back is pretty specific area that needs to be worked in different ways to not be a weak link.

This 100%. Chiropractors are not medical doctors or physicians. See a Physiatrist aka PM&R or and OMM osteopathic manipulative medicine. They’re MD and DO respectively and they went through 8 years of medical school, extensive exams, residency, etc 15000 hrs of training.

Chiropractic school is 3 years and almost anyone can get in. Chiropractors also can’t write prescriptions or order imaging like a real doctor. TLDR see a real dr.

 

[HankHill]

The biggest joke in the world is a chiropractor. I've seen more people get messed up physically from their treatments.

Not sure what exercises you are doing but your back is pretty specific area that needs to be worked in different ways to not be a weak link.

I have a neck issue every ~8 years and after 4 days without relief I went to a chiro. He compressed violently where the cervical and thoracic vertebra meet..
Things got way worse and I wound up at a neurologist office white 3 cervical discs bulging onto my my spinal cord and my nerves.

Fucc that!

 

[Mr_Luke]

The biggest joke in the world is a chiropractor.

You wouldn't say that if your back was prone to going out of place like mine has for the last 40 years. At times it was all I could do to put my shoes on.
My chiropractors (2 of them), are not "jokes". You're comparing them to horror stories you may have heard about chiropractors or from your own experiences with them, and that doesn't mean they all are "jokes". If I throw my back out I'm going to be sore until it's put back in place, and I sure can't do that myself.

It's not a "treatment", it's a maneuver that puts the lower back in place again. You can't do it yourself.

 

[Mr_Luke]

Chiropractors are not medical doctors or physicians. See a Physiatrist aka PM&R or and OMM osteopathic manipulative medicine. They’re MD and DO respectively and they went through 8 years of medical school, extensive exams, residency, etc 15000 hrs of training.

That looks good on paper but when I asked my DO to put my back in place a year or so ago, I thought I could save some $$ b/c my insurance pays for it, but he failed to put my back in place and I wasted more time and was sore until I went to one of my chiropractors.
Both of my chiropractors are pretty good at getting my back into place again. One of them weighs about 2x what I weigh and he sometimes uses such force that I feel like I was ran over by a Mack truck. The other one uses "pro adjustment" for routine prevention, and certain maneuvers to put the back in place, if I ask for it.

My DO is most generally a family doctor for 99% of this work. He seldom uses the osteopathic skills he was trained for 20 to 30 years ago, and he proved this to me when I asked him to help me with my back. Unless they practice osteopathic skills ever day or week of their practice, their skills are going to get rusty after a while. Chiropractors OTOH, practice these skills every day. So 2 more years of schooling my DO had 25 years ago aren't going to do me any good unless he uses these skills often enough to stay well versed in them.

 

[alarmguy]

That prevents inflammation of the back muscles. My chiropractor has recommended something similar.

Yes! many years ago, like decades when I was younger I would injure my back so bad I would have to pull myself up and down on the bed posts getting in and out of bed. One year so desperate I saw a Chiropractor (actually 2) for the first time in my life, he actually said to me he couldn't help me after trying so I saw a neurosurgeon and MRI as the Chiropractor suggested. Neurosurgeon said MRI wasnt severe, just swelling.

It was sometime after that I learned heat is the WORST thing you can do, its all about COLD and boy do I chill my back (do the extreme degree outlined in my post above) if I think even the slightest chance of anything happening.
I NEVER AGAIN for maybe 12 or more years now ever had severe back pain again after learning about ice packs.

I dont consider myself having a bad back, this is not an everyday thing but it is a thing in certain positions or activity, other than that I am REALLY an active person.

I chill my back so extreme at times, it feels like my skin is burning from the cold. Its weird, I think to myself, why dont more doctors and such emphasize how important applying cold compress, freezer cold for an hour and as needed? For me, its like magic. I dont know why it took so long to find out.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I have a neck issue every ~8 years and after 4 days without relief I went to a chiro. He compressed violently where the cervical and thoracic vertebra meet..
Things got way worse and I wound up at a neurologist office white 3 cervical discs bulging onto my my spinal cord and my nerves.

Fucc that!

A little more frequent than that but I'll do something just right every few months and I can't turn my head for days. Most recently it was opening the door to my pickup. I don't even know ... didn't pull hard. But I could only look down and to the right.

 

[Owen Lucas]

My DO is most generally a family doctor for 99% of this work. He seldom uses the osteopathic skills he was trained for 20 to 30 years ago, and he proved this to me when I asked him to help me with my back. Unless they practice osteopathic skills ever day or week of their practice, their skills are going to get rusty after a while. Chiropractors OTOH, practice these skills every day. So 2 more years of schooling my DO had 25 years ago aren't going to do me any good unless he uses these skills often enough to stay well versed in them.

This is why you have should see an Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) Doctor. 1-2 years of residency training in neuromuscular skeletal issues after 4 years of Medical School.

Chiropractor has 4200 hours of training when they graduate, give or take.

OMM has 15,000 +/- including extensive training in radiology, allopathic medicine, undergoes and performs in surgery rotations, and can write prescriptions unlike chiropractors. One tried to sell me vegetable pills though lol. OMMs usually work directly with orthopedic doctors and provide referrals to other specialists which they can communicate with on the same level. I have a lot of doctor friends and they refer to chiros as quacks, no offense.

So one guy actually goes to medical school + residency and the other one to a 3 year school that accepts almost anyone.

Certainly there are good chiropractors when working in their limited scope but seeing an OMM would solve all of your problems and more. Chiropractors are just more popular, most people have never heard of an OMM unfortunately.

Another helpful doctor would be Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), also known as physiatry, is a medical specialty that involves restoring function for a person who has been disabled as a result of a disease, disorder, or injury. Basically like a super physical therapist who is an MD and took 1 year of internal medicine/surgery and then 3 years of PM&R Residency. Unlike a physical therapist (even with a doctorate) PM&R MDs practice medicine.

Anyway, give an OMM a shot, even if you have to wait. There could be an underlying condition or treatment that could be beneficial.

 

[walterjay]

I have been a plumber for about 40 years. When my back first went out I saw a neurosurgeon. He said there was nothing that he could do. Did not see a problem. My spine was curved like crazy and somehow he did not think it an issue. Went to a chiropractor and in a few visits my pain was gone. He initially took an x-ray of my back. Fast forward about 15 years and he took another x-ray. My spine was straight and you would never believe that the original x-ray was me. I see the doc for a monthly maintenance of my back. Had a few instances where I really threw it out and he corrected it in a couple of visits.
If it had not been for my Chiropractor I would have been unable to continue my career in plumbing.
I owe a lot to my Chiropractor. He resolved a problem that my medical doctor was unable to.
I know many other people in my field that have been greatly helped through chiropractic care. They are no joke.