Stay Calm: It's natural to feel anxious when experiencing severe pain, but try to stay as calm as possible. Stress and tension can amplify your pain
Do you have symptoms that need medical assessment? As a general rule, if your back pain is associated with additional symptoms such as loss of muscle power in the legs and / or onset of numbness or tingling in the legs, it would be wise to seek medical attention sooner rather than later. If you experience unusual loss of bladder or bowel control in association with your back pain, you should urgently seek medical care.
What brought on your pain? If your back pain was brought on by a physically traumatic event such as a fall from height, it would be wise to seek medical care to rule out the presence of structural pathology such as spinal fracture. If the onset was insidious, or from a relatively innocuous event such as bending to pick up a pencil, there is a good chance that the “bark” of your back pain is worse than it’s “bite”. And in such a scenario, you can allow yourself the benefits of the idea that your back injury is not severe, despite the pain being severe. To be certain, you should discuss your specific symptoms with your trusted health professional.
Avoid being sedentary: When you’re experiencing severe back pain, it’s tempting to find any relieving position you can, and to simply avoid more movement. But the downside is that getting going again is really difficult. If we can be reasonably sure that there is no serious structural injury causing your pain, it makes sense to keep moving rather than avoiding movement. Exactly what that looks like will be different from person to person. You might be disabled enough by your pain that “keeping moving” means getting out of the office chair every 20min to walk about your apartment. Whereas the next person might be able to hobble down to their local pool and do some gentle swimming.
Stay relaxed while you walk and move: When in pain, a common instinct is to move in a braced or tense manner. Moving with lots of tension though, can exacerbate spasm and amplify your back pain. Instead, try using your breathing to relax your trunk muscles, and avoid “holding your breath” when you’re moving about or changing positions
More thoughts…
A typical episode of severe low back pain, for which there is no serious underlying cause will settle down over a 1-2 week period. Most often, people feel about 80% recovered after 7-10days. Half the battle is being able to convince yourself of the idea that the severity of the back pain is more to do with your body being in a kind of “protection mode” than it is to do with a serious underlying injury. It is understandable though, that as a layperson, it is difficult to be sure about the presence or absence of a serious cause for severe back pain.
The best way for you to be sure is to get in touch with your trusted health professional to discuss your unique case. We are happy to help you better understand your situation and put a plan in place for you. Call us on 0296659667. Or book online via the button below