When you've bent over and can't stand up
Updated: Aug 4
It is a bad day when you've bent over and can't stand up. Sadly, with my new patients it happens too often. The signs of a problem have frequently been coming on for a long time.
Often a person has had back pain for years and has regular spasms. It often is picking up something very small; a pen, a bar of soap, a book. They unsuspectingly bend over and can’t stand up again. Typically this results in session rolling on the floor, gasping and uttering four letter words.
Then they throw a heat pack on it which makes it WORSE.
Repeat after me, ice is nice! I don’t care what your co-workers wife who’s a nurse told you, or the emergency room doctor, or your kids football coach told you, do NOT put heat on these. Not hot tubs, not heated car seats, not ever.
Ice. Always ice no matter how good the hot pack temporarily feels. Why? Your muscles weren’t contracting enough to support your frame when you bent over and originally hurt yourself. The fact those muscles weren’t firing enough is exactly why you are in pain, please don’t shut them off further with a hot pack. If your doctor recommends this, find a new doctor.
On top of this, make sure you start moving. When your back hurts, a person’s natural first reaction is to lay on the couch and not get up. This will cause you to spasm and stiffen up more. Start by walking to the end of your drive way and back and then do it again. Typically when my patients are in acute spasm, I tell them to do four 15 minute walks a day. They look at me like I am torturing them. It tough love, trust me. I want you to feel better.
The more you sit, the more you will stiffen up, I promise. Learn when back pain is serious here: https://www.activefamilychiropractic.com/post/when-is-back-pain-serious
When they decide to seek chiropractic care they call every chiropractor in the book until they find one the first one who will fit them in immediately. First, just because someone sees you immediately does not make them the best choice for you. Research a trusted quality chiropractor for chiropractic care and wait until they can see you.
It's a common myth that my new patients believe they will skip out the door feeling normal again after one chiropractic treatment. This rarely happens. If it has happened to you before, consider yourself lucky, it is unlikely to happen again.
The chiropractor needs to get to know your spine and learn how to adjust you in positions you aren’t used to moving. You need to be able to relax for chiropractic care to work and learn to trust for her to do her job effectively. It doesn’t happen in a 15 minute session. First, do your research by checking online reviews and asking for referrals. Then ice and walk until you can get an appointment for chiropractic care with a trusted chiropractor.
As you start a series of chiropractic adjustments, you may experience some temporary pain with your first few chiropractic adjustments. This is normal. In fact it often means that the chiropractor found the exact source of the problem and you will be on the mend soon.
Give chiropractic care time to work. While your back spasm that brought you in to my chiropractic office came on suddenly, the problem that caused your back spasm did not. Give chiropractic care time to help change how your spine functions with the chiropractic adjustments.
As long as you are seeing someone competent, the more frequently you receive chiropractic care for an extended period of time, the longer term result you will get.
Make sure you take problems like this as a warning sign that you have a big problem that will drastically affect your quality of life. If you are not willing to take the steps to resolve it, it will slow you down for a long time. There is hope.
If you have a back problem like this, please call me so I can help.
You can find me in my office at activefamilychiropractic.com and book online here: https://www.activefamilychiropractic.com/booking-calendar