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In my previous post I shared why I started to see a chiropractor. Last year I started to have lower back pain and my most recent episode in May did not go away within a few days like the other incidents. It scared me and I went to Urgent Care. They sent me home with a prescription for muscle relaxers which didn’t really seem to do much for me.

So today I want to share some of the things to pay attention to if you have lower back pain. I’ve learned apparently once a person experiences lower back pain, it is common to recur.

Dr. Karen Lee, a holistic chiropractor physician says,

“There are many causes  for low back pain (LBP) and unfortunately, if you have had one episode, the chances are, you will have another. And to avoid a re-occurrence, you have to treat the cause. But more importantly, you have to be proactive and take preventive steps.”

My new chiropractor set me up on a five month plan. She wanted me to come in three times a week initially, but I am only in town four days a week, so we settled on twice a week. After a month, she told me to come in once a week.

Every time she adjusted me, my back felt quite a bit better. But it kept feeling off, like it was threatening to go out again. I was feeling very frustrated that I was still having stiffness and discomfort. I was starting to wonder if I was just going to have to put up with it. It wasn’t really very bad, it was just making my life difficult at times. For example, bending over to look in the refrigerator, or picking something off the floor was a challenge. Five years ago I would have chalked it up to “old age” but now I know better.

Sleeping Position

One of the first things my chiropractor did was ask me how I sleep. I usually sleep halfway on my side and partly on my stomach with one leg drawn up. She told me that I needed to cut that out and sleep on either my back or my side. I cannot sleep on my back, I’ve never been comfortable that way, so I’ve been trying to train myself to sleep on my side. Just a couple weeks earlier I’d read on OraWellness that it’s bad to sleep on your stomach because you could be making your teeth crooked! So, two reasons to train myself to sleep on my side.

Worn out or Bad Shoes

Last week my chiropractor says, “I’m going to spend some of your money for you. I want you to get yourself a new pair of shoes. I’ll give you some brand names to look for, have fun shopping!”

I’ve been wearing the same pair of shoes to work, and at home when I need to have shoes on, for probably three years. The brand was Isotoner, so they were probably good supportive shoes at one time. I’ve been telling myself that I need a new pair of shoes. I did get a pair from Ross Dress for Less, but they hurt my feet so I donated them to Savers (I’d worn them too many days to return them). I asked a friend if she would come shoe shopping with me and we went after work to one of the outlet malls.

While trying on shoes, I noticed just how bad my Isotoner’s had gotten. I knew there were worn spots where my toes touch, but I had not realized how badly the left side of the left shoe heel had been worn. I found a pair of Clark’s sandals and wore them out of the mall. It seemed like right away my back was feeling better. By the way, I found them at Famous Footwear for $41.99. I don’t know if I’ve ever paid that much for a pair of shoes in my entire life!

I thought it was a good call on my chiropractor’s part to look to my shoes. If she were the kind of chiropractor who has clients coming in three times a week, maybe she wouldn’t have done that kind of troubleshooting.

Walking and Exercise

When my chiropractor told me to buy myself a new pair of shoes, she also told me I needed to get more exercise. She said she wanted me walking at least 10-15 minutes every day. I told her I was pretty sure I was getting that much walking in at work, and she asked me to get an app for my smart phone and just be sure. I downloaded an app but it was kind of a pain because it wouldn’t work unless my phone screen was active. My sister really wanted me to get into FitBit but I decided to get just a simple pedometer that I could wear in my pocket. It was much cheaper and so far I’m happy with it. On the days I’m at work, I am walking from 2 to 4 miles so I was kind of impressed to see that!

My chiropractor also gave me an exercise to do that is supposed to help my back become stronger. I think she’ll give me more exercises as time goes by. I’ve also been trying to remember to do leg lifts while in bed since I think those help the lower back.

Bedding

I knew there was another possible culprit for my lower back pain. Our bed. My husband brought home a memory foam topper that was three inches thick. It seemed really comfortable, but at the same time it seemed to hold onto my body as I would try to turn in bed – we were also using a flannel sheet. I couldn’t tell if it was the flannel sheet causing the problem, or the memory foam topper. I kept thinking it seemed to be having a deleterious effect on my lower back, but I couldn’t tell for sure. My husband kept saying he really liked the mattress topper, so I was a little reluctant to tell him I thought it was affecting my back.

When I finally mentioned it to him, he admitted the topper actually made it difficult to change the sheets. So we removed it and the very next day my back felt better. Now having slept without it for three nights, my back feels back to normal. No weird stiffness or tightness. I’m really glad that my back feels so much better,  especially since my chiropractor will be out of town this week. I’m thinking she’ll put me on an every other week schedule once she gets back.

I did some searching on the Internet and found some sites that describe the feeling of sleeping on a memory foam bed as not being able to move on the bed, of feeling as if one is “sunk in wet sand”. That is a good description. There is also talk about hip pain along with the lower back pain, and hip pain was a component in my lower back pain. I can’t remember how long we’ve been sleeping on the memory foam topper – I don’t think it has been too long. This article is one that I read which warns that memory foam mattresses or toppers are not the best for someone with lower back pain.

Supplements

I decided to start trying to take Glucosamine Chondrotin with MSM (this is one of Dr. Karen Lee’s recommendations) on a regular basis to see if that would help. My mom gave me a bottle a few months ago when my hands were bothering me and it did help. I also take the herbal calcium my sister recommends, although I can’t take it every single day or I end up with joint pain. I haven’t researched it, but I’m pretty sure some of the herbs are high in oxalates. I can tolerate taking it a couple times a week. I am still off dairy and readily admit I don’t make broth as often as I should. That would be a source of calcium if I made a point to do that.

So I did a few things to help my lower back pain. I’m crossing my fingers, hoping it won’t “go out” again, but if it does, I’m glad I have a chiropractor in my corner to help me figure things out.

I’m really glad she’s helping me to troubleshoot instead of just having me come in three times a week for the rest of my life. It really does seem to be a better solution to figure out if there is anything contributing to the problem, instead of having to just keep fixing and adjusting week after week.

Do you suffer from lower back pain? I hope you can eliminate the cause by trying some of these troubleshooting tips that worked for me.

In my last post I shared my experience with seeing a chiropractor for the first time back in 1989. I believe in the benefits of chiropractic care but have been reluctant to go again since my understanding is that most chiropractors want you to come in three times a week. I have heard of some chiropractors asking their patients to commit to that schedule, or stop coming altogether.

My life is really too busy as it is, without having to commit to going someplace three days a week taking up an hour or two each time.

So last year during the summer – I think it was September – I was with my mom at her house and we were cleaning. One wall of her dining room is lined with row after row of mirrored tiles (12″x12″). As I was cleaning and shining each one, I noticed that my back was hurting. I am not one to stop just because of a little pain cropping up so I powered through. Next we went to Walmart for a little shopping. My back was hurting so bad I was having trouble walking. I ended up leaving my phone in the restroom and I had to rush back all the way across the store and thankfully one of the Walmart employees had found my phone and turned it in. After walking all around like that, back and forth, I was having to lean on things, the pain was so bad. When I went to bed that night I was in so much pain that I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lie in.

I have no idea what happened, but suddenly I was one of “those people” whose backs just “go out”.

It took a few days for the pain to subside, but it did and I was completely well. No stiffness or pain whatsoever. Then I was at my yearly conference for my job a month later. It was the last day and I checked out, pulled my suitcase out to my car and lifted it into the trunk. I closed the trunk and started to walk back into the hotel and my back was out. It was excruciatingly painful. I had to walk in a stiff fashion, very slow. I purchased pain reliever from the hotel’s front desk but it did little to help the pain.

After a few days I was completely well again.

Then a couple months later, it happened again. This time I knew better than to “power through”. I found that if I angled my body with my right hip leading and walked really slow it wouldn’t hurt so bad. Again I healed within a few days.

With each incident, I could not really point to any specific incident that would have caused my back to “go out”. I have always prided myself on being able to move heavy things, and lift heavy things and have never had back problems. I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I secretly felt superior to other people who had a “weak” back. Oh boy. I’m telling you, once you reach 50, every thing in your life that you ever condemned someone for, watch out, you’re going to experience it yourself. Reaching 50 has been a humbling experience for me, to be sure.

In May this year, my back went out for the fourth time. This time it was so bad that I forced myself go to Urgent Care. The pain starts in my lower back and radiates around to the front of my stomach. It is like this girdle of pain. It feels similar to menstrual cramps, but constant discomfort (whereas menstrual cramps usually come and go).

So on Mother’s Day I’m in Urgent Care, making sure this isn’t something worse, like a kidney stone. My blood pressure was very high (it was 209/135 and I’m sure due to the pain I was in since checking at home it is normal) and the doctor focused more on that than my back pain. He prescribed a muscle relaxer and strongly recommended that I see my regular doctor about the high blood pressure.

The muscle relaxer didn’t really do much to help. The pain was so bad that I couldn’t walk very far, and I had to resort to using the little driving carts at the grocery store. I had to carefully plan my day at work because I couldn’t walk too many steps. It was a challenge to have enough steps just to get to the restroom a couple times a day. It was really frightening to be in such pain and have it affect my mobility to such an extent. Not only was it hurting when I was upright, but I struggled to find a comfortable position in bed.

My sister wanted me to allow my niece to give me a massage. My niece is not trained or licensed but she purportedly helps people with massage so I decided to take a chance. That went okay, but then while struggling to get into a sitting position my niece took my hands and pulled me up quickly. I know she was just trying to help but it twisted my back and I felt like I was back to day 1 but even worse.

It was at this time that I called uncle and I knew I had to get some professional help. I’d already tried the medical doctors, and they just gave me drugs (par for the course, plus they didn’t really help) so I decided to find a chiropractor. I found one close to my job who takes my insurance and she was able to get me in that day and with the very first adjustment I felt relief.

I was really happy to learn that my new chiropractor doesn’t believe in making her patients come in three times a week for life. We agreed that I would come in for five months, beginning with two times a week, then going to once a week and then on an as needed maintenance schedule.

This time my back hasn’t completely healed like it did the previous times. I suspect that my niece aggravated the injury so it is taking longer to heal this time, or maybe this is just the natural course of these lower back pain episodes.

Dr. Karen Lee, a holistic chiropractor physician says,

“There are many causes  for low back pain (LBP) and unfortunately, if you have had one episode, the chances are, you will have another. And to avoid a re-occurrence, you have to treat the cause. But more importantly, you have to be proactive and take preventive steps.”

Learn more in Dr. Lee’s post How to Prevent Lower Back Pain Naturally. I am already following some of her recommendations, but I need to start doing a few more.

I have gained some weight around my stomach, so I think that is part of the problem. I’m taking Glucosamine Chondroiton with MSM and also an herbal calcium. I need to start exercises which I think will help a lot. Every couple weeks my back flares up and threatens to get worse (I’m so scared for it to get to that point again where I can’t walk – I really appreciate being able to walk without pain!) but with each chiropractic visit it feels better. I’m really glad to have a chiropractor to go to that can help my body return to normal function.

Have you ever gone to a chiropractor? Was it a positive experience? Do you go now?