Sydney Chiropractor Approach to Acute Low Back Pain.
This type of pain can strike suddenly and without warning, leaving people crippled in pain; the pain is often described as sharp and stabbing. Any movement is painful; sometimes, the pain is so bad that crawling on their hands and knees is the only way to get around. It’s usually the most trivial or mundane things that set it off, whether it’s emptying the dishwasher or picking something off the floor. Another common time to get this is when you’ve been in bed for an extended period with the flu or illness and have been sneezing and coughing excessively, causing the muscle(s) to spasm. Typically there is one particular muscle that is the main culprit with this type of back pain, the quadratus lumborum; it attaches to the bottom rib, to the top of the pelvis, and each of the vertebrae of the lower back when there is spasm or complete contracture it can irritate the structures of the low back, it’s like having a calf cramp, but instead of the leg it’s of the lower back and unfortunately can’t be stretched out like most calf cramps.
Although the pain may be excruciating, in the absence of leg numbness, weakness, or changes to bowel or bladder (cauda equina syndrome), It’s important to realise the level of pain you’re experiencing is not a reflection of how much damage or injury to your lower back. Part of successfully treating this type of pain is doing an assessment ruling out any potential medical reasons (which are very rare), releasing the spasms around the lower spine, and providing reassurance that the “bark is much worse than the bite” and how to manage the first 48 hours best and begin the process of recovery so you can get back being pain-free and reintroduce movement and exercise without pain.
