Fucked up my back and I have no idea how

[BmillsSkier]

I was skiing bumps all morning yesterday in good conditions. Nothing out of the ordinary, no aches pains, previous injuries, or falls...

Then out of nowhere skiing out after my line in the slope to the flats I make a normal left turn and my lower back just seizes up like a motherfucker.

I basically sideslip down and pop out and get down on the ground to stretch. My hip flexors, gluts and pelvis are killing me. Walking is a hassle, nevermind trying to chase down my puppy.

I went to the chiropractor this afternoon for the first time and had some heat therapy and an adjustment. I feel better and it appears that one of my lumbar vertabrae is swollen.

My question is, how did this happen? I've never had back issues and I wasn't even pushing myself. Anyone else have this happen to them? How long did it take for the swelling to go down, and is this a sign of things to come? Please dont tell me this will be the start of a long road downhill for me...

[Vinman]

you answered your own question....skiing bumps all morning....

My guess is that you may have caused one of your facet joint to get hung up and or strained some muscles.

If it is just a facet impingement a few adjustments should put things right. Follow that up with some core strength and you should be good.

[sierraskier]

The same thing happened to me last day of last season. It was on the last snow day of the year, first week of May after not skiing for a couple weeks(in addition to a week of partying in Cabo) but similar issue. Skied for 1-2 hrs and felt twinge in my extreme lower back which quickly (10-15 min) turned to muscle spasm in lower back. Immediately packed it in and even took the cable car down, which I think was a first.

Cleared up after ~4 weeks, celebrex, and some PT (nothing more than the stretching I do anyway) to completely 100% all summer long, doing all summer activities with absolutely no issues. Skied backcountry first day this season and had same muscle tightness/pain in lower back next day, only not to degree of first injury. I didn't even think twice about it before going out b/c I felt so good/strong over the summer. I was BUMMED. MRI shows bulging/rounding disc in S1-L5, but apparently MRI's are 30-40% false positive anyway. About 2 weeks of rest, celebrex, xmas, holidays, shitty snow, and a little core & lower back strengthening and I skied the other day with no issues but I'm not convinced that my problems are behind me...

From what I've learned the there's basically two types of injuries that can cause what you/I have in a healthy person: 1) strained muscles, or 2) some type of nerve irritation/pinching caused by either a disc or some other spinal structure like the facet that vinman mentioned. If it's the muscle then you are good - rest, ice, anti-inflammatory, etc... and it'll heal quickly. Disc or other issue and could be longer term...but apparently there is really no hard/fast answer to those types of issues. After talking to 1 PT, 2 orthos, 1 chiro, and a couple friends it could go away tomorrow or could linger for years...

My 2 cents FWIW...

[strode420]

i'm a couple of months into a mystery back injury. seen a PT and a good chiro, and just got an MRI monday, will talk to a spine specialist thursday. basically in october i woke up and my back hurt (not that bad). i skied a few times early season, and it was kind of hurt when i'd move too fast, but i thought no biggie. then after about two hours on my first real day of the year, i couldn't put any weight on my left leg because everything hurt so bad. it's got worse since then, my left hip and leg hurt like a bitch every time i stand up, i can't bend over at all without putting all my weight on something, and still have no idea how or why it happened.

i can't really offer much experience but i'll keep updated as to what happens if that helps you out.

sounds like a bunch of mystery ahead though.

[Godwin-Austin]

i'm a couple of months into a mystery back injury. seen a PT and a good chiro, and just got an MRI monday, will talk to a spine specialist thursday. basically in october i woke up and my back hurt (not that bad). i skied a few times early season, and it was kind of hurt when i'd move too fast, but i thought no biggie. then after about two hours on my first real day of the year, i couldn't put any weight on my left leg because everything hurt so bad. it's got worse since then, my left hip and leg hurt like a bitch every time i stand up, i can't bend over at all without putting all my weight on something, and still have no idea how or why it happened.

i can't really offer much experience but i'll keep updated as to what happens if that helps you out.

sounds like a bunch of mystery ahead though.

that sounds like a disk injury...I would get an MRI.

BMills, yours sound more like muscular thing because of the onset and variability of symptoms

but who knows either, just my thoughts.

I had surgery for an l4/l5 disk injury about 5 years back.

[TBS]

+1 for Vinman's & Sierra's comments. I have a degenerating disk at l5-s1 and get similar symptoms every few years.

Recommend rest, ice and Alleve for the first few days. If you don't start feeling better in a week, see a doc. When feel up to it, start (or get back on) a strength training program for the core muscles. Strong abs, lats, stabilizers and gluts are key

Personally, I found that chiros make injuries like this worse not better. Heating the area up the day after injury (so it's easier to "adjust") just makes the swelling worse.

Good luck

[tetsuma]

I agree w/ telebob's and others comments.

do you have any shooting/sharp/electrical/stabbing pain or numbness down either of your legs? does it hurt more when you sneeze or cough? have you experienced any muscle weakness in the leg? no joke on this, but have you had any incontinence or dribbling? if you say yes to any of these, it sounds like a disk problem. If incontinence, then it could be very serious and you should get to the doctor tomorrow. If yes to the other questions, then go see your doc: s/he can check on some leg reflexes to see if there is any sensory loss.

if it's a nerve, the quality and feel of the pain should help the diagnosis. radiculopathy - nerve pain is horrible and hard to medicate to make it go away.

if it's purely lower back pain, it could be a lot of things - disk, muscular, or joint. from what you describe it does sound sort of like a facet joint or ligament problem.

I'd go see a doc you trust and a PT you trust and get it looked at.

I'm a year into a bad L5-S1 disk blow-out, surgery, drugs, PT and my leg and foot are still half numb - has wrecked two season's for me, and possibly forever. definitely get it addressed. don't let it get worse.

and Strode, your thing definitely sounds like a disk problem.

pos vibes to you

David

[BmillsSkier]

Thanks for the input all.

Almost a week post injury and my back is feeling considerably better. After seeing the chiro and my GP it looks like I have a bruised L5. I could certainly benefit from more core strengthening and continued ice treatment.

I agree with the comment that the hot therapy that the chiro uses to "adjust" you easier is a potential crock. Its always been my theory that if you are swollen you dont add heat to swell it up even more?

I'm heading back to the hill on Thursday, one week after the injury and I'm worried that I'll ski "tense" which could open me up to further injury. I guess I'll just stretch and see what happens...

[tradygirl]

I did pretty much the same thing to my back a few years ago. The first injury was a muscle strain, and it hurt like a bitch. Hunched over, weakness, stiffness on the hips and butt. It sucked. PT, core work, stretching, and massage seemed to do the trick. And, as my PT told me, movement is good! Try not to sit for long periods of time.

The thing I've noticed is that my back has never really been the same again. It's a lot easier to re-injure it, so don't get lazy with the exercises, etc once it feels good again. You've got to work at it to keep your range of motion. Try to do some warm-up stuff in the morning before skiing - light stretching, yoga, massage (I like using a big 6 inch foam roller). I can't lift heavy weights anymore, and I just have to careful about twisting motions and such.

I actually tweaked it pretty good right before New Years, and I was couched for a few days. Surprisingly I was skiing within a week. Skiing made my back feel BETTER.

[pubes]

If it makes you feel any better i hurt mine in bumps saturday and have not skied since "i usually ski 5 to 7 days a week".I went to doctor today at 115 but at arround 11 am my back went pop as i was posting my dog pics and i feel 100% better.I still have a PT app for 1130 on thurs and will stay off mt till saturday but as of right now the shooting pain from bending is gone.

[Vinman]

the reason for heating before an ajustment is only because warm tissue is easier to move than soft tissue. By heating the/lig/tendons etc it just makes the adjustment easier for you and the chiro/therapist/athletic trainer that is doing it.

You should definitly not heat an actue muscle/tendon or ligament injury like and ankle sprain or quad/hamstring strain.....but in some cases where the real injury is a misalignment such as a facet joint or SI joint sublux the the soft tissue injury may be a secondary concern.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

I threw out my back (upper back) yesterday morning pressing my snooze button on my alarm. I do it from time to time. No rhyme or reason to it, it just happens. It will be a week before I can turn my head all the way to the right again... even after going to see the chiropractor.

[strode420]

Had my MRI and just got done with the spinal specialist.

He said i definitely don't need surgery, which is good. I have a degenerated L3-L4 disc (it's black in the MRI due to loss of fluid as opposed to being white like a normal disc), and i also have sacrolization (sp?) of my L5 vertebrae which means my bottom verterbrae is attached to my tailbone (according to the doctor it's a common congenital birth defect).

PT was obviously prescribed, and he said a chiro was fine too, but that massage wasn't gonna do me any good. So it looks like i'll start down that road as soon as possible.

It got worse over xmas (mad leg pain when i'd stand up), but in the last week it's gotten better, it doesn't hurt/spasm when i sneeze anymore, and for a few hours the other day i could actually bend over and touch my toes! Of course the next day it was back to fucked-up-edness but i guess that's a touch of progress, right?

Didn't get a timeframe for recovery, but hopefully in a month or two i'll be able to ski some groomers

dunno whether to be happy at this point or not (as all my effing friends are at vail at this very moment) but i guess it beats surgery.

[tetsuma]

Stode,

So the doc said you didn't have a herniation or protusion of the disc? Sounds good that the pain while coughing/sneezing has diminished. that's a good sign.

Get a good PT and build up the muscles around the base of you spine - the kegals, trans abdominous, etc... and you should be in good shape. Keep those muscles strong and it'll help in the future too since degenerative disc disease tends to just get worse with age. If you're in your late 30s/40s it's one thing, but it you're younger that's young to have this type of prob.

good luck

[strode420]

Stode,

So the doc said you didn't have a herniation or protusion of the disc? Sounds good that the pain while coughing/sneezing has diminished. that's a good sign.

Get a good PT and build up the muscles around the base of you spine - the kegals, trans abdominous, etc... and you should be in good shape. Keep those muscles strong and it'll help in the future too since degenerative disc disease tends to just get worse with age. If you're in your late 30s/40s it's one thing, but it you're younger that's young to have this type of prob.

good luck

yeah i'm 27, and my chiro said the same thing, that it typically takes about 20 years for degeneration to occur, so he said this is very likely related to something that happened to me as a kid. my best guess is it was from a playground fall i took when i was 7 or 8 where i fell through a hole about 8 feet down and my tailbone landed right smack on the corner of a fixed wooden seat. to this day one of the most excrutiating pains i can remember dealing with, and my broken bone count is in the double digits.

[JoeStrummer]

Abut once a year I'll do something minor (step out of the shower, get in my car, etc) and I'll go down like a French prizefighter. Every year it gets worse (i.e more pain and longer recovery.) An MRI last March revealed typical degenerative back issues. Back problems are a real treat - good luck!!

[axebiker]

I agree with the comment that the hot therapy that the chiro uses to "adjust" you easier is a potential crock. Its always been my theory that if you are swollen you dont add heat to swell it up even more?

I'm with Vinman. Adjusting cold, stiff muscles would probably be counter-productive. Just a thought. If you're doing therapy on an injury, cold is best, but just like working out, you need to warm up muscles to use them effectively.

I have a herniated disc at L5-S1. It literally came out of nowhere. Really sucks as I have radiating pain down into my calf, and sometimes it's more numb than pain. I was hitting some golf balls and that's what REALLY set it off. My docs don't think that was the cause, but it was the proverbial "straw that broke my back". I tried chiropractic, and after no luck there, we finally did an MRI to confirm the injury. I saw a neurologist who talked to me for about 10 minutes. He gave me a week - take steroids & painkillers, and if nothing happens, surgery. Well, nothing happened - pain was strong as ever, and I couldn't walk. It was a week before I was to go out to Moonlight Basin. I asked the doc what to do (besides not go at all...) and we decided that I needed a Cortisone injection. Let me tell you - this is not something I want to go through again!! Shots to your spine are NO FUN. But two days later, I felt NO pain. It was a miracle. I was skiing WELL, and had no problems other than the numbness and weakness in my left leg.

This Wednesday will be four weeks since the injection. I'm in P-A-I-N today. I'm back on Vicodin 3x daily, and will be needing more soon. I'm hoping I can get through the winter before surgery. I may get one more round of Cortisone. I've been told to do core exercises -- the trick is that I CAN'T. Not good... I'll be getting a 2nd opinion and visiting a surgeon over the next couple weeks.

The kicker of it all is that I was going to try out for ski patrol, but some basic skiing movements are...not comfortable.

Good luck with your injury. Be careful, and take care of it.

[strode420]

good luck as well to you axebiker. keep us updated.

just out of curiousity how old is everyone else having these problems? my doc said i was pretty young at 27 to be experiencing stuff like this so just thought i'd see about everyone's age.

[sierraskier]

36 yrs old, but I'm not surprised I'm having issues as it feels like the last 2-3 yrs my muscles/joints have gotten significantly less flexible...

27 does seem a little young strode420 but everyone's different obviously.

axebiker sorry to hear about your issues - good luck.

here is some pretty good info I found about reading your MRI results, if you have them...

http://www.chirogeek.com/003_CT-Axial_Tutorial.htm

take with a grain of salt as MRI/CT's apparently show like a 30-40% false positive rate on the general population.

[axebiker]

good luck as well to you axebiker. keep us updated.

just out of curiousity how old is everyone else having these problems? my doc said i was pretty young at 27 to be experiencing stuff like this so just thought i'd see about everyone's age.

Thanks. It really sucks as I've been pretty bomb-proof in the lower back for a number of years. It may have just been something "waiting to go" though. Who knows?? I did have some problems when I wass your age, but they cleared up on their own.

I'm 36 years old FWIW, but I've been in better health the last few years than I had been in a number of years prior. I guess when your time is up...

36 yrs old, but I'm not surprised I'm having issues as it feels like the last 2-3 yrs my muscles/joints have gotten significantly less flexible...

27 does seem a little young strode420 but everyone's different obviously.

axebiker sorry to hear about your issues - good luck.

here is some pretty good info I found about reading your MRI results, if you have them...

http://www.chirogeek.com/003_CT-Axial_Tutorial.htm

take with a grain of salt as MRI/CT's apparently show like a 30-40% false positive rate on the general population.

Thanks, and I would agree with you on a number of the things you had entioned above. I hit my mid-30's, and I'm realizing that I'm not made of rubber any more. It is harder to recover from really strenuous stuff, and starting out "new seasons" is a little tougher than it had been in the past. I've got aches and pains I didn't have in the past, and they hurt more and don't go away as quickly. I'm not liking the "getting old" process...

As far as the MRI thing, just the level of pain and disability I was having was remarkable, and I think the MRI was almost a formality. The key to my injury as far as the doc skipping the whole rehab angle was the fact I presented with weakness as well as the pain and numbness I was dealing with. It's been an interesting road, and so far, I'm only at the beginning of the journey.

[BmillsSkier]

To answer the recent question, I'm 30. As many have stated above, I realize I'm not 20 anymore, but fuck; I was throwing 7's and pounding bumps 30 seconds before my injury. WTF?!?!?! Anyway, the chiro seems to be working very well despite my skeptecism (sp?) I'm heading back out tomorrow for the first time post injury and after several warm up runs....straight back to the bumps. As Capt. Ron once said, "Swab, if it's gonna happen...it's gonna happen out there..."


Wish me luck. Thanks for all the input!

[strode420]

just thought i'd update this since i'm going to TRY to ski tomorrow for the first time in probably two months. some of the lower back pain has subsided, and most importantly i haven't had a super painful twinge in my back in a few weeks (this was the worst part - when i'd move any lower body part suddenly it would spasm all kinds in my lower back and now it doesn't).

gonna take it super easy, taking the sfb's up for maximum forgiveness and probably just sticking to groomers depending on how i feel. also gonna rock mad ibuprofen and a heating device on my back and have multiple safety meetings throughout the day. Phys therapist said it was fine so i'm gonna at least try it out since it's my company ski day at copper tomorrow. so if anyone's up there and sees a gimpy guy on a pair of bacons feel free to say what's up and we'll burn one down.

[axebiker]

gonna take it super easy, taking the sfb's up for maximum forgiveness and probably just sticking to groomers depending on how i feel.

Right...

That's what I said when I had to get a cortisone injection to even WALK two days before I went to Moonlight. We were doing laps in the Headwaters both days... Good luck "taking it easy"!!

[strode420]

Right...

That's what I said when I had to get a cortisone injection to even WALK two days before I went to Moonlight. We were doing laps in the Headwaters both days... Good luck "taking it easy"!!

actually i succeeded (dunno if that's a good thing ) in taking it easy. the fact that it was a "company ski day" for the construction company i work for made it easy because most of the dudes i work with only ski 5 days a year, so taking it easy for me was still blowing past them without even thinking twice.

but all in all it felt good, i hit some rollers and the landings felt fine, hauled some ass and the back didn't bother me, about the only time it would hurt bad at all was if i took a transition that i wasn't fully expecting, and that would jar it a little bit, but a stop to stretch would calm that down.

i was pretty unsafe today though - not a single safety meeting took place, which is not reccommended, but fortunately everyone survived.

[axebiker]

Well, FWIW, I just got 60 more vicodin today...