Month: May 2023

1. Try not to panic, take deep breaths.
2. Assess your symptoms. Most episodes of lower back pain give you a pain in the lower back (obviously, but bizarrely not always) and sometimes pain or other symptoms such as tingling, pins and needles or numbness into the legs. This is a sign of a nerve being trapped or irritated in the lower back and can be an expected consequence of a lower back pain episode.
3. If you were to experience changes in your bowel or bladder habit, and/or numbness around your bottom. Perhaps you would not be able to feel yourself wiping your bottom after going to the toilet. These symptoms are reasons to seek extra help from your GP or the hospital. This can be a sign of the nerves, supplying your bowel and bladder, being compromised and requires urgent attention.
4. Number 3 is rare. Most lower back pain issues can be managed conservatively. For this you need to:

• Try and stay gently mobile. This can be so challenging when you’re in this situation. Try and get up regularly. Maybe every 30-60 minutes to move around gently. Your back may let you know when it needs to be moved.
• You could take pain medication or anti-inflammatories in the short term. Please ensure they are appropriate for you alongside any other health complaints or medications that you take. These can calm down the initial reaction and also allow more freedom of movement moving you out of the episode more readily.
• Applying heat or ice packs (wrapping whatever you use) and placing on the lower back for just 10 minutes at a time. Doing this as much as once an hour can help improve comfort.

It can take a little time to settle. The recovery time from one type of injury to another will vary. Sometimes extra help is needed, contacting myself, other manual therapist or your GP might be necessary for further guidance and treatment.

Please get in touch if you require more help.