Morning Back Pain – Should I Spend Money?

[Astrongtower]

Hello Everyone,

I know there is so much out there on back pain; but I have a tough money question. I am a returning college student with not a whole lot of money. I am 33 year old male is I would say good shape. I work out decently and have a nice physique.

My problem is that one time I went to a golf pro shop and spent 4 hours smacking the golf ball as hard as I could almost too where I had a small pain in my chest and it was hard to breathe for a split second. And if I couldn’t get more stupid I went the next day and did it again. I had to choose a golf club for a class so that is why I pushed myself. I know that was kind of stupid.

After like a month I thought I healed up and then went and played Disc Golf and threw the Disc as hard as I possibly could for like 3 hours. I would throw it farther than anyone else. I guess I could have been showing off like an idiot.

Well I was working out moderately hard for a while in the gym during all this and never felt any burst of pain really. The only thing that I noticed was a small pinch like pain when I would be watching TV. So then I decided to go to a Chiropractor and he solved that but he noticed that my spine was just slight to the right and my shoulders were a little uneven; but absolutely nothing major going on. This was the first time I ever went to a Chiropractor and it was literally insane. I thought he was going to kill me because I never heard my bones crack like that before and my neck.

I think it might have been a littler before the Chiropractor that only in the morning when I wake up I would notice a pain right in the middle of my upper back between my shoulder blades; one time the pain moved to the right of my shoulder blade but that went away. Now all that is left is this ongoing pain in the middle of my back that I cannot for the life of me locate. It’s like it’s the long muscle in my back that go from top to bottom of your back and very close to my spine. I would say mid shoulder to mid back but not upper shoulder or lower back.

It is so weird because during the day I feel absolutely great with no back pain at all; even playing Disc Golf or exercising; it is only right after I wake up and while I am still laying down. Pretty much as soon as I wake up everything is fantastic.

Only other weird thing is I feel like my ear is ringing on my right ear when I sleep on my right side. This also goes away completely when I get up or move around.

Doctor’s Office:

I have been to my Doctor several times with this. I have had several X-Rays; nothing bruised on my skin or anything obvious; blood work done for immune system and anything out of the ordinary. I have taken muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory’s but they are all temporary relief. Seems like the pain comes back. My Doctor is just saying it is like a pulled or sore muscle or something but just seems strange that something so small could cause so much discomfort in the morning.

Solutions:

My dad has celiac disease but I do not but I read an article about how maybe you could not have the disease but a precursor of it somehow. I do have a lot of joint pain right now like in my Big Toe; Wrist; Neck and sometimes elbow. I have had all these X-Rayed and blood work done to see any causes and nothing major is going on.

I am lost at this point:

My main question is that do I put spend money I really do not have on a new bed and pillow with a mattress topper or am I just getting old and have to deal with an aching back and joint pain. Or could I possibly change my diet to a gluten free diet which will be like darn like impossible.

I have heard from people’s reviews that they have had much success in changing out the mattress. And I am not even sure where the one that I am sleeping on came from. It’s a Cali-King and seems nice but a little old.

I have great Health Insurance. It just doesn’t seem like the Doctors have the answers except Med up or go to a PT. I wish there was more information out there on this.

Solutions:

1. Change Mattress
2. Change Pillow
3. Change Mattress Topper
4. Gluten Free Diet
5. Deal with it because you are getting older … Its life …

Anything help would be greatly appreciated. Please leave your comments below. Thank You!

Best,
Astrongtower

 

[sueami]

I would not buy a new bed or pillow. Understand that unless you are switching sides when you hit golf balls or throw anything, you are stressing one side of your back muscles out more than the other and can create trigger points and muscle tightness that torques your spinal column.

I'm a (non-practicing at the moment) massage therapist and the two very best books I have found for self-treatment of muscle/fascia disregulation are much cheaper than new bedding or treatments from health professionals:
Clair Davies' Trigger Point Therapy Workbook
http://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1608824942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401385449&sr=1-1&keywords=trigger point workbook

and

Pete Egoscue's Pain Free
http://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Revolutionary-Stopping-Chronic/dp/0553379887/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401385548&sr=1-1&keywords=pain free by pete egoscue

Clair's book has tables that identify which muscle trigger points can refer pain to which parts of the body and then has maps that show the specific locations of the most common trigger points in that muscle. He also gives advice on how best to work the trigger point out in each muscle. Invaluable.

Pete's a veteran who's body was badly messed up in the service. He devised a series of static, (often but not always, pretty restful) positions in which the fascia of the body can be released over 5-20 minutes, depending on the pose, which allows the muscles to release and the joints to reset to a more aligned position. His book outlines series of static stretches for various parts of the body. They can take 30 minutes to an hour to complete but are *well* worth doing as well.

I would not be surprised if your pain is muscular/fascial in origin, given what you did with your body. I used to awaken with mid and low back pain prior to developing my viral-onset fatigue issues and I had a 10-series with a good rolfer/structural integration practitioner who released fascia and realigned things beautifully and that pain has never returned. That's another option, I think, but it can run $1,000 for the ten series.

 

[*GG*]

I am not sure where you live, but I am in the Northeast, and there is a chain of furniture stores called Bobs Furniture, they sell foam beds that are much cheaper than national brands, and there warranties are at least 15 years! I have been sleeping on mine for the last 5 years, I think it has helped with pain and getting better sleep, not a cure though.

Not sure if you are getting lots of pain, but if you have trigger points, you can go to a Physiatrist office and get trigger point injections. I recently found out that you can get dry needle injections, which are also good at releasing trigger points, and probably less costly to get done at a Physical Therapist (PT) office!

GG

 

[heapsreal]

Look into facet joint arthritis. Especially when u feel it lock up and is more on one side of your spine than the other.

To start with i would consider some type of anti inflammatory like mobic or celebrex regularly for a month to help get the inflammation down while working on stretching and core strength work.

something else that might help is using a back block. Google Sarah keys back block. She is a physio/chiro and she has some good ways to help back pain, the back block being one of them.

cheers

 

[Daffodil]

make sure your mattress is extra extra ultra firm!

 

[*GG*]

Not sure I agree with ultra firm, you need to sleep comfortably!

GG