Managing Back Pain at Home
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Is your back stiff and achy from gardening or working around the house? Or is the root of your back pain harder to pinpoint? The causes of more than 80 percent of back pain cases are unknown. Most incidents stem from one of five major low back pain conditions:
Disc degeneration (osteoarthritis in the spine): Discs dry out and lose their ability to act as shock absorbers. This becomes a problem when these discs put pressure on nerve roots or the spinal cord.
Herniated (slipped) disc: A damaged or bulging disc may pinch or irritate a nerve root, causing pain.
Sciatica: The sciatic nerve, a bundle of lumbar nerves, becomes irritated, typically by a herniated disc.
Lumbar spinal stenosis: Spinal degeneration narrows the area through which nerves travel.
Spondylolisthesis: Spinal degeneration causes one vertebra to slip over another, pinching the sciatic nerve.
The following steps can help you treat your back pain at home. They are best for minor relief, but not meant to replace an examination by a physician. Always seek medical attention immediately if your back pain is the result of an accident or injury or if accompanied by a fever.
- Medicine
Prescription anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants may relieve mild to moderate back pain. Talk to your doctor before you take any medications.
- Heat and Cold
Both heat and ice can relieve pain. Ice is used to reduce swelling, while heat increases circulation. One word of caution, use ice or heat for only 20 or 30 minutes at a time.
- Exercise and Physical Therapy
If you're avoiding exercise to protect your back, talk to your doctor about what, if any, exercises can relieve pain and prevent further injury. An exercise program could improve your flexibility, strengthen your back and abdominal muscles and improve your posture.
Help Your Doctor Understand
A person's description of pain—where it is, when it starts, what helps to relieve it—is key to understanding pain. Only the person suffering knows exactly what it feels like. If a person can't describe his/her pain and relief to the doctor or nurse on a regular basis, pain management is likely to fail.
Talk About It
Don't be afraid to talk about your pain. Expect your doctor or nurse to you about it at each visit. And if they don't ask, tell them. Write down your own pain assessment and bring it with you to doctor appointments.
It is important to describe each kind of pain in detail, for example:
- When does the pain happen?
- How long does it last? Does the pain come and go? Or is it there all the time?
- Is this pain new? Have you ever had this pain before?
- Does it hurt in more than one place?
- Does it feel like it's on the inside or on the outside of your body?
- Does the pain keep you from doing certain things?
- Does pain interrupt your sleep? Does it change your mood? Affect your appetite?
- What makes the pain better? What makes it worse? What have you tried to relieve the pain?
Pain Scales
Describing pain is not easy. One of the best ways to measure pain and relief is to use a rating scale. A scale makes pain 'visible' and can help others understand better.
- Numerical Scale
Example: 0 to 10 scale
The person rates the pain from zero (0), meaning no pain, to ten (10), meaning the worst pain possible. When using a numerical scale of 0 to 10, pain ratings of 5 or above get in the way of activities for most people.
- Words Scale
Examples: no pain; a little pain, a lot of pain, aching, burning, annoying; uncomfortable, dreadful, horrible, agonizing
These words mean different things to different people. Annoying pain for one person may be dreadful to another. Because of this, the words must be defined, and everyone involved must use the same words and know their meaning.
Chronic back pain, which persists for more than three months, may involve a combination of the following treatments prescribed by your doctor: medication, physical therapy, steroid injections, traction, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, acupuncture, heat/ice treatments, frequest massages and whirlpool therapy.
Register for, and get more information about, our back pain seminar.
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