Muscle spasms in lower back??!
Question: My husband pulled a muscle in his back today (just twisted wrong while picking something up - about 5lbs, not heavy!)
That happened this afternoon around 1pm, he then went to bed (he works graveyard/ 3rd shift). He got up for dinner around 7, and between 7 and about 8:30 he had 3 seemingly bad muscle spasms in has back... bad enough that they took him down to the floor...
He's in bed with a heating pad on his back now...
What else can he or I do to help with his pain? should he be alternating heat and ice? or just stick with one or the other?
Which pain reliever is better for this? advil? aleve?
I have some 'icy hot' patches from last time I injured my back... would this be good to put on there when he gets up to go to work later?
I need advice! Please help!
Answers: My husband pulled a muscle in his back today (just twisted wrong while picking something up - about 5lbs, not heavy!)
That happened this afternoon around 1pm, he then went to bed (he works graveyard/ 3rd shift). He got up for dinner around 7, and between 7 and about 8:30 he had 3 seemingly bad muscle spasms in has back... bad enough that they took him down to the floor...
He's in bed with a heating pad on his back now...
What else can he or I do to help with his pain? should he be alternating heat and ice? or just stick with one or the other?
Which pain reliever is better for this? advil? aleve?
I have some 'icy hot' patches from last time I injured my back... would this be good to put on there when he gets up to go to work later?
I need advice! Please help!
Definitely stay with the heat because it will relax the muscles. I think aleve works the best for muscles. Don't do anything with the icyhot untill he has to leave, then have him use the patches. See if he can handle any stretching, it may help relax the muscles a bit.
he needs ice for first 24 hours for swelling, then alternate heat and ice tomorrow, along with normal activity(or it will stiffen)...if it worsens he needs to see a dr
it usally takes 2 day for icy hot paches to work so try asin pain creams
He needs to take the day off if its that bad, Ive been there done that (stooping sideways to stop a T shirt from falling intot the bath as I was walking past), damn twisted my back so bad I was flat on my back on the couch for 2 days. Hurt like a barsid too.
actually what he needs is some Flexaril from the Dr's...it stops the spasm. (only heavy duty pain killers are gonna work...)
HEAT (not cold...)
he needs to stretch his back with exercise (yes I know...but it works)
he also might wanna invest in a muscle stimulator (it's an electronic device you get from the Dr..)
some people have chronic back spasms, cause once you have one, you're really likely to have others..so invest in exercise and pain meds.
A back injury can take a long time to heal. He has to take it easy and watch how he does things when bending down or picking stuff up. I've noticed Motrin to be a good pain reliever because it also has an anti-inflammatory for any possible swelling. If that's not strong enough for him, I would suggest the new Excedrin for backpain. That's a very powerful over the counter pain killer so one pill is all he needs, honestly, not two. Two will mess his stomach up. Heat pads for spasms don't do much for the back.
Alright, this sucks.
I get them once or twice a year, and at their worst, they have put me on the floor, and forced-contracted me into a fetal position. First time it happened I thought I was dying.
Muscle relaxants have done it for me, and thankfully I dont need much.
At the time, the doc told me I would probably need some weirdo therapy using electricity, but that I should wait a while and give it some thought. To this day I'm not sure what he was trying to tell me.
Anyway, I can feel the spasms coming on over the course of a few days. The back muscles twinge in a random, unstable pattern. If untreated with relaxants, the spasm grow worse over a few days, until they threaten to put me down again.
Jeez is this a miserable experience .......
Aleve is good. The heating pad is good as long as it's helping him. You could alternate hot and cold, but really, that's for swelling, and I'm guessing he doesn't have any swelling anywhere.
Another thing he could do is soak in a hot bath. That will help his muscles relax.
If he's not feeling better by the time he needs to leave for work, he should stay home. The only thing worse than having a muscle spasm, is making it worse.
Well the lower back is not a good one when you pull a muscle what i find is" only " stay with the hot water, and also you can go to like wal-mart and get a heating pad vibrator it help a Little bit (then when he gets better take it back) If he can get morphine from the DOC. that would fix it right away it did 4 me before i couldn't walk i took 1 morphine pill and about 3-6 hours later it was completely gone. Hope he gets better.
alternate heat and ice every 15-20 minutes. Use either advil or alleve-whichever works best-advil is an anti-inflamatory and will help reduce swelling as well as pain. If u use icy hot don't use heating pad at same time. MOIST heating pad is best! Dry heat bad for muscles. Try 2 advil @ a time, but RX can be much higher-could take 4 @ a time, but not constantly-could really hurt stomach. Try to limit to 6 advil a day. Some really like using Capzacin-gets REALLY HOT, tho. DON'T use w/ heating pad! We've BOTH been there, and this is what we do! Good luck!
keep a heating pad on your back all night but keep lt on low