Question
My back issues started about 2 and a half weeks ago.  I lift weights and exercise and on a day I was doing pushups I felt a twinge like I strained a muscle in my upper lat area I think.  
It was like right behind my arm pit area or more so along my shoulder blade.  No big deal.  Two days before I had worked my back muscles and they were still fatigued but not in pain or anything cause I had worked them hard.  It started to go away after a few days but then I reinjured it a few days later fooling around.  It was sore and causing me to tense my whole back and probably move in ways I normally wouldn't.  Since then the muscle pull pain has gone but it's been replaced by tightness through my whole middle back.  It's like my entire lat muscles on both sides are just cramped.  It tends to hurt worse in the morning when I get up.  I feel like maybe tossing and turning in my sleep is twisting the muscles and making it worse when I wake up cause I can't explain what else it could be because last night before bed I used an electric massager and a heating pad and when I woke up at 2am to shut my light off I felt like I was getting better but this morning getting up at 8 it was back to hurting.  When I woke up at 2 I'm pretty sure I was sleeping in the same position and hadn't really moved but when I went back to bed I'm sure that I moved around. I thought part of it could be my old mattress so I went out a few days ago and bought one of those memory foam mattresses.  It has plenty of support so now I don't think that was it.  

My back  isn't tight when I'm laying down. When I woke up this morning at 8 I was like maybe the massager and the heat worked because I seemed fine but as soon as I stood up it went tight on me. It's like the strain of supporting my body when I stand up is making it tight.  Bending and twisting makes me really feel the strain.  It's like my muscles are preventing me from moving for whatever reason. Ibuprofen helps.  I've been making a conscious effort to sit up straighter when at work and right now as I type this.  And sitting up straight and forcing myself to kind of relax does help alleviate some of the strain but I can't bend over, twist or look down without feeling the tightness.  A personal trainer I know showed me this stretch where I take a deep breath and push my chest out and it feels like pulling my abs in and out stretches that area and helps.

I've read muscle imbalances mainly abs to back can cause back pain and I am guilty of not training my abs at all which I realize now is stupid.  At one point during all this when I finally took ibuprofen for the first time instead of tylenol it started to get better but the last few days it hasn't.  

I'm not a doctor but I do know my body better than anyone else and I feel like a lot of this is mental.  I'm focusing on it constantly.  It seems to improve when I don't focus on it but it's hard.  I'm stressing over my back not getting better because I can't work out and when I can't work out I can't get in shape which upsets me because I was doing really well.

Is there any at home treatments you can suggest?  Should I be icing it?  Heat? Massage? Stretching? All of the above?  I know as a doctor you probably want me to see a doctor but doctors and treatments are expensive and if I can alleviate this at home I'd much rather do that.

Answer
Hi Alicia,

This is the most common thing we see in practice, what you have from what I gathered in your history is a "subluxated rib", see, the ribs articulate with the vertebrae from T1-T12, the entire mid back. Most people think of rib problems in the front when most of the problems are in the back. This is something that needs to be corrected by a Chiropractor, it is easy to fix and a husband can watch so someone can do it for you at home. This is one technique that requires someone to help you. It may take a little practice but it is very safe when shown the correct way of doing it. Ice it down and avoid heat since heat will increase the swelling, inflammation, redness, irritation and everything else. It may make it feel good for a bit but an hour or so later it will generally be much worse.Manually re-setting the rib articulation is the quickest and easiest way of curing the problem. Try that and you'll be very happy!

Good Luck!


Dr. Timothy Durnin
lansingspinaldecompression.com