Question
Hello Lawrence

I am a 28 year old wife and mother of 2. All my life I have suffered from some sort of back pain, but really nothing major just the common pain from standing or walking for long periods, etc. However, in March this year I began suffering incredibly debilitating pain in my lower back that would radiate down the left leg. They did an MRI and found degeneration of L4-L5 and L5-S1 discs, with bulging at L4-L5. I did physical therapy for the past 2 months and the core strengthening exercises really did help, I got almost no pain at all. So I began to slowly add in some more weight training exercises to my workout routine in addition to the core strengthening ones. 3 days ago I got a very bad low back pain that is still there. But this is very different pain from what I had before, now it mainly affects my sleep cycle because it gets really bad when I lay on my back, and worsens when I move to lay on my side. I feel the pain right above the coccyx area, and I get momentary relief if I put a pillow in between my legs when lying on the side. This pain feels like there is something out of place right around the coccyx area, and hurts mostly when I go to bed at night, to the point where I have to get up early because I cannot stand the bed anymore, whereas the pain months ago felt more like a burning continuous all day pain, mostly on my left side. 3 days ago I did an exercise where I hold  a 15lb weight in each hand and do standing calf raises, I did a few of these and immediately felt a burning sensation go up my legs to the tip of my buttocks. That night is when the current pain started. This may or may not have caused the pain, but I still like to know what went wrong in there. I抎 really appreciate your opinion as to what might be happening, and any suggestion for relief.     

Thanks a million,
Sucel


Answer
Hi, Sucel,

To begin, since your physiotherapists have you doing strengthening exercises, I'd like to recommend you read my article, "Might You Be Strengthening Your Pain?"  To get it, send blank email to [email protected].

I've done a number of articles on pain and back pain.  May I suggest you read them at somatics.com/page4b.htm, then get back to me.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold