i hear ya!

call your doc an get a script phoned in for a good muscle relaxing drug. after my back was broken, the soft tissue damage kept causing muscle spasms near l1 and l2. i forget what was prescibed for me, but it worked.

good luck. back pain is miserable!

Look into acupuncture later.  

I have a bad back from an old injury and it used to hurt so much that I could not walk up a few stairs and on some really bad days I could not get out of bed.  Doctors tried everything and nothing worked and suggested surgery.  

Instead I went to visit my cousin who studied acupuncture for past 20-25 years and he did some "intensive" acupuncture procedure for 5 days.  That was 12 years ago and since that time I have not had any problem other than typical sore back.  I do have to return for this "intensive" procedure every year.

Acupuncture any seem like some vodoo BS but it really works and there are a lot of scientific data to back it up.  

Good luck.    

Over the counter muscle relaxent> ALCOHOL

yobo is right. My brother also undergoes accupuncture and swears by it. But a little JD, wine or beer does relax muscles.

Apply ice for 30 minutes at a time.  You might want to alternate with mild, dry heat.  Then see a chiropractor.  Sounds like an impinged nerve.

When I have intense lower back pain I go right for the big guns:

1000 Tylonol (quick pain relief)
1600mg Motrin (anti-inflamitory)
20mg Valium (takes the edge off the pain)
40mg Flexril (muscle relaxer)

After an hour of that cocktail I feel no pain.
For me the best thing to do is get the pain meds and take them till the back spasms stop.
After the muscles have stopped with the spasms I start a light stretching routine (anywhere from 2-4 days after the original injury).

One time I spent 4 days in the hospital after I injured my back. I bent over to pick up a towbar that weighed less than 30 lbs. When I tried to straighten up my back went "krik" and I fell to the ground in the most awful pain I have ever been in in my life.
When I got to the hospital I was checked out by 2 different doctors. The first guy I would have killed had I been able to sit up and reach over.
He pushed me in the wrong direction during his exam. That took 20 minutes to get over. The second doctor came in with a nice syringe filled with Demerol. I don't remember too much after the first stick, I do know that I was feeling pretty good for the next couple of days, at leat until they cut off my Demerol supply.

ehem.... valium does nothing for pain. It will help you get one hell of a nights sleep.


Advil actually works very well for pain. It will not help with muscle spasms though....

Beer will help with muscle spasms but POT(believe it or not) works better. Corse you need a doctors recomendation before using a POT therapy and beer is over the counter...

My 2 cents:

1) ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory. Useful over days to week but not usually to helpful for acute pain. Excessive use, such as USNJoe can lead to ulcers and kidney damage.

2)Tylenol is a little bit more of a pain med but is relatively weak. It is also the No.1 drug for overdoses and can be fatal if excessive. Can cause a drug induced hepatitis especially when mixed with alcohol.

3)Valium and other benzodiazepines are excellent muscle relaxants but are assoc. with addiction and memory problems.

4)other muscle relaxants-Flexeril, skelaxin,etc. Help some.

As severe as your pain is I suspect one of several diagnoses: Neuroforaminal disease-Inflammation about one of the holes where the nerve roots come out of the backbone. Can be very painful and cause spasm as well. Bulging or herniated disc. Also very painful and can lead to spasm of the lumbar muscles. These are usually assoc with injury. Other possibilities as well.
My rec: Steroids(many docs don't use much but I get excellent results). NSAID's such as ibuprofen in appropriate doses. Muscle relaxants as needed. Physical therapy if that is an option for you. I will give give limited narcotics for a couple of days-generally just for nighttime use. Avoid prolonged sitting, a recliner works great. Ice to spine, then heat to muscles.  If you have loss of feeling, losing strength or especially if unable to control bowel or bladder go to ER.
You might try going to a local walk-in clinic. The ER can be very busy and this may be a more reasonable alternative.
Don't know much about your situation, though.

Had the same problem 8 months ago. Call your doctor, get some muscle relaxers and pain killers. I feel for you man, good luck.

I second Kissel, see a chiropractor.  Some pain meds may be necessary, whether OTC or prescribed by a doctor, but they only treat symptoms, not the problem.

Some insurance won't cover chiropractic care (like ALL HMOs in MI for example).  If yours doesn't, then try to get in to see a D. O. instead of an M. D.  Osteopathic doctors will still do joint manipulation like chiropractors.  It costs more than just going to a chiropractor, but insurance will usually cover it.  

Waldo is correct. Could be a kidney stone but I get a sense you've experienced this to varying degrees chronically. Kidney stones usually give pain in the flank regions that can radiate to groin or testicle and not directly over the low spine region. Don't usually cause muscle spasm, either, but can lead to spasmodic type pain.
Where are you in MI, Lumpy. I'm very near to Watersmeet and Iron River in the UP. You're not a Youpper, hey, are you?

Try laying on either side and touching your knee to your chin. Roll over and do it again. Old chiropractor trick. Resets the spinal column.

I hate to bumrap acupuncture but I had a guy sticking me with pins for a knee problem.
I finally gave up and went to a general practioner. He looked at my knees and found that I had a torn muscle, one kneecap had dropped and was causing the pain. Medicine and a lot of physical therapy fixed it up. Who woulda thunk that?
It seems in hndsight that the pin guy was just running up a tab as I have good insurance.

I'd start with a good general Physician and go from there. It could be a lot of things. Maby cancer. Why waste time?

Robaxacet works for me.  Hit by a car, surgery, whatever it still works.  Pain relievers didn't help at all but that stuff rocks.  Tends to let you bruise easily though.

I work in a pharmacy, don't take high doses of Tylenol for too long. Usually the max per day is 4grams which is 4000 milligrams 500-1000mg every 4-6hrs. High doses of Tylenol can damage your liver over time. Some people have trashed their liver and needed transplants because of abuse of Tylenol. Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine) is a good muscle relaxer without being to strong to put you to sleep. Also Methocarbonal is another good drug to help relax the muscle. Ibuprofen for mild pain would probably be best bet.The Flexeril will help stop muscle from spasming and the Ibuprofen will help reduce swelling.

No Slack!

USNJOE,
 I truly hope your cocktail is something that you were kidding about!
 Too much drugs man!
 I'm just a medic, listen to the doc and pharmacy dude!
 Motrin (advil, ibuprofen, etc), prescription strength is 800mg.  I've never anything higher.
 Tyl. will destroy your liver and the Motrin will cause nasty ulcers.
 You need to go to an Acute Pain Mangagement Clinic, Chiropractor, Accupressure or Massage Therapist!  Something other than all those drugs, you keep that up and you will be seeing an early grave!

Can you tell me why that is? I know someone with the same problem and would like to give some information.

I had a herniated disc at L4L5 that was pressing right on my spinal cord and causing me all sorts of problems - could't walk, couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't sleep.  It was bad.

I tried everything - drugs, physical therapy, accupuncture, TENs, chiropractors, epidurals, exercize, back braces, voodoo dolls, etc.  Nothing helped, and several things - like chiropractic - actually made it worse!!  My two final choices were [b]Spinal Fusion[/b] or walking around drooling and drugged up.

Then I came across Dr. Chiu's web page -

[url]http://www.spinecenter.com[/url]

After fighting long and hard to get the insurance company to pay for it, Dr. Chiu did a little 40 minute endoscopic laser job on my back.  Relief was immediate and permanent!!  I hopped off the surgical table with two band-aids on my back and walked out.  It was amazing!!!

About a year ago some dumbass plowed into three stopped cars on the freeway (one of them was me) and it screwed up a different disc - L5S1.  I'm letting Dr. Chiu fix that one, too, and am going to skip all the painful piddling that those other quacks want to do first.  Screw them - this go round I'm getting it fixed right the first time!

Dr. Chiu is da man!!!!


[Edited to fix my speling misteaks]

That cocktail is what I take for my initial back pain. I may not take as much and I may not take all four, it depends on the level of my discomfort.

I have been to chiropractors, they are quacks. I have paid too much money out of my pocket and have even been injured worse after seeing one of those quacks.

Accupuncture has not worked for me either as far as my back pain goes. It did work for me for pain and rehab after I broke my hand.

It's not like I suck down that mixture everyday, like I said I do it when I get that "feeling" in my back.
I have lived with my back for over 40 years, I have a couple of conditions that there is no cure for. I know what works for me.

I have use steroids (Prednisone) for pain too, it's hard to find a doctor who will prescribe them for pain reliefe though.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I know that you have my best interest in mind.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.......got the T-shirt and all that. 2 surgeries for 2 different back injuries and I can tell you for a fact that Flexril(cyclobenzeprine) will make you mean as a rattleheadedcoppermoccasin! Valium; and it wont take much, will work quite well as a muscle relaxer and I will back that up with personal testimony! Toradol, methocarbomal,diazapam, diazapoxide,lorcet, morphine, darvocet, percocet, percodan, ibuprofen,etc, I've had 'em all. I wouldn't trade one valliun for a bucket of everything else!

One thing you can do right now is to lay on your stomach and push your upper body up on your elbows to arch your back. This will be the only way you can cough or sneeze with any degree of comfort. Ice packs every hour or so will help too. Heat induces swelling. Swelling = encroachment of soft tissue onto the nerves=bad. Good luck and speedy recovery bro!

Disclaimer, I'm not a doctor.  I'm just an old fart who has lived through a lot.

I have no idea how to handle the temporary pain, but some of the other suggestions here sound good.  That's fine, but you need to fix the real problem, lack of strength.  I had tremendous back pains on and off for about 7 years.  That was until I decided to get off of my butt, and fix it.  I started lifting weights.  At the time, I didn't know anyone else doing that.  I ordered a set of weights mail order and made a weight bench and a (what later became to be known as) power rack.  I did good mornings, deadlifts, and (the king of all exercises) squats.  After I got up to squats of about 300 pounds, my back pain went away completely.  Of course, getting to 300 took me a couple of years of serious once a week workouts, but in the long run, it was well worth it.  Now, even at my age, unless I do something stupid (like I did three weeks ago by not drinking enough water for a couple of days in a row before helping my great-niece move), I don't have any back pain.  I can still squat 8 plates (for the novices, that's 45 * 8 + my 65# bar = 425), and I don't ever plan on letting up on lifting as long as I'm able.  I've seen too many friends that stopped working only to discover that in a few years of sitting around doing nothing, their backs got weaker and they started having pain.