[quote]jgundrey wrote:
Incredibly, I had an almost identical injury that occurred two weeks ago. For me, it was while doing good-morning exercises. There was no sudden burst of pain when the injury occurred. Rather, something just “gave” a little (like a pop) at the base of my back, but then slightly to the right side. The pain got worse throughout the day. By bedtime, I couldn’t take a deep breath without excruciating pain.
The pain persisted at its maximum level throughout the following day. Going from sitting to standing was tremendously painful. It began to subside by the third day. It reached, and has maintained, a pretty low threshold by the fifth day. But, it’s still there. It’s a weird pain that seems to traverse from my back to the front and feels like a cramp - just like you described.
I can deadlift about 275 now, and the pain increases for a couple of hours, but then goes back down to that “baseline” level within eight or so hours. I can do good-mornings at the same weight as when the injury first occurred and it doesn’t aggravate it at all.
When I read your post, I was struck by the similarities of our pains. You mentioned the pain below your “twelfth rib”. So, when I did some Internet searching to see if my pain was at the twelfth rib also, I came across something amazing…it’s called “Twelfth Rib Syndrome”!! See the following:
Also, Google the term for other articles on it.
I don’t know if there is a treatment, or if we’re just supposed to wait until it goes away.
I’m turning 44 in two weeks. Getting old is a bitch.[/quote]
G’day mate, yeah that’s an interesting article, thanks for that.
As I mentioned above, the area of concern is about 10" down from the armpit and about 4" to the rear from there, almost in line with your back right hand pocket in jeans. It’s still sore to touch with a bit of pressure but at least the main pain has eased and I have most of my mobility back.
it’s very interesting to note that when I had the pain I would feel it every time I bent over to pick something up and it would make me squat down and rise up with my legs instead, to avoid the pain, and I thought… that’s how I should be doing it all the time, but you just don’t notice when there’s no pain.
I’ll be trying to make conscious effort to squat for things now instead of simply bending over.
I won’t be dead lifting for another few weeks I reckon but I don’t mind as long as the healing is happening. I’m 42 and yes, the ageing thing sucks. It seems I spend most of my time recovering from pain and injury or too scared to re-injure myself.
I have 1, maybe 2, hernias that need repairing from doing inverted sit ups and the only cure is an operation, so that’s hampering me at the moment as well. When they don’t hurt it’s okay, I just avoid stomach training, which is more than obvious now, I’m a fat bugger again. I will have to have the operation soon I guess but I’m really nervous about it. When the hernia plays up, it can keep me out of the gym for weeks at a time.
Mentally, I to and fro between forgetting the whole weight training thing and just being without pain, or getting the surgery and returning to be better and stronger, maybe.
Rambling now, sorry. I’d be interested to hear of your progress in recovery though, seeing you’re 2 weeks ahead of me in recovery time 