Ways to survive severe pain

Stretches. Lie on the floor and straighten the spine as much as you can. Arms at the side, and neck straight. I usually have SO pull my legs out straight to lengthen the spine. It does not hurt but helps your body naturally adjust. The spine is far more delicate than we realize. It is central to everything, and once it is out of whack, the body has a hard time adjusting.

Check into how you are sitting... Sounds as if you are putting pressure on the lower spine, maybe have been repeatedly, and now the body is complaining. No soft chairs or couches, sit in a hard back chair. Or place a board on the sofa, and sit on that, so that you have a softer target area on the back helping you sit up, and a sturdy base. Stay out of bed unless sleeping. See your doctor as soon as you can.

I am not a medical doctor. I teach voice and movement on the college level.

I saw my pain doc today for something similar. I've had the hip pain for a long time (sciatica), not related to my lift and twist injury, which has me nearly falling with numbness and pain. I've had an x-ray to see if anything was broken - not. Now I'm going for MRI and nerve conduction test. The sciatica is usually treated with a cortisone injection, which, for me, works well.

My doc is very conservative. Before treating he wants to know what's wrong. He did have me use my back brace (calls it a corset) for some short term support.

I also have a TENS unit for stopping muscle pain which is triggered by the spine pain. It works on the muscles, but I still have something going on in the spine. Pain meds, which I take for other pain only reduces the pain to tolerable. Sitting and walking and standing make it worse.

I would recommend seeing a pain clinic or an orthopedic doc. You want someone who isn't going to do anything to you without some medical tests. X-rays will not show anything but bone. An MRI and nerve conduction studies will show if you have anything to worry about - pinched nerves, spinal stenosis, etc. I would guess they should be covered by your insurance or workman's comp., although I'm just a patient, not a doctor or lawyer.

Temporarily, heat helps, as does half the tiniest dose of diazepam, a muscle relaxant. I would like to do core strengthening exercises, but right now it hurts too much, and I don't want to do anything that might pinch the nerve more. (I suspect bulging disc or other new acute damage because I heard my spine pop and then severe pain.)