“Lower back?”
I fell off a catwalk at work straddle the side rail and hurt my lower back. I guess the best way to explain it is when you break ribs it’s hard to breathe or cough but when I cough it’s like a pain going out of my lower back on a scale of 1 to 10 about an eight.
Male | 53 years old
Complaint duration: 3 days
Medications: None
3 Answers
Sorry about your accident. Unless you are having numbness, weakness, or shooting pain in the legs, you probably will heal without problems with rest (avoiding anything that hurts back), heat, light stretching, and time. This may take 4-6 weeks. Sometimes a brace to limit activity is helpful for short time. You certainly could have a small fracture or just soft tissue injury. To be more sure of injury, more rapid return to normal and not regret something in the future, I would recommend seeing an orthopedic surgeon, be evaluated, and have an X-ray. Then, let them direct/coach you to recovery.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Sounds like a serious injury. You should be evaluated and have x-rays of your ribs, upper and lower back as soon as possible.
Hard to tell from your description of the fall, but you might have sustained a fracture and should undergo at least X-rays and probably an MRI if the X-rays are negative.
Christopher B. Michelsen, MD, FAOA, FAAOS, FACS
Christopher B. Michelsen, MD, FAOA, FAAOS, FACS
