Nocturnal Lower back Pain ? Anyone else?

Hi sonofhomer

?Knowing what I know now after having 3 level fusion - L3-S1.  For me the back pain at night occured for over 10 years until I finally had enough leg numbness to go to the doctor and get xray's, mri's and ct scans.  The pain that kept me waking up in my lower back was 100% from my perspective tied to the disk deteriation and nerve issues which we all have which is causing the pain.  In my case, I had the fusion and I can only speak for myself, but it has eliminated the pain that would wake me up every night after 3 to 4 hours of sleep.  I can now lay in bed without pain which to me was unthinkable.  My recommendation is to visit a spine surgeon - a good surgeon will never recommend surgery and only as a last option, but they see so many patients that they can get right to what the problem may be - as my wife always said to me - your pain is not normal, you just think it is as you have had it for so long - she gave me a good example, if your arm hurt everyday or woke you up every night, you would never allow that to go on for more than a few days - for some reason we our backs are approached differently.  Anyway - the pain you have does not have to be tolerated and there are options to consider if they are the right ones for you.

?All the best and taking pills everyday is not a good solution for back pain, I know I did it for over 20 years - over the counter and prescription - until in my case I had the fusion - I never thought there was any other way to cope.

Cheers

?Jim

Hi

I also have similar condition which got worse of late after being on holiday on different bed and back of a fishing boat that bounced up and down. Made it all acute, found relief with chiro and walking and physio pilates classes. But would get worse overnight and sitting. Figure it is compression on a curved part of my spine. scoliosis mild. Saw a Rhuematoid specialist for other joints said after x-rays other than slight curve nothing visible and latest research was that exercise was the main recovery method, prescribed by physio etc. I was generally pain free except on sitting, like pain now typing and overnight. Apparently iinflammation responds best to movement , bit hard if you are in bed!

Switched beds recently as partner does shift work and gets annoyed at my tossing and turning, this was firmer bed that I then used a memory foam topper, but aggravated spine, like excruciating after about 4 hrs. My usual bed is a beds for back system which has dials on the base so you can dip the bed a little more for the hips and shoulders. As side sleeper my hips get irritated as they are wider than waist and clearly put pressure on my curve. Only problem is one side is different to other side due to my scoliosis curving more on one side. So this helped but not lots , but better than normal mattress. Now I am putting the firmer mattress with topper on the base system, see how it goes. Changing all these is so annoying. Anti inflams don't get through the night and we don't have those patches here in AUS.

Using osteo gel now to see if it helps settle it. And had MRI just for peace of mind to see if what I feel might make sense after that waiting for results.

Really hard to get all the exrcice in that is needed due to acute episodes. Recently I started work that has a degree of manual handling which stresses back I'm sure but it has a lot of posture changes and walking which is good. Makes it really hard to work next day when you have pain half the night .

I'm thinking I have to reduce my hours at work to minimise load or do something else. I tend to lie down at home on yoga mat to do exercises every so often and watching TV. But find it hard to get all the cardio and strength exercises in, Chiro said 7 stretching, 3 strength and 7 cardio (brisk walking level)/week. So hard to fit it all in. But any other suggestions welcome too.