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My back hurts. what will the doctor say?

tommy34

tommy34

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Joined
Sep 13, 2010
Messages
313
Hey I'm a 20 year old male. My back aches almost every day. I work in a fruit shop and i try to lift everything properly. Most days its manageable but others I find it hard to sleep because it feels like I'm being stabbed in the back with a thousand knifes when I lay down. If its a bad day it can take me 2 hours to get to sleep after tossing and turning trying to find a position that doesn't hurt so much. I use Nurofen plus but the amount I need to take to get any sort of relief is worrying. I know that the Ibuprofen is bad for my liver. So my question is, will I get a pain relaver from the doctor that has more opiates and less Ibuprofen or Paracetamol? What are they likely to prescribe? I wouldn't consider my pain severe and I wouldn't need to use them every day.
 
To be perfectly honest, in Australia you are very unlikely to get prescribed any opiates for a problem such as this. Plus, opiates would only be masking the problem, not actually fixing it.

Your doctor will more likely prescribed naproxen (a NSAID) and/or advise you to seek physiotherapy. You may also have an actual injury, muscular or otherwise, in which case you will probably be advised to take time off work to rest.
 
Physiotherapist would be my first call of action. If you see your GP then see if you can get a referral to an orthopedic specialist too? I'm not sure if your doctor would go down the pain management route with stronger opiates without trying to address the underlying cause first... I could be wrong though. You have to remember you're going to look like a stereotypical drug-seeker going to your doctor seeking pain meds; sucks to be a young male hey?

Initially you may get 30mg/500mg codeine/paracetamol tabs, perhaps even tramadol? I highly doubt you'd get even 5mg oxys (endone) though.

Edit: beaten to it by n3o =D
 
I do need to see a physiotherapist but I don't have much money at the moment. I can't have time off work either because I'm having trouble paying for rent and food as it is :(
 
^ well there's not much more we can tell you sorry :( A back injury is not something you can ignore and hope gets better with time. Physio's aren't cheap though; if you're in a capital city it might be worth seeing if any of the universities have schools of physiotherapy that take patients?
 
I'm on the sunshine coast. Ill be traveling down to the university of the sunshine coast quiet often soon so I may ask them if they take patients. So it isnt even worth going to see the doctor?
 
^ no by all means see your GP, but don't go to him/her expecting pain meds, expect to be referred to a physio or orthopedic specialist. You might get some panadeine forte for short term use but I wouldn't bank on anything stronger. I should note that BL isn't here to help you get drugs of any kind, be they prescribed or not, so please don't ask how to go about getting them in any more detail than already covered.
 
tommy34 said:
So it isnt even worth going to see the doctor?
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There's a lot to be said for NSAIDs for inflammation. My boyfriend has chronic back pain from an old injury and if he takes naproxen or Voltaren for a few days his pain clears up totally.

You can get naprosen and Voltaren in smaller concentrations over the counter, but it is still worth going to the doctor to see if they think you need a higher concentration (which are prescription only).
Note: don't take NSAIDs if you have stomach problems e.g. ulcers.

The doctor might also have some other suggestions anyway.

So yes, it is still worth it to see your doctor :)
 
it is worth it too go see a doctor but you'd probly be better off finding a physio.... or a girl who knows how to do massage;) first.

you'll prolly get panadeine forte as far as opiates go at first and it'll cost a hell of alot more to get yourself onto those endone 5mg oxy's and alot of time too.
 
I hurt my back years ago at the gym. its a painful injury to have. I was told just to take ibuprofen and go see a physio/osteopath. Mine sounds a bit more severe than yours. I couldn't bend down, or put on my shoes or pants without assistance (luckily I had a girlfriend to help).

it was a lower compacted lumbar if I'm not mistaken. and it was pinching one of the nerves that ran down my leg, so it hurt to walk too.

Osteopaths are pretty good and are cheaper than physios (I think). they'll generally just massage and stretch you. It can get quite painful, but most of the time you feel better afterwards. although sometimes it can aggrevate it.

i would agree with others. your doctor is likely to refer you to a specialist or get you to see a physio. If you can work and lift things you are definately not going to get pain meds.

i would recommend you rest and stop aggrevating it by lifting things. see if you can be put on other duties that don't require lifting.
 
psytaco said:
Osteopaths are pretty good and are cheaper than physios (I think).
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On the contrary my good man, I have found that osteos and physios are generally as expensive as each other. The differences in the amount you actually pay would more likely depend on what level of private health cover you have (if any). Know what I mean?

BUT an osteopath is a fantastic suggestion. My osteo is a GOD <3 I see him once every 4-5 months on average for my neck and shoulder tension. Fixes me right up :)
 
As others have said, your chances of getting any medical treatment beyond physiotherapy is minimal. Doctors attitudes towards back pain, at least in younger people, is basically 'deal with it.' It doesn't matter how much trouble it causes you with work or sleep, unless you can show then an xray with your spine twisted at a 90 degree angle or something equally crazy, you're SOL.

Doctors will basically only investigate back pain as a symptom of a greater problem, not as an issue in itself, so if they run an x-ray/MRI/bloodtest and nothing pops up then they'll wave you out of their office, they don't care about the actual pain, no matter how much trouble it causes you with sleep/work/social life, as long as they're not culpable for missing a deeper problem in their investigation. If you push the issue they'll suggest physiotherapy and tell you to try taking panadol or ibuprofen (neither of which I've found have any effect unless taken in 3x the recommended dosage).

Personally, I found physiotherapy fairly useless for long term improvement. It did provide some temporary relief, but nowhere near enough to be worth the amount of money I was spending on it, so I stopped after a year. Try to exercise as much as possible, and get used to consuming a lot of parecetemol/ibuprofen.
 
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damn sounds just like my problem to some degree that was about the age when my back pain started
and it was from sports / lifting shit wrong thru-out the years and just wear and tear i guess

but i pretty much just fought thru it as much as i could til i was 22-23 then i started self medicating with hydrocodone and that went on for a while to make a long story short i ended up moving up to heavier pain pills again self medicating which isnt cheap by the time i was 25-26 ...

even goto doing heroin cuz it was cheaper and it was the only way i could sleep and function cuz my tolanrce got so high .. i went thru alotta shit sold dope just to supply my habbit but i finally did get clean mane thanks to subs been clean for 2months and some change now and i been finally getting
the actual doctor to check me out .. took some doing but i went to a few diff doctors and i got my
MRI Done last week ...so i can find out what the problem is and hopefully its something i can
take care of fairly easy ... my back pain is like yours lower back pretty much always hurts gets real bad some times i always described mine to people by sayin felt like ice picks was being stuck in my back and i got to the point to where i cant really sleep at all now a days ...........

but my advice to u is goto the doctor let them check u out and figure out what it is dont self medicate ... and from what u saying theres a good chance u have a lumbar lower back strain in the muscles and maybe back spasms if thats the case u can get muscle relaxers and naproxen take that for a week or so and rest your back and it should heal ... they told me i had that twice but pain never went away so i got MRI but maybe u got that which is the easier thing to heal ....good luck man i hope you get it worked out
 
and i always end up in the aussie section and im not even from y'alls end ...i always hit the new post button and just goto what ever thread i think i can relate to or looks interesting.. sorry if im intruding on y'alls turf
 
^ get out of our forum :P

(just kidding <3)

Anyway before someone chimes in and says "see a chiropractor" or "get acuptuncture", or "rub crystals on it to improve your chi whilst meditating and burning nag champa"... please don't.
 
belarki said:
^ get out of our forum :P

(just kidding <3)

Anyway before someone chimes in and says "see a chiropractor" or "get acuptuncture", or "rub crystals on it to improve your chi whilst meditating and burning nag champa"... please don't.
Click to expand...

I tried acupuncture once, it did exactly nothing. Complete placebo effect, imo.
 
i actually thought about trying a chiropractor and i even thought bout acupuncture but i quickly said NAH ..not down for the shit getting stuck in my back my back already hurts bad why i want shit stuck in it...and i just have a feeling a chiropractor might end up messing me up worse
 
belarki said:
Anyway before someone chimes in and says "see a chiropractor" or "get acuptuncture", or "rub crystals on it to improve your chi whilst meditating and burning nag champa"... please don't.
Click to expand...

Except there is evidence for acupuncture. I believe, however, that the studies showed that 'sham' acupuncture (placing the needles wherever as opposed to in the traditional locations) was just as effective, suggesting the effects are related to local/systemic inflammatory responses.

Not all 'alternative medicine' can be grouped together and dismissed (just most of it) :)


EDIT: That said, I'm not saying 'go get acupuncture'. I agree with everyone else that a physio is your best bet.
 
Crankinit said:
I tried acupuncture once, it did exactly nothing. Complete placebo effect, imo.
Click to expand...

I had acupuncture once and it made me pass out and start convulsing on the floor.
Fucking witchcraft and sorcery :X

Oh and yeah it did nothing for my neck pain, obviously. If anything it made it significantly worse because I was so traumatised!
 
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