Dealing with back pain from CFS

Essentially bedridden for years things have become harder for me as I constantly have to shift around and find it hard to get comfortable since my back is constantly sore as it never has a chance to properly heal from my lying down. Upper spine and neck area cause me grief as well.

I don't know what to do, have tried memory foam mattresses but those just give me more spinal pain less back pain. I recline back against a number of pillows and have tried all kinds of different pillows but it never seems to make a difference. I've tried sitting up all day long in a chair but it wears me out, feel so much better when reclining on a soft surface or better yet lying completely flat. I once bought a massage table thinking that something absolutely flat would put even pressure on my back but it didn't really help. Have had actual massages every week for a month or two in the past without success.

I think I would have a more energy if my back were healed as shifting around constantly takes up energy. Does anyone else have issues like this? Are there any worthwhile solutions?

 

Hi
Sitting puts the most pressure on the spine, standing is next, then laying flat. The only time next to no pressure is on the spine, is when you are upside down.

I too have to lay flat a few times a day.

Most back pain is not actually coming from the back, it is the psoas or gluteal muscles. I recommend seeing a therapist with expertise in myofascial release. Fascia surrounds all muscle and molds our posture, tight fascia can literally pull the pelvis out of place. Tight rector femoris muscles at the front of your legs can also tilt the pelvis, causing back issues.

Posture is everything. You need your posture assessing. I know my alignment is not great, although I have made some improvements.

God bless.

 

Hello @overtheedge , sorry to know you suffer from this bloody back pain...

I had it for years, which has led me to have a bad posture, which led to neck arthrosis, yeah!

Pain was localized in the pelvis + along the spine + shoulders (+some other peripheral joints, and tendinitis)

Rheumatologists didn't think it was something like spondylarthropathy, although it was clinically alike.

By chance, I had an Azythromycin treatment at 500 mg a day, (for a bad bronchitis), and all my pains disappear immediatly!

It was six months ago, and thanks to that event, it helped me to leave the half dead state I was into (suicidal ideas were starting to make their come back at that time), and I found the energy to find the road of the recovery. process. I still need antibiotics to improve, and lot's of supplements that I found usefull in the phoenixrising, but now I can face life and long days work again.

Don't give up!

 

Yes, chronic back pain has been with me on and off throughout the years, and now it has permanently taken root. I have been to chiropractors, pain management (refused shots in my back) taken muscle relaxants, etc. Lying flat is the only thing that relieves it most of the time. The problem is, in my case, that even with chiropractic intervention my muscles are weak and de-conditioned so that any benefit from an adjustment will just go right out the window because I am not able to do the strengthening exercises that they recommend which will benefit the back muscles, being too weak and easily exhausted to do them. It's a dilemma, for sure.

 

I tryed all the chiropractors at 400 km around me, but all they could do was to restore the normal range of motion to the thoracic spine, which was another problem I had.

Now I no longer need them as I use this kind of stuff to restore it myself:

https://www.amazon.com/WODFitters-Double-Lacrosse-Massage-Thoracic/dp/B00ZJBKUKA

 

Hi
I feel for you it's so hard to live with. I have given up on finding cures for lower back and other pain and try to actively manage pain.
. I was advised to lay with a pillow or foam wedge under my knees, and my head slightly propped up with pillows on either side for arms to rest on. The idea is that none of your limbs is stretched to capacity and are gently propped up.

Do you have an electronic pillow raiser? I have found this has been invaluable for gentle elevation without shifting around too much or having to constantly reorganize pillows

 

This sounds a lot like my pain syndrome! The only thing that has relieved some of the pelvic pain, is injections of steroids and numbing agents directly into the pelvic area.

 

Interesting. I am doing an online pain management course and we have just got to myofascial release- am I right in thinking that this has to be done BEFORE the problem becomes chronic? ( I am happy to be corrected on this)

 

I only learned in the past year that my back pain is related to adrenal stress. I had low back flares for 7 years, long before ME. Now, in recent months, I began having shoulder, neck, and low back pains. When I resumed adrenal glandular, which had been a real help in the past, the pains have almost gone. I've found that I have to take my PM dose well before I start my evening meal prep in order to not fall into adrenal stress. good luck w/ your back.

 

@keenly Being upside down is nice but hard to maintain, would be nice if there was some easy way to spend some time in weightlessness, hopefully we haven't been born too early to see some miraculous tech in our lives. I wonder if a waterbed would be worthwhile. I haven't noticed any problems with posture and don't have any pain when I'm in any state but one where I'm actively putting pressure on my back. Pain isn't anything severe it is just annoying enough to make it difficult to relax. How does the therapy you mention work and is it a one and done thing or long term?

@pattismith Interesting that an antibiotic treated your pain, I've taken a number of antibiotics over the years and never seem to get anything out of them, nor anything from probiotics or antifungals.

 

If you're bedridden, that's difficult, but if you could possibly lay on your stomach for a minute or two once or twice a day to stretch your back and neck out the other way, it may help.

 

I have back and neck pain, and the chair that makes me feel the best is a zero gravity chair. It takes the pressure off your discs.

 

I have one of those, pretty comfortable I agree.

 

It is possible that your back pain (or a least part of it) is muscular in origin. I had some sharp, very painful stabbing pains at one stage in the muscles of my lower back, on either side of my spine (but not in the spine itself). My doctor suggesting trying anti-inflammatories, and sure enough, these reduced the pain by around half. I believe inflammation in the muscles themselves can cause pain, hence the use of anti-inflammatories to treat it.

What about trying TENS machines to treat the pain? These cost very little.

 

@pattismith Interesting that an antibiotic treated your pain, I've taken a number of antibiotics over the years and never seem to get anything out of them, nor anything from probiotics or antifungals.[/QUOTE]

Did you try one from the Macrolides family? What was the dosage?

Before I experienced a recovery from pain with Azithromycine, I had already been treated with this antibiotic for bronchitis several time but the dosage was lower, so it made a difference.

 

@overtheedge, have you ever tried cold packs? They help a lot for inflammation. I use them 20 minutes on, an hour off, as instructed by my chiropractor. If I'm really inflamed, I'll use the packs 3 or 4 times in a day.

Cold packs are especially effective if you use moist heat awhile after the cold treatment. I either get in a hot tub at night or take a hot shower.

 

I find it helpful for my lower back pain to do simple exercises on the floor or in bed:
1. Lying flat with your back in a neutral position, tighten across your pelvic floor. To know where, place join thumbs on your hip bones to feel the horizontal muscle between your hipbones contract; at same time contract pelvic floor like you would to pee. Hold the contraction for as long as you can, release and repeat as many times as you can. Or do throughout day.
2. Lying flat with your back in neutral position, tilt pelvis forward arching and hold, and then backward curling back. Or do this seated on chair, or as cat / cow on all fours.
3. Lying flat on back, bring knees up and drop them all the way to right side and hold to get a stretch. Repeat on left.

All these will help strengthen your core, which really helps with back pain and rolling over in bed, getting up out of bed etc. They've made a big difference for me!

 

@caledonia I've tried lying on my stomach for extended periods of time, it isn't enough to make the back pain go away, things seem to get worse as far as fatigue goes, I feel much more exhausted after lying on my stomach, not sure why, I think it's cause of the effort required to lift the lungs with the weight of the full body on it is harder than lifting them simply against gravity

@perchance dreamer I tried a zero gravity chair, was better on my back but my spine would randomly hurt more severely than usual, almost like the spine was having a cramp. That reminds me, I've had points where my spine will make a noise and develop shooting pains and will hurt badly for a week or so if I don't maintain good posture, used to happen more when I slept on memory foam, memory foam treats me much the same way as zero grav chairs, better on the back, worse on the spine, but in the year or so I slept on memory foam the back pain never went away.

@Hip What antiinflammatories would you recommend, I'd definitely try one if I didn't have to worry too much about side effects. What is a TENS machine and what is treatment like?

@pattismith I don't know what kinds of antibiotics I've taken over the years unfortunately, probably should have saved the bottles.

 

I used ibuprofen, but you can try paracetamol or aspirin also.

Look up TENS machine on Google for a description. It basically passes a battery powered electric current through your tissues.

 

@Hip, don't you fear that the Aspirin and Paracetamol toxicity over mitochondria could have harmful effect on some of us?
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...-lactic-acidosis-and-drugs.52382/#post-866526