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Avatar universal

Lower Back/leg Pain, what did I do?

I am a 26 year old male, and 6 weeks ago I was at the gym lifting (dead lifts at the time of injury) when I felt something in my back pop. I immediately dropped the weight and tried to stand upright and couldn't. I was able to sit myself down on a bench nearby, but it took me about a hour to regain the strength to actually walk the 4 blocks home and couldn't really stand much for the rest of the day. In the coming days there was a good amount of pain but I was at least somewhat mobile. A week after the injury I still had some pain, went to a doctor, who briefly checked it out and said it seemed like a strain and to give it another week or two and ease myself back into moderate cardio but not to lift for a while.

I was busy and took 5 weeks off from the injury before trying to do anything physical. I decided to get back to it and wanted to jog just a mile to see how it felt. I made it about a 1/4 mile in and came up limping with extreme pain in my left knee (felt like BAD runners knee) so I thought I should keep it to stretching for the day, as I hadn't even done that for a month. In the days after that (now about a week later) my back hurts (lower, just left of the spine) more than it did a week after the initial injury and I have a shooting pain down into my hamstring through the buttocks. Doing anything that causes me to shift weight in my pelvis/waist is very painful, and I can hardly bend over to tie my shoes, pick up a pencil, or anything, without feeling pain in the same spot.

I feel like this is past the point of a strain and am quite worried. I have a doctors appointment coming up but I couldn't get it scheduled for another week. Do I need to get to urgent care or is this something that can wait a week. I'm not stranger to pain and can tolerate that, but I don't want it to get worse because I don't know what I did.

Any ideas what I did? Can I wait?
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1613542 tn?1366468543
It is very possible you have a ruptured disc. If you experience any numbness or tingling go to the er asap! Make sure if you go to the er that it is at a hospital big enough to have a mri machine. X rays only show bone not soft tissue so the only way to get a image of your disc is mri or ct scan. If you have any more questions feel free to ask or send me a message. Best of luck to you, Sissie
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Yes, you could have very well seriously injured a disc. My advice would be to see the doc ASAP, if you can't get in then go to the ER. I am  also a little concerned bc you said you've been taking painkillers like candy. What kind of painkillers? Even OTC (Tylenol, Aleve, Advil) are dangerous... It actually does not take a lot to do damage to your kidneys & liver with them. Really. I believe the new standard amount for acetaminophen is now 3,000 mg/day, that's only 6! I hope your pain level goes down and that its not something that will need surgery to correct. I was 26 when my back went to hell, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Good luck!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
The pain is getting worse, as today it is bord line crippling. I'm having to take pain killers like they are candy. Possible I ruptured a disk?
Helpful - 0
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