Lower back pain

[Marco Polo]

All:

I am scheduled to have my right hip resurfaced at the end of March.  (Hard to believe it is less than 8 weeks away.) When I first started down this path I thought I might be jumping the gun on having surgery.  I was no longer able to run but I was able to do low impact physical activity such as biking and walking with minimal discomfort (although I usually paid for it the next day).

Unfortunately, for the past three weeks I have been experiencing severe lower back pain, especially in the morning when I first wake up.  (On the plus side I am now definitely ready to have the surgery.)  I travel a lot and it doesn't seem to matter what type of mattress I sleep on. I have searched this site and read that many of you also suffered back pain prior to your hip surgery, and in many cases the pain went away after the surgery.

Hopefully, I will be one of those persons who experiences relief from back pain after my surgery.  I am just curious if anyone had a similar experience of waking up with lower back pain.  If so did you find any way to minimize the pain prior to your surgery?

Thanks in advance,

Marco

[Ross]

After I had my right hip done, I awoke and walked with zero back pain.  Mine ran all the way from my sacrum to my neck.  It was horrific.  I never had any real problems that would cause this debilitating issue.  Anyways, two days later I had the left done and I awoke with a lot of pain in my sacrum.  Weird right.  Well not really.  I never knew what a major roll the psoas muscle plays In low back pain.   There are a lot of articles in here concerning the anatomical location and injury to this muscle.  I bought a zero gravity Lafuma that helped out immensely for sleeping.   As far as back pain 9 weeks later...yes I still have it but it is slowly resolving.  I used Valium and bio freeze and of course ice.   Pillows under the knees help a lot while sleeping at night.
Good luck with your surgery.
Ross

[Marco Polo]

Ross:

Thanks for the suggestion regarding the zero gravity recliner. 

Marco

[fenceman]

Marco, my right hip was very similar in condition to yours before I had it fix 7 weeks ago.  As my hip got worse, my back and knee also began to hurt.  As you body compensates for the pain in you hip, your gate changes and this causes other parts of you body to operate differently than they were designed to work. 

[chuckm]

I had the same issue with my low back - for years. It helped to have pillows under my knees when I slept. As your hips deteriorate they get much tighter. The weight of your own legs to lay flat stresses the low back. Side sleeping is better but inevitably you would know the next day if you had several hours of sleep on your back and didn't know it. I just had LBHR November 30th 2012 and my back pain is not gone yet but is MUCH less and seems like it will be going away soon.

ChuckM

[hernanu]

Welcome to the site, Chuck !

Your story was similar to mine as far as the back. I had issues and then was relieved of them post surgery. Not saying that's what will always happen, but removing OA from the equation has to help.

[mustang4172]

Marco,

As fenceman also mentions, your back pain is likely due to you changing your gait to compensate for the pain in your hip.  Dr. Su watched me walk when I went for my first exam and told me my 'bent over' gait was likely a major contributor to the low back pain I was having.  I'm 6 wks. post op from a bilateral procedure.  I still have low back pain, but it is different than the pain I had prior to surgery.  It is only when I first stand, and is probably related to the fact that my gluts and flexors are still pretty stiff.  I hoping this will improve as I continue my PT, stretching and strengthening those muscles.

[Marco Polo]

Thanks for all the feedback.  I have been sleeping with a pillow between my legs for a while.  It seemed to work until about a month ago.

Per Ross' suggestion, I ordered a Lafuma zero gravity recliner and I may try using it before my surgery.

Hopefully fixing my hip will also provide relief for my back pain as it did for many of you.

[Tin Soldier]

I'll just add that I too had lower back pain before and now I hardly have any back pain.  Only happens when I do something stupid like lift a keg without any help.  As everyon pointed out, the compensation issue is huge for the rest of the joints in the train.  My knees had pain, my lower legs had pain and most certainly my back had pain, mostly lower back.  I've seen this discussed quite a bit here and a lot of folks get resolution from surgery.

Pre-surgery, I honed in on the fact that I was not bending at the knees and hips to pick stuff up from ground level.  I found that that caused a major increase in back pain.  So gardening, cleaning up the shop or backyard, loading firewood, construction on the house,...all added to the pain.  Decreasing those activities helped.   Now I do twice as much work around the house as I used to, without any pain. 

I'm very optimistic for you.  I think you'll see a major decrease after surgery.

Keep in mind, that the gait will take time to mend as will the limp that you'll get from surgery, if you didn't already have one.  Those might add to back pain in the first few weeks of recovery.  Might not.  I think a lot of my pain in the knees, legs, and back went away immediately.   

[Jason0411]

My back pain went as soon as I had the Op. The only time it has been bad since was a couple of weeks back when I foolishly moved a chocolate vending machine on my own. But I deserved every bit of pain I got for that.
Trouble is because it hasn't been hurting I forgot I had ever had a problem and being a big strong bloke I just picked it up and walked round the corner with it.

Jas

[EvaJones2020]

Hello,

I have been diagnosed with Ostioarthitis of the hips (Advanced) I am probably going to have hip surgery in 2021. The Birmingham hip resurfacing proceedure was recently approved by the FDA and is said to be much better than conventional hip replacement for someone like myself who is rather young and active. I am 52 and figure I have had the OA for about 10 years before being diagnosed recently. I have hear of people having lower back pain from having it down, some suggested https://www.weelinks.info/u/back-pain/ gave it a read, it seems to be not too common thank god.

Did the pain evetually go away? :)

Regards - Eva