I Kept Treating My Back Pain But It Kept Coming Back

I remember standing in my bedroom, struggling to put on my work trousers and thinking about how I was going to get through nine hours at work.

Before my recurring back pain became part of my daily life, I never thought twice about simple movements. Things that used to take seconds suddenly felt impossible.

When I Thought I Had Injured My Back

I can’t remember exactly when my back pain first started. There wasn’t one particular moment that I can clearly remember.

The earliest significant episode I remember was during the COVID lockdown in 2021.

Everyone was doing home workouts, and I was influenced by that too. I wanted to lose weight and stay healthy while staying at home, so I started doing more cardio workouts.

At first, I felt good. I felt healthier, so I wanted to do more. I started increasing the intensity of my workouts.

Then I started noticing back pain.

My immediate thought was that I had hurt my back.

I used ice packs, which helped for a while, and took anti-inflammatory painkillers, which worked quite well. I thought my body would recover in no time, so I stopped doing my cardio workouts and gave myself some time to recover.

But the pain didn’t seem to go away completely. As soon as I stopped taking the painkillers, it would come back.

My husband did some research online and suggested that I see a chiropractor. I had a couple of sessions and was given some exercises to stretch the muscles around my hips and pelvis.

The pain slowly improved.

I then went for sports massage. After four sessions, along with stretching and painkillers, the pain eventually went away completely.

So I thought I had injured my back.

It made sense to me. I had been doing more exercise, my back started hurting, and after some treatment, stretching and rest, it got better.

The fact that the pain improved made me even more convinced that it was a sports injury.

At the time, I didn’t think there was anything else to it.

I Thought I Had It Under Control

After that, I became much more careful with my home workouts. I made sure I didn’t overexert myself and was more careful whenever I lifted anything heavy at work.

For a while, everything seemed fine.

I would occasionally get some back pain, particularly after lifting heavier loads at work, but it wasn’t severe. It would come and go, and I carried on with my life.

I never thought the pain would return the way it did in 2023.

When Recurring Back Pain Became Part of My Life

This time, I can’t remember exactly when it started.

I just remember that it didn’t go away.

I started to hate mornings.

I was afraid to go to bed because I was afraid of waking up in pain. There were many nights when the pain woke me up and I couldn’t find the right position to go back to sleep.

Sometimes, I had to lean against the wall just to rest because I couldn’t get comfortable anywhere else.

I remember lying there in the morning, staring at the ceiling, knowing that I had to get up, but struggling to even sit up and get out of bed.

I wished the sink was higher so it would be easier to wash my face in the morning.

I wished I didn’t have to climb up and down the stairs to get to my room.

Putting on socks became a challenge. I started using my toes to pull the sock up because bending down was so difficult.

I even wished I had bought the shoe horn that I had once thought was a waste of money. I remember thinking how much easier it would have made putting my shoes on.

It probably would have saved me ten minutes.

I wished I had a shower instead of a bathtub so I didn’t have to get myself in and out of the bath.

There were so many little wishes.

Sometimes I felt like it wasn’t fair that I only had 24 hours in a day, given how much time I now needed just to get through my everyday tasks.

I had to be creative and find different ways of doing things.

It wasn’t easy, but I wanted to remain independent, both physically and financially.

The Day I Couldn’t Ignore It Anymore

The pain wasn’t going away, no matter how hard I tried to live with it.

One morning, the pain was particularly bad. It took me even longer than usual to get ready for work, and I struggled to walk.

But I still went to work.

I remember standing at the bottom of the stairs to the staff room and looking up.

It felt like a mission impossible.

I had my work bag and lunch bag in one hand and held onto the handrail with the other. I lifted one foot onto the first step.

Every step was excruciating.

It took me more than 15 minutes to get to the staff room.

More than 15 minutes to climb a flight of stairs.

When I came back down, my manager immediately noticed that something was wrong.

She told me that I definitely needed help and that I should go home and book an appointment with my GP.

That was the first time I went onto my GP surgery’s online portal to book an appointment.

Why Didn’t I See My GP Sooner?

This is something I think about quite a lot.

I thought the back pain I was experiencing was what everybody else had.

Maybe it wasn’t, but I had convinced myself that it was.

I thought it was just another back injury. I thought I needed to be more careful next time and make sure I lifted heavy loads correctly, just like the health and safety training I had done so many times at work.

I never really thought about how much the pain was affecting my life.

I thought there were people who were much worse than me.

I didn’t want to waste my GP’s time.

I never thought I needed help.

I think that’s one of the strange things about living with pain. You get used to it.

You find another way to put your socks on.

You take longer to get dressed.

You find somewhere to lean when the pain wakes you up at night.

You work around it.

And somehow, those things start to feel normal.

I Thought I Could Just Keep Going

I spent a long time trying to understand my recurring back pain.

First, I thought I had injured my back during exercise. When the pain improved after massage, stretching and painkillers, I became even more convinced that I was right.

So when the pain came back in 2023 and didn’t go away, I thought it was another back problem.

I didn’t realise my body was telling me something else.

That GP appointment was the beginning of my diagnosis journey. Eventually, I was diagnosed with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis.

If you’d like to read about what happened after that GP appointment, you can read My Axial Spondyloarthritis Diagnosis Story.

I don’t blame myself for not knowing what was happening.

At the time, I was just trying to get through my days. I was trying to fix the pain, trying to carry on with work and trying not to let it take over my life.

I just wish I had realised sooner that I didn’t always have to push through it.

Everyone’s journey to a diagnosis is different. If you’re struggling, I hope you remember that you’re not alone.

I hope you find the answers you’re looking for soon.

Lots of love, 

Ling