Back Pain, Bowel Movements and Muscle Relaxers

CassarahW

So on Wednesday I hurt my lower back pretty bad. I waited until Thursday to go in to see if I did any serious damage. I don't normally see a doctor for pain because instead of finding out what's wrong they throw pain pills at it and say have a nice day. That's pretty much what this doctor did; however, I was in a lot of pain so I went with the flow so I could at least go to work.

On Saturday I realized that I had gone from having two to three bowel movements a day to having only one in three days. No wonder I was feeling like crap! *pun intended*

I don't know if it was because all of my muscles in my lower and middle back and in my hips and upper legs were held tight to help support my back so it wouldn't hurt or if it was the muscle relaxers slowing down my digestion, or if it was which ever one of my pain pills that was acting as a diuretic and drawing all the moisture out of my body, but something was stopping the works. I probably wouldn't have noticed except that I've been proud of my shrinking belly and I was now noticeably bloated - borderline looking pregnant!

So, if you find yourself in a similar situation here's what worked for me:

First, drink a lot of water, all day long. You can't just chug a bunch of water a couple times a day because that taxes your kidneys and can mess things up. So sip water all day long. You should never feel thirsty. You should also not drink caffeine or at least greatly limit it. Increase your fiber and decrease your processed junk. Fiber is going to help push things through and water soluble fiber is going to help keep the moisture in your gut. Veggies, nuts, beans, fruits with the skin (obviously not a banana), seeds, whole grains, etc are great sources of fiber. I added chia seeds and flax seed meal to my smoothies in the morning and then made sure I was snacking on raw veggies and nuts during the day. Lastly, you have to move. It's hard when you're in pain and if your doctor has you on strict bed rest then this part isn't for you. My doctor told me I needed to gently stretch and keep moving when I could but rest in between so I didn't inflame it up again. Just going for a ten minute walk might be enough to get things moving. Oh- ok, that wasn't the last part... try to relax. Sounds silly but your digestive system doesn't kick on unless you are relaxed. Ever heard of "rest and digest"? It's very true. When you're stressing out your body will be tense and digestion slows down which will back you up.

So hopefully you don't have to deal with something like this, but if you do and are frustrated, shoot me a message, I'd love to support you. I've been there! (still kind of there, I'm doing better but still have pain)