I pulled my lower back muscle last night. Do you have any tips to help me get comfortable?

Get a muscle relaxant.

Here’s something I found.

Salonpas patches are amazing. Feel better.

This is something I do that REALLY helps a lot!

Lay on your stomach and arch your back. Hold for ten or twenty seconds. Then relax. Repeat. Do this 20 times.
Repeat this exercise three to four times a day. I get practically immediate results!

Do you have spasms?

This stuff helps my husband with chronic back pain. He has problems with vertebrae. The OTC patches don’t cost a lot and last for hours. You can get them at drugstores and places like Target. (Prescription strength is fabulously expensive and doesn’t do much more.) He also uses strong analgesics.

I get spasms with muscle strain, and his stuff doesn’t help me at all. A prescribed muscle relaxant does, when it’s really severe, and so does ice. I use those gel ice packs, two at a time, wrapped in a band because I can’t stay in one position.

The spasms typically last seven hours, and there’s no way to lie or sit still. Reflexive movement occurs two to three times a minute. I wouldn’t think of taking any sleep aid when that’s on because I would then just be desperately sleepy without being able to sit or lie down in one position for a minute at a stretch.

Next dose take 600 ibuprofen and chase it with 500 Tylenol
Just watch your daily total

Pillow under your knees while you lie on your back.

Don’t lift anything more than ten pounds for a few days. Don’t twist your back when you get up from sitting or lying down. You have to move very deliberately. Don’t bend over at your waist to get something from the floor, you need to bend your knees to get down there. Don’t reach for anything. Don’t do any laundry, don’t get a pan out of a low or high cupboard.

The ibuprofen is good. Remember to eat a little food with it and plenty of water. Walk to do some exercise, but nothing strenuous.

Hopefully, within a few days you are feeling better.

Hopefully, it’s not a disk.

I have fought with pulled muscles and tendonitis for the last year on and off. What I found works the best is this and 800 mg ibuprofen. Take the pills and put the roll-on on the sore spot(s) about half an hour before bed. When you wake up in the morning, all the pain will be gone.

@Jeruba luckily no spasms for me. This pain is bad enough on its own.

Thanks to all for your advice. I finally found a comfortable position in the recliner with a firm pillow behind my lower back for support. Ibuprofen is helping some. The nurse on call told me to take it easy for three days and to not lift anything or bend over.

I’m not needed at work until Thursday. If there ever was a good time to have an injury I guess it is now.

I pulled my back by trying to open one of our bedroom windows. The house has the original windows from 1893. Some of them are not easy to push up. :(

I’ve read that prolonged use of Ibuprofen can result in kidney damage.

^Yes. I try not to take it unless it’s absolutely needed.

^^ That’s why my husband can’t take it any more, and he really misses the relief it gave. Luckily the patches I linked to do help, but they’re 12 hours on, 12 hours off, so he’s still stuck with a lot of pain.

Take your time mending, @Jonsblond. An extra day now could be worth weeks later on.

@Jeruba

“Luckily the patches I linked to do help, but they’re 12 hours on, 12 hours off….”

Is the 12 hours off a safety or health recommendation?

@Brian1946, it has to do with side effects. As I understand it, both external and internal effects are possible. I’d just say don’t take chances with it. Like most things, it has a cost and a point of diminishing returns.

For me, a patch barely takes the edge off the pain, so it isn’t worth a risk. For my husband, the relief is instantaneous and enviably dramatic, so it is.

@Brian1946 If you take a lot of ibuprofen constantly, over time it can damage the kidneys. Naproxin Sodium is even worse. What it does is affect the blood vessels going to the kidneys, restricting blood flow and thereby causing lack of oxygen to damage the kidney. The upside is that if you start having problems with that, the treatment is to stop taking the NSAIDs. But if you take reasonable dosages, you should be okay.

@Jeruba Thank you. I’m doing my best to take it easy. It’s not easy for me to sit still for long periods of time.