In case anyone has experienced anything similar...

[rachelmanija]

The middle-left part of my back, almost at my left side, was slightly painful yesterday and is killing me today-- even woke me up last night. I can't imagine what I could have done to strain it, as I haven't been training unusually hard or doing anything weird. I don't think it could be from a blow, because it's not sore to the touch and it hurts when I'm still or when I twist or bend over or straighten, not when I inhale.

In your collective experience, could it be from the car accident a month ago? Are there muscles there that could have been pulled doing some karate thing?

For now, I'm taking ibuprofen and going on with my scheduled sales trips.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Is it your oblique? If so, those can spasm up from a tiny pull into full on agony, just as can the lower back muscles.

When my obliques give me trouble I do the same thing as with the back--hot water, massage, and if I know it's not a tear but a knot (one can always find knots by feeling around) I dragoon someone into massaging it.

[branna.livejournal.com]

Maybe it could be a virus? I had problems a few days ago with
an incredibly sore, stiff lower back (similar to what you're describing). It lasted a couple of days (with a bunch of other symptoms coming along for the ride towards the end). I concluded it had probably been a virus when a co-worker complained of all the same things yesterday.

[tweedkitten.livejournal.com]

did you notice it a little sore after training yesterday? probably a torn muscle. torn muscles can occur from the most inane things and the pain is excruciating after lactic acid and adrenaline breakdown. ibuprofen is good.

i doubt it's the accident. give it a couple of days and you'll be as good as new. ^_^

[hokelore.livejournal.com]

Is it below the ribs? If nothing seems to relieve it, you may be battling a kidney stone.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

It sounds internal. Go to a doctor. Maybe you damaged something that's taken this long to tear. Remember, you almost died from an ear infection last year.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It doesn't feel internal, it feels like a muscle... thing. I think if I was bleeding internally or anything like that, I'd feel about a million times worse than I do, and there would be other symptoms.

It still really hurts, though. It's diagonal from somewhere below my left shoulder blade to just below where my ribs end at my left side. Actually, my first thought was that I'd cracked a rib, but I think that would hurt more and would have started when I did it, and anyway I don't recall anyone hitting me hard.

I don't think I technically "almost died" from the ear thing, I just theoretically could have. (Or gone deaf in one ear, which was more likely.) I almost had to have major surgery, though.

You'd think a generally healthy person who doesn't do dangerous things could have managed to avoid almost dying twice in two years.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

The spot in my back between the base of my left shoulder blade and my spine is the muscle that always hurt after I'd been using a shield too much, or without stretching, and the almost identical spot on the right side, only a little higher, is my mouse muscle, from using the computer too much. Did you do anything two days ago that involved holding a weight in your left arm up and out? Also, you might have a rib out of place, similar to having your back out, which a chiropractor can fix. The muscles might be reacting to the bone being out of place.

[gastonmonescu.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't discount the accident. Injuries from those things can pop up years after and, especially given the nature of yours, you're due.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, I had a coworker who was in a car accident (she was the passenger in a car that hit a deer). She was stiff and sore for a few days afterwards, and then started feeling worse. Turns out she'd pulled the muscles all down one side of her back. That wasn't the big problem - her big problem was that she was always an active person and *would* *not* give herself time to recuperate, because she couldn't stand to just sit around or lie around the house for the several weeks it would take to fully heal, so she was always very slightly re-injuring herself and not recovering fully. It ended up, over the course of six months and several re-pulled muscles in various places in her body, working up into a stress fracture in one leg and a possible stress fracture in the other, and the doctor basically threatened to tie her to a wheelchair to get her to stop overexerting herself. She was fine a few months later, after she allowed herself to heal.

So, the point of that story is: with my vast amount of medical qualifications (zero), I'd say: go to the doc, tell him or her about the accident and the karate and bring up your concerns, and if they say to stop doing it for a while, then stop doing it for a while. You can always go back to karate later, but if you don't heal fully before you do it, you could be opening yourself up for worse problems later. I could be wrong, of course.