I feel for you. I have sporadic low-back pain, and it can be a real bear. My doctor sent me to physical therapy for it once when it was really bad. The PTs had me ride a stationary back, do some resistance band work while sitting on an exercise ball, and a lot of stretches. I've had it often enough that I've figured out a routine to minimize the pain until the problem resolves itself. I do a lot of stretches that stretch out the muscles in the lower back: lie on your back, pull your knees up to your chest and hold; get on your hands and knees and arch your back like a cat; etc. I do these on a bed rather than on the floor--it's much easier to get on and off a bed when your back hurts than it is to get up off the floor. But the most important thing for me is to sleep in a particular way. I sleep on my back, with a wedge-shaped pillow propping me a up a bit, and with my knees bent over a pile of pillows. I start sleeping this way as soon as I feel a problem and keep doing it for a few days after I think I'm OK. It makes a HUGE difference for me. Before I figured this out, the pain could be nearly unbearable, and I ended up in the ER a couple of times. I haven't been back to the ER since I've started doing this, and level of pain seems to be much less. I normally cannot sleep on my back, so I usually take some antihistamine so I can sleep in that position. If your pain is like mine, it's going to hurt when you move from sitting to standing, when you start walking, etc., but it gets better the more you move around. Good luck!
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