Dr Erin: I just had surgery — why does my back hurt now?
I recently had a patient come into my office for a new injury examination. She had always had upper body injuries such as neck pain, shoulder pain, neck tension etc, so I expected to be doing an upper body exam. As I looked on her patient update form, I noticed that her injuries were actually in her low back and hip this time. Under the recent medical history section, she also wrote that she had recently had abdominal surgery.
The patient was perplexed as to why she was having lower body pain for the first time in her life. She told me that she felt like she was falling apart with her past upper body injuries, the abdominal surgery and now this low back pain. Why was this occurring?
When you have abdominal surgery, the doctor must cut through your abdominal wall. No matter how small those cuts are, they still do damage to the important muscles in the abdomen that protect your low back and hip joints. As those cuts heal over, they form scar tissue that inhibits the strength of your core muscles and puts additional pressure on your lumbar spine, hip joints and other structures in the area.
Sometimes abdominal surgery, pregnancy or even rapid weight gain can be enough to disrupt the balance of your core muscles and cause you to start feeling new symptoms or injuries. I wish more surgeons warned their patients about this possible side-effect and refer them to chiropractic physicians for care. The faster these imbalances are treated with natural chiropractic & rehabilitation, the easier they resolve and the quicker your recovery begins.
If you know someone who is experiencing new pains after surgery (whether it’s abdominal surgery, foot surgery or shoulder surgery!), please send them this article. Feel free to email me at drerin@ducatchiropractic.com if you have questions or if I’m able to assist you.