Finally understand why your back pain keeps coming back.
A clear, clinician-led plan for back pain that keeps returning.
Back pain can settle and return for years. An assessment helps you understand what may be keeping it going, what is safe to work on, and what to do next.
Explore Fesera CareRemote care in Lagos and across Nigeria, where suitable. In-person assessment is available in selected Lagos areas when needed.
When back pain starts shaping your life
It settles for a week or two and you think you are past it. Then you lift something, or sit through traffic, or sleep badly, and you are back where you started.
Mornings are stiff. Long drives are worse. You have started planning around it without really noticing that you do.
You have taken the painkillers. Maybe had a massage, or a scan. It helped for a while.
The thing nobody told you
Your scan is one part of the picture.
Some scan findings also occur in people without pain. Your clinician interprets them alongside your symptoms, health history and examination, rather than relying on the image alone.
Imaging can be important when a serious condition is suspected or when the result would change your care. Your clinician will discuss whether it is needed.
Why it keeps coming back
Here is the loop, and it is worth reading twice.
Pain can make you brace and move less. Over time, reduced activity may make some everyday movements harder to tolerate, which can make it tempting to move even less.
This is one possible pattern, not an explanation for everyone’s pain. Your clinician can help you find a manageable way to return to movement.
A few other things you were probably told
- Rest it.Long periods of bed rest are generally unhelpful. Your clinician can help you return to activity at a manageable pace.
- Stop bending.Avoiding it teaches your body to guard, and guarding is part of what keeps the pain going.
- Your spine is unstable, or fragile.A back that has hurt for two years is usually sensitive, not weak. Those are different, and one is far more fixable.
- You need a stronger core.The specific version of that idea that got sold for twenty years does not hold up any more.
What actually helps
A gradual return to movement, tailored to your symptoms and goals, can be part of a recovery plan. Your clinician can help you find an approach that fits your situation.
The goal isn't just to reduce pain. It's to help you understand enough that you're no longer afraid of it.
When to see a doctor first
Most back pain is not dangerous. A few signs mean a doctor comes before a physiotherapist.
Go to the nearest emergency department immediately for new numbness around your groin or back passage, new difficulty passing urine or controlling your bladder or bowels, or severe or worsening weakness in both legs.
Unexplained weight loss, night sweats or fever alongside the pain. Pain that is constant and worse at night. A history of cancer. A significant fall, especially over 65. Morning stiffness lasting more than half an hour that eases with exercise rather than rest.
Men over 50 with new back pain that isn't clearly better or worse depending on what you're doing should mention their prostate to a doctor.
The questions we ask before any booking cover all of this.
Not sure it's your back?
Knee pain
Getting out of a low chair is the hard part. Stairs hurt. An X-ray said arthritis and the conversation ended there.
Hip pain
Hip pain is not always the hip joint, and a good share of it is referred from the back. Worth reading if you are not sure which you have.
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About this information
This page provides general information. Your symptoms, health history and examination determine which care is appropriate for you.
Read about Fesera’s clinical leadership and our clinical scope.
Further reading: NICE: low back pain and sciatica.
Stop guessing what's wrong with your back.
Start with an assessment and agree the next step with your physiotherapist.
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