Should I go to the hospital for back pain?
For the past three days, it’s been feeling sore/stiff when I sit, but it’s still tolerable... Should I just try stretching and see if it improves, or should I go in right away?
10 answers
Three days is kind of a gray area. If you have numbness in your leg or feel weakness in your toes, you should go right away. If it’s just a dull ache, you can watch it for about a week. But the most common cases are people who keep toughing it out because it’s bearable and then get worse, so wouldn’t it be better to just go get an X-ray? It costs less than you’d think.
Well, that's a bit... I think telling someone to go to the hospital over three days of stiffness might be a bit much. Most people get better just by fixing their posture and stretching for a few days.
Agreed — you need to lock in your waist/core early on.
Don’t just look up random stretches and follow them. Depending on the cause, stretching can be harmful for back pain and may actually make it worse. I did that and struggled for two months; in the end, I went to an orthopedic clinic, got manual therapy, and recovered. You said it’s bearable, so it’s not urgent, but when the pain first starts, I think you should go get it checked.