I injured my back on Wednesday afternoon, picking up a tennis ball from the ground too quickly. This is some notes about the experience.

Immediately after the event, I knew I’d done something, and it hurt when I moved sharply. I did some cobras on the grass to try to stretch it a bit, and it didn’t hurt that much.

When I went to bed that night, I couldn’t rest on my back as I normally do. I woke up after a few hours, and couldn’t get back to sleep in any pose due to the pain. Eventually I had some Naproxen and tried to sleep on my side, slightly curled up with my legs towards my chest. The Naproxen did nothing for the pain, and I woke up after a couple of hours (systematically, every two hours: 4:00, 6:00, then I gave up and stopped trying to sleep).

The next morning I really struggled to get past the pain to get out of bed. I rolled onto my side, and managed to get my elbow underneath me to prop myself up to get off the bed, though I couldn’t stand up straight. I managed to get over to my chair, my hands on my knees for extra support, but I couldn’t sit up straight. I could kind of sit, but I wanted to hunch over to lessen the pain. I spent some time going between the chair and my bed, trying to avoid the pain. I got dressed, as well.

By 8:00, my parents were awake, and I begged for assistance. Mum found me some ibuprofen, but told me to eat something first. Dad told me to lie on my stomach, and it took me a while to get down (moving onto my elbows and knees, then kicking out my leg to the side, supporting myself on my knee sideways, then centering my other leg and lowering myself down). After that, I got a massage of sorts – unlike the one I had at the physio later where each vertebrae was repeatedly pressed, this one seemed to just press hard either on or between the vertebrae. Something clicked, and my posture vastly improved, and I could know stand (and sit) all the way up. I also found that by standing with my tailbone on the wall, my back would naturally rotate to be up straight, and from there I could raise my hands above my head to straighten myself, tense my chest muscles, and move on from there.

I had some toast and ibuprofen, which was a great help. I took two pills, then another two at 12, then another two at 6, and then no more because I was concerned about overdosing. I also took some paracetamol. I was working at my desk for most of the day: the chair only provided enough support to hold my back up without pain if I pushed myself off the surface slightly, which was a no-go. I managed to sleep that night on my side, using the posture from the first night.

The second day was a lot better – analogous to the amount of pain while on painkillers the first day without using any. I had a physio appointment, wherein we essentially confirmed it as a sports injury, and I was given some tips (stand up every half-hour, do baby cobras every hour) to help avoid back pain in a sedentary job. I took some more ibuprofen because I figured the anti-inflammatory might have really helped the first day. I had no issue sleeping that night.

The third day was slightly worse, though not significantly. I took it the same as the previous.

The fourth day I was essentially better! I could still feel the pain occasionally, but I could walk loosely, like usual, instead of the staggering shuffle I adopted the previous days.