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Your Doctor Immediately If

• The pain increases when you cough or bend forward at the waist; this may be the sign of a herniated disk. Immediately after the onset of pain, lie flat with a pillow under your knees.

• The pain follows an injury and is accompanied by sudden loss of bladder or bowel control, if you have difficulty moving any limb, or if you feel numbness, pain, or tingling in a limb, do not move, but call for medical help immediately. You may have hurt your spinal cord.

• Back pain is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, fever, muscle weakness, pain down an arm or leg, or bowel or bladder disturbances, or if pain is unrelieved by 2-3 days of rest.

• Pain lasts longer than seventy-two hours, if the pain radiates into the legs, or if other symptoms such as unexplained weight loss occur, consult your health care provider.

• You have pain in one side of the small of your back, feel sick, and have a fever, see your physician immediately. You may have a kidney infection.

• The pain in your back extends downward along the back of the leg; you may be suffering from sciatica.

• The pain is accompanied by fever; you may have a bacterial infection.

• You have dull pain in one area of your spine when lying in or getting out of bed, especially if you are over 50; you may be suffering from osteoarthritis.

• Intense pain makes movement impossible. A tumor could be putting pressure on the spinal column and causing pain.

• Pain is felt in both thighs when walking. This can be a symptom of spinal stenosis, the formation of bony growths on the vertebrae that cause the lower spinal canal to narrow.

• Acute back pain is accompanied by changes in bowel or bladder habits.

• Pain is worse at night, and there is a history of cancer in your family.

• You feel numbness or weakness in your legs or feet.

• Pain is making you feel anxious or depressed.