It happened to me. As a physical therapist I treat people daily for their aches and pains. Many of my patients think that we as PT’s never get hurt. That is the farthest thing from the truth.
About 3 months ago upon returning from a 5 hour car ride, I was unloading the baby gifts from our baby shower. Just as I brought in the last box of Pampers, I went to bend down and place the box on the side of the crib. What I could not see was a deflated balloon lying on the ground next to the crib. As I bend down my right foot slipped on the balloon sending my right foot into a “splits” position. Immediately I felt a sharp lower back pain that kept me hunched over for 10 minutes. All of the sudden I had to think of the advice I would give a patient of mine.
I asked my wife to get me an ice pack and I layed face down with the ice pack on my lower back for ten minutes. I followed that with some over the counter pain medication. I started icing my back 10 minutes every hour. I had to completely limit all activities.
The next day I took a warm shower and started stretching my gluts, quads and hamstrings. I would then follow that with ice for 10 minutes. I repeated this procedure for the next day and a half. By the 3rd day after the incident I was back at work at 70%. Even at work I continued to stretch and ice. At the end of the 5th day I had not pain and all of the tightness was gone. What could have set me out of work for more than a week, I was able to practice what I preached and returned to work on three days. That was a really great learning lesson.