Clinical Case #9: Esther

Abstract

Esther is a 72-year-old mother of four children and grandmother of eight who presents with a 3-week history of right lower back pain. She says that she has had intermittent right-sided lower back pain for many years, but the pain has always been mild and it had not been bothering her at all for a few months until 3 weeks ago. Three weeks ago, the pain began after taking care of her 6-month-old granddaughter. Esther says that she was lifting her granddaughter a lot on that day and felt the pain in her right lower back but kept lifting her anyway. That night, the pain in the right lower back was “pretty bad” and in the morning she had trouble getting out of bed because of the pain.