I went to the doctor last Friday after my back had been hurting for about a month with what I initially though was a pulled muscle. It is not the spine, but just above my waist and half way over to the right side. Standing straight or walking makes it worse. Sitting helps, a good excuse to waste more timeonthe computer. I had been doing work in awkward positions, see https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/electr...B%26gt%3Bhouse

Unlike the many pulled muscles I have had in the past, it seemed to be getting worse, not better. I was disappointed he only gave me some pain pills and told me to come back in a couple of weeks for a complete physical. I will be 64 by then and haven't had one in years. He has me on 40 mg of Prednisone and 750 mg Naproxen a day. It didn't make much difference until yesterday and continues to be better today. My question is does that mean my back is getting better, or are the dosages such that the drugs are building up faster than I should be metabolizing them?

What the prednisone does, it's a corticosteroid, is to relieve any inflammation that is in your back, so it's helping in that manner. Naproxen (Naprosen) is a NSAID 9non-steroidal anti-inflammatory). These two drugs work very well together to reduce inflammation and, particularly the Naproxen, relieve pain.

The dosages are good, I don't know how much you weigh, but that seems to be a common dosage.

Most likely you are feeling better because the inflammation of the muscle is reduced.

It most likely means they are only covering up the pain and if and when they wear off you most probably will have the pain. So don't over do it or you could hurt yourself worse and not even realize it. It might be good to find a chiropractor that is into holistic and/or alternative meds. It could be your kidney or anything.
This is the type of doc (in my area)
Drjameswinerindex