What's wrong with my back?

May 8, 2007 11:48 PM

What is wrong with my back? It hurts MUCH during the night, gets better during the day. Yes I will see a doctor.

The pains started last Thursday. It woke me up at 5AM and was quite severe, but I could fall asleep two hours later. This went on for a few days and I initially thought I just needed a new mattress or better posture. Saturday I slept at a different place but the pain was still there. From Monday on, the pain did not go away entirely during the day and was much worse during the night. Last night (it is Wednesday morning now where I live) I could not sleep from the pain at all until 6.30 AM. I could not find a comfortable position and laying down seemed worse than walking around. The pain feels "internal", It is uncomfortable when I press somewhere in my right side (even now when most of the pain is gone). It feels a bit like labor pains. The pain is in my middle back. It started right after my period ended. I took ibuprofen and paracetamol (tylenol) and that did not work at all - I did not notice any effects.

I just called a doctor but nobody can see me before tomorrow. I feel quite okay now (It is 8.40 now) but am not looking forward to tonight. Any educated guesses on what's wrong with me and what to do about it until I can see a doctor would be very welcome.

posted by davar to health & fitness (13 comments total)

Perforated duodenal ulcer? Pancreatitis? Slipped disc? Muscle spasm? Gas? Endometriosis? Peritonitis? Infectious disc abscess?

There's not enough information here to give an answer to your question. If it were, I would practice medicine from the comfort of my armchair instead of in a hospital that stinks of disinfectant.

You'll get plenty of answers - pick and choose the one that confirms your own suspicion, that seems to be the AskMe way - but bear in mind it's more probably wrong than right.

Now, on to what to do about it. Well, if it's a slipped disc, take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Of course, if it's an ulcer, these medicines will worsen the bleeding and may even cause a catastrophic perforation. Or if it's muscle spasm, have a drink or two - Nature's best muscle relaxant. Of course, in the case of pancreatitis those drinks could pretty much ruin that organ, causing it to develop a pancreatic pseudocyst requiring weeks of surgical drainage, while you hang around the hospital ward, tethered to an intravenous bag dripping nasty milky stuff into your vein while you go on a 6-week fast.

In other words, see a doctor so you can have some kind of reasonable assurance that you will get better, not worse. Nobody here can help you.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:04 AM on May 9, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

It could be a gall stone or kidney stone. It could be a kidney problem, or appendicitis. Are you jaundiced as well?

Ibuprofen will get you through until you get to a doctor—I find it much better for aches and pains than other painkillers.

If the pain gets severe (with a kidney stone it can be very bad), get yourself to your nearest ER department. If it's appendicitis, you're running the risk of blood poisoning.

Drink lots of water. This will ease a gall stone, if that's your problem.
posted by humblepigeon at 2:43 AM on May 9, 2007

If you think it's a gall stone, avoid eating fatty foods. That'll make it worse.

If it's a stomach ulcer, Ibuprofen might be painful and you might find the only painkiller you can take is paracetamol. But if it were an ulcer I think you'd probably know about it by now.
posted by humblepigeon at 2:46 AM on May 9, 2007

Thanks. I know I should see a doctor that's why I put my alarm clock at 8AM so that I could call one first thing in the morning, even though I was finally asleep by then.
The pain gets severe, but I can still walk around somewhat, I am not collapsing from the pain. What I find so strange is that it goes away (pretty much at least) during the day. If it were gallstones or something like that it would not do that, right? I don't notice any jaundice. I am an otherwise healthy 135 pound 29 year old woman, if that matters anything.
Ibuprofen (I took 800mg) did not do anything (I thought that was strange since everybody I know with back pains swears by it). Any ideas on how to deal with the pain (if it comes back - I am still hopeful it stays the way it is now) until I can see a doctor?
posted by davar at 4:03 AM on May 9, 2007

What I find so strange is that it goes away (pretty much at least) during the day. If it were gallstones or something like that it would not do that, right?

I've got a gallstone and the discomfort comes and goes whenever it feels like it. Mine isn't too severe, though, which is why it's still inside me!

Eating fatty food like chocolate or cheese will definitely trigger it, as will an empty stomach. Drinking water definitely helps. You might have to force a glass or two down.
posted by humblepigeon at 4:42 AM on May 9, 2007

Thanks humblepigeon. Avoiding fatty foods certainly won't hurt for now, so I'll do that and see if drinking water helps. I hope your gallstone pains will soon be gone.
posted by davar at 5:22 AM on May 9, 2007

Just don't mess around with pain that wakes you up in the night and make sure you keep pressure on your doctor to find out exactly what it is.

To underscore, I know someone who woke up in the middle of the night with back pain; she went to her doctor, he told her it was muscular. The pain persisted. Her friend, a nurse, told her to insist on an ultrasound. She did. She went to see a surgeon -- it looked like an aortic aneurysm. They operated that day. It was an enlarged lymph node wrapped around her aorta. She had non-hodgkins lymphoma. She lived for four more years with chemotherapy. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't caught it when they did -- if she hadn't heeded the advice of her friend?

I know this sounds extreme, but it did happen. You probably don't have anything so serious going on BUT get in there and get it looked at and don't stop until you don't have pain anymore.
posted by nnk at 5:37 AM on May 9, 2007

I was having bad back pains that went through my body and felt like it could have been stomach pain. If I slept more than six hours it would force me awake and upright until it stopped. Being a doctor-putter-offer I let it go on for most of a year.
The final diagnosis was gastric reflux and after a few courses of OTC antacid (prilosec I think) It stays away for the most part. If your doctor hasn't sorted this out for you yet, antacid seems like a safe experiment. (IANAD and have been accused of terrible medical theories.)
posted by InkaLomax at 6:10 AM on May 9, 2007

FWIW the sensation of pain piercing from front to back and the increased incidence at night are both symptoms of gallbladder disease. You would probably only be jaundiced if you had a stone stuck in the biliary duct which then caused pancreatitis. In which case the pain would probably get you to the doctor before the jaundice would. Having stuck stones or passing stones is excruciating, barf-inducing, freaking-out-the-other-people-in-the-waiting-room pain. On the plus side, morphine rules.

Based on what you said I don't really think it's your gallbladder. There are a lot of organs in that general area and abdominal pain does not necessarily feel it's coming from where the actual problem is. When I had a bum gallbladder the pain always felt directly in the centre of my solar plexus but the 'bladder is actually off to the right. Have you tried sleeping propped up somewhat or sitting up? If it was acid reflux, that might reduce the phenomenon.

(Also FWIW I got my gallbladder removed as a 29-year-old female. It took me a year of attacks and a dozen trips to the ER to get it diagnosed though!)
posted by loiseau at 7:02 AM on May 9, 2007

Well, this night the pain stayed almost away, so I guess that is good. I now have brown spots on my hands and wonder if that's related...

Ikkyu2: you seem to feel almost offended at the suggestion that with the amount of information I provided anyone could suggest anything useful. My previous doctor however, did have phone consults in which she often could pinpoint what was wrong over the phone ("a red diaper rash that won't go away? Probably a yeast infection, just buy some otc ointment and come back if it doesn't help") or e-mail. I thought I gave a reasonable amount of information. The nurse that did the triage for my doctor's office only asked "when did the pain start" to conclude that I could survive another day on pain killers (any pain killers).

I wish I knew my body well enough to be able to pinpoint the pain myself. I feel like I should be able to feel whether the pain is in my liver or gall bladder or elsewhere.

I'll wait and see what the doctor suggests this afternoon.
posted by davar at 1:22 AM on May 10, 2007

Update: I did not get to see a doctor. The nurse thought it could be a bladder infection (even though I don't notice anything unusual about my pee). She advised to wait and see if it gets worse, at which point they could check my urine.
I am glad the pain has lessened so much, but I wish I knew what happened since I really was in a lot of pain.
posted by davar at 8:12 AM on May 10, 2007

Not offended, friend. Often I see things on here that are simple and admit of only one explanation. An example was the recent question that described a case of hemifacial spasm.

(Of course, my correct answer was drowned in a bunch of ignorance; the poster later stated her delight in learning that she had "ptosis" as a symptom of possible "myasthenia gravis," both of which are manifestly incorrect if her description was accurate).

Your case isn't simple and doesn't admit of only one explanation. You gave as much information as you could; proper diagnosis in your case requires things that can't be obtained from you online. That was the point I was trying to make, because I thought it'd be useful to you.
posted by ikkyu2 at 3:57 PM on May 10, 2007

Thanks ikkyu2. I do appreciate your advice. I just thought that my question fell in the "simple question" category, just like the eye question you mentioned, but apparently it didn't.
I wish I had a tricorder that just told me what was wrong.
posted by davar at 6:43 AM on May 11, 2007