Random question...

[moominmuppet]

(which I'll also ask my doctor next month when I see her)

Does anyone have experience with back pain that starts in the lower back, and spreads all the way around the abdomen, such that one feels nauseated as well, and climbs up the spine to wrap around the lower ribs, making breathing somewhat painful also? Some positions are more uncomfortable than others, but no position seems to alleviate the pain, so when it happens at night (which is when it most commonly does), it makes it almost impossible to sleep.

It's very sucky and very weird, and I have no idea what the hell is going on. It's happened every so often in the past year or two, I don't recall it happening previous to that.

Comments

[minniethemoocha.livejournal.com]

Could it be gas or IBS?

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I have IBS, but this doesn't seem tied to any of the noticeable symptoms. Today, for example, I'm having none. But yeah, I've been wondering whether it's actually back pain, or perhaps actually some other sort of pain that's feeling like back pain. At least once it caused me to throw up (and that happens to me only once every few years to begin with), which made me wonder if it was GI-related.

[minniethemoocha.livejournal.com]

When's the last time you got checked for ovarian problems? Sometimes bloating and pain can be a sign of repro trouble.

I have actually been thinking about some of my own recent symptoms and thinking about getting the blood test that is extra good at detecting ovarian cancer... we don't have it in our family, really, but there are more carcinogens around these days.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Ah, true, and that tends to be misdiagnosed and caught late, too (I lost a friend in college to ovarian cancer). I've also got an appt with my gyn coming up in May; I'll talk to her about that if we haven't figured out anything else conclusive before then.

[malaechi.livejournal.com]

I have something similar, but it is muscular.. my psoas muscle tightens because of my weight and it causes other hip muscles to get all angry at me...

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to think this is something other than muscular, since I've tried up to 30mgs of flexeril without appreciable relief in the past. It's so damned weird -- very different from the other types of pain I'm used to.

[chandara.livejournal.com]

Could be gallbladder. When I had gallbladder attacks I couldn't sit up, couldn't lay down, no position was comfortable. When it first happened I thought it was a number of different things... I thought my back was out, then I thought it was food poisoning, indigestion, gas...

You might want to mention it to your internist.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks; I definitely plan to. Sounds like you went through about the same list of guesses I've been going through.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

I sometimes get that from coughing too much or coughing mixed with vomiting. Like when I have a really bad cold and my sinuses have made me hoark profusely. Unlike now when I have a mild cold and have only vomited a couple of times from it.

The combination of back, stomach and everything pain will make it hard to breathe more than shallowly and nauseate me. Then I get all panicky because not being able to breathe without it hurting when you already can't breathe from your lungs being all mucky is a little too like suffocating.

But that's a really weirdly specific combination of unpleasancies to come up with what sounds like might be a unified one in you.

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Sort of. But when I have had it it started more in the small of my back than really low. It isn't fun. Makes sitting, lying down, standing, and breathing all not fun. I just assumed it was the fibro and never asked.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of the small of my back as my lower back, so I think maybe we're talking even more similarity than you think...

What I find particularly weird and inexplicable about it is that it doesn't seem all that correlated with otherwise severe-fibro days (I'm almost completely non-achey today, except this one hellish bit that's eating my torso, for example), and it's much rarer than most of my other fibro symptoms. So weird.

If I find out from the docs, I'll definitely post about it, though.

It's starting to fade now. It started this morning around 4am or so, with a buildup to real severity around 8am. I took meds then, but I don't really suspect that the meds have all that much to do with the alleviation of symptoms now, since they should be almost all the way through my system by now, not just starting to have an effect.

Most of my other bouts with it have been in the 6-10 hour range, too, from what I recall.

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Sounds very similar to my experience. My back curvature isn't quite normal per my chiropractor so maybe the small of my back is higher than average?

[eris-esoteric.livejournal.com]

I have that exact same thing, very sporadic, and it's very specific variety of pain that starts at this particular spot in the small of my back. Then it spreads slow, ending a few hours later in that tight, nauseated feeling that absolutely nothing gets rid of. I had also assumed it was just the fibro (being a typical, unexplainable painy kind of thing) and hadn't ever bothered to ask about it.

Maybe we should all ask. I'm so glad you talk about this kind of stuff, so many of us just don't unless it's to the doctor, and then there's so much that sometimes I forget stuff like that, that could be important but I wouldn't know the difference.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you talk about this kind of stuff, so many of us just don't unless it's to the doctor, and then there's so much that sometimes I forget stuff like that, that could be important but I wouldn't know the difference.

I have to say, it's definitely reassuring to know I'm not the only one who's getting this (although in that rueful "I wouldn't wish it on anyone" kind of way)!

Now to find a way to make it go the fuck away! (and I promise I will be sharing anything the docs say about that)

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

I haven't asked because most of my doctors just get exasperated by everything I already bring to them. Makes me reluctant to talk about the issues I find less pressing. But if you ask please let me know what answer you get.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Part of my interest in becoming an NP is that they generally do get more face-time with patients, and much more opportunity to do patient-education and such (this is largely a result of them having lower salaries than MDs).

[zeldajean.livejournal.com]

i've had that happen. i dont knwo what causes it, but long hot steamy showers will help loosen it up so i can start stretching in the shower and eventually it goes away.

but yeah, NOT FUN.