Agony!!!

[Pukenna]

I have had a painful right side mid back for a couple of weeks which I'm 99% sure is down to constant bending and twisting when picking up my three month old. Hurt but wasn't unbearable or anything, mostly just ignored it. Anyway yesterday I bent down in the shower and it went into spasm and was agony - radiating into my stomach like I'd been winded. Went to the GP who was worried about kidneys but we concluded it was muscular as the pain correlates with movement, I had no tenderness of the stomach (only of the trigger point on the back), and no urinary symptoms and urine sample was clear. If you google there's a load of stuff about gallstones but I don't think it's that as again it only hurts when I move and there's no correlation with food (and the pain is really only in my back, I only feel it in my tummy when I move).

I can't take ibuprofen as it irritates my stomach and I can't take codeine as breastfeeding my baby. Anything else I can take? Or can anyone recommend any stretches I can do? Co sleeping with the baby really doesn't help. I feel broken!

Hot water bottle or heat patches can help with muscular pain.

Hard to recommend exercises unless know the area that impacted (not always where it hurts). Have a look for good physios (ones with post-natal training might be the best) and they can try and locate the issue and give you exercises to help.

Gallstone pain is normally just under the ribs right hand side where the gallbladder is situated (been there done that) the pain was so bad, I pulled up fitted carpet laying on the floor! I bent down to empty the dishwasher, twisted slightly and it was like you describe,if I stood bolt upright I was ok,bend down slightly and ouch!! Heat for muscle, assuming it is that, you say no sign of UTI or kidney problems,lay in hot bath,hot water bottle on the area. I can't take painkillers either because of stomach issues. If it gets unbearable I do have an osteopath I have been using for many years. Sitting around tends to make muscle problems worse....yeah, I know,you don't have time to sit around with a baby and a 3 year old! Good luck.

I've no pain under the rib so i assume not gallstones!

God i hear you - i have a dodgy back. Four 'back to back' labours and births ruined an already weak back. (Falling off a horse and breaking my coccyx mid 30s when eldest 3 were little didn't help.)

I used to get lower back pain in my 30s and my back 'went' a couple of times. I did the good old shuffle about unable to stand up straight ect ect.

Then i started daily yoga and my back strengthened.

All good till recently.

BUT - and i'm getting to the point - about a year ago my back 'went' as i twisted to the left on the sofa to pick up a cup of tea (!?) quite high up on the right like yours OP. I actually felt it ''POP''. Ugh.

Moving my arms hurt and breathing deeply hurt. I had to lay flat in bed (no pillow) to get any relief, and even then i had to go through a convaluted set of movements to get up! I couldn't drop my head down as it hurt my back.

I literally had to keep on the move to get any relief - sitting down, to watch tv or anything, had to be on a dinning room chair bolt upright looking straight ahead of me 🤔

It took 3 months to get better!!

I found tablets didn't really give any relief to be honest. It was all about keeping my back safe and not sitting or laying curled up.

Sorry this turned into a massive post - but Good luck OP I hope it gets better soon x

You say ibuprofen irritates your stomach, but have you considered topical ibuprofen gel? It's absolutely brlliant for muscular pain and reducing inflammation - I've done my back back in a few times so I speak from experience.

Why not see an osteopath? Particularly as the baby is going to get heavier and you've still got quite a bit of carrying ahead of you.

I have the same problem with ibuprofen, but had to take it recently after I dislocated my shoulder. Buy some esomeprazole (brand name Nexium, but you can get a generic one cheaper) and take one every morning. It buffers the stomach.

I find Voltaren much more effective for back pain than ibuprofen, would your stomach handle that?

I actually fractured my coccyx giving birth to my youngest DS, I kept telling the midwife I was in absolute agony, kept being told it was after pains,he was my third, I knew it wasn't normal. Then I had an x-ray. He was born in 1983, I think it was the following year, very heavy snow, working in the ED which was "cas" in those days,so many people falling over, backwards coccyx, forwards, scaphoid. Another nurse recommended this osteopath, and now the son and grandson have qualified.