Back pain - terrified

[anxlousmummy]

Hi, I understand no one can diagnose me here but I'm looking for a bit of advice and reassurance maybe? As I am convinced I have cancer or some horrible tumour that's going to kill me.

I am 20 years old and had a baby via C-section 20 months ago.

I've been having issues with my upper left back for a while now , it's always sore . I feel it most when I look down. It's around the bra strap area.

Last month I had an episode of a severe pain that came across my whole back it was agonising and lasted about 2 minutes it absolutely terrified me, it was so sore I couldn't move.

A couple of days ago I woke up with buttock and hamstring pain I had felt like I had done a workout the day before but I definitely didn't do anything that would have caused this pain. The day after I took the exact same back episode as the above and it was horrible , I took the episode whilst holding my baby. It was horrible pain for about 15 minutes and then eased but my back was sore for the rest of the day. I can only describe this episode as a back spasm. It's a pain that comes over my whole back and makes me freeze

I also experience tingling in the upper back which absolutely terrifies me and I've read this is a red flag when it comes to back pain?

I'm overweight and I have bad posture so that probably doesn't help. However I am really scared and I will ring the gp first thing tomorrow morning

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Oh lovely, don’t panic. I think it’s hugely unlikely to be a tumour, and more likely to be down to the way you hold/carry your baby . Lots of mothers suffer pains and/or injury due to this.
I hope the GP can reassure you.

I got sciatica when my children were around 18 months old. It was from carrying the child on one side, up and down stairs for example.

The doctors will probably advise some physio stretches, you may get anti-inflamitory pills. I wouldn't suggest it's anything serious, but may be a trigger for you to look at things like posture and core strength.

Sounds like sciatica, which is nerve pain - it hurts like hell but is very fixable.

Do you have a workplace health scheme you can access? They were brilliant for to to refer to a specialist physio who gave me a full assessment, some exercises and follow up appointments to check I was improving.

The NHS gp doctor I went to first gave some generic advice and a print out of exercises, but these weren't specific to the problem I had (so it wasn't wrong advice, but just not great).

Honestly, it's so common to get these issues especially when the baby gets bigger and still needs lifting out of cots, can absolutely wreck your back, but it can heal :)

You've got poor posture, probably a pretty rubbish bed/mattress and like most people, probably spend a lot of time pushing your head forward and rounding your shoulders over to look at your phone/laptop when not bending over to pick your baby up, rather than using your legs to power your 'up' and 'down' - if you are also using a buggy a lot, many of those are too short to keep your back in a healthy position as well.

Back pain is horrible. It is incredibly rare for it to be anything serious.

Lower down sounds like sciatica and upper one sounds like a muscle spasm, both from unintentionally mistreating your back! I've had both. Do check with your GP though in case there is some treatment available to ease it.