15 weeks pregnant and extreme lower back pain

[Erber]

Just as the title says I'm exactly 15 weeks pregnant with extreme lower back pain. This is my 3rd pregnancy but I've never experienced this before. I was fine yesterday, worked all day and started to feel a little sore around 4.30 but didn't think much of it. I finished at 5, my partner came to pick me up. The drive home is around 30 mins and by the time I got home I was in a lot of pain and couldn't lift my legs to get out of the car. I eventually managed my lifting my legs very slowly a little at a time while slowly turning my body at the same time. I've been in extreme pain since then. I can't move my legs much, either side to sit or forwards or backwards and can barely lift my legs at all, so I basically have to shuffle forward and take tiny baby steps to get anywhere. I can't turn at all, if I want to I basically need to slowly walk in a circle. I can't move my arms too far from my body or cross them over at all. I can't turn my head very far in any direction. Coughing and sneezing are absolute agony and there's nothing I can do about it. When standing I can't stand straight or lean back at all, I have to stand almost straight but slightly tipped forward. I'm still in pain constantly but it's not complete agony. Being pregnant the only thing I know I can safely take is paracetamol, which I have been taking since it started but it makes literally no difference at all. I sent my OH to the pharmacy earlier while I was at work hoping they could recommend something better for me but they won't because I'm pregnant. Their advice was to contact mw or doctor.

I've only just returned to work on yesterday after being off with a vomiting bug at the tail end of last week.so I'm very reluctant to take time off work. We haven't announced it yet and the only person at work that knows is my line manager and she's off on annual leave this week. I was in training all.day yesterday and didn't do any lifting or physical work at all.so I've no idea what hascaused this. But I can barely move. It takes me 5-10 mins to stand up or sit down, and it took about 15 mins to try and get from sitting to lying down last night. I has around 3 hours sleep because I was in so much pain. It took me 3 attempts to get up off the toilet and I had to take a break in between. I can't dress or undress my lower half, can barely wipe my bum and I can't take a bath or shower because I can't get my legs over the side to get in. Sometimes when I sit down the pain travels down the top of my thighs but doesn't go right down my legs. I can't sit for too long because my back and top of my legs get really stiff so I need to keep getting up and moving around, though it doesn't help, it's just a different kind of pain.

I really don't know what to do about it. It doesn't seem serious enough to warrant calling triage or 111, but my Dr's are useless and I won't be able to get the midwife until 9am tomorrow at the very earliest. I will definitely need to wash tomorrow and I've no idea how I'm going to do it!

It sounds a lot like what I had when pregnant. I had to have a month off work because even if I could have been dropped at the front door of the building I couldn’t walk from there to my desk (4 minutes, no stairs). Is it particularly impossible to stand on one foot, e.g. to put pants on, or to lie flat on your back?
The only thing that helped quickly-ish was the cat-cow stretch. You could give that a go — you’ll probably feel immediately whether it’s something you can do or not.
I didn’t find that any painkiller helped. It was hormonal and disappeared immediately after birth.

Yes I absolutely can't bear weight on just 1 foot at all, I need to be balanced quite evenly. I absolutely cant dress or undress anything on my lower half, oh had to do that for me! Lying flat on my back is actually okay, probably the most comfortable position I can be in at the moment. I do get sore but if I alternate between straight legs and bent it's manageable. I will look into the cat-cow stretch!

You poor thing. Sounds like you have PGP/SPD. NHS have an information page on it, sorry I can't seem to do a link on my phone.

It is absolute agony but try and get a referral to physio or visit a chiropracter who specialises in this condition. It really helped me.

I ended up having to take the rest of the week off work as I can barely move. I called the midwife on Wednesday morning who said because I'm only 15 weeks she didn't think it was pregnancy related and to contact gp. Surprisingly managed to get an appointment for 9.30 am. Gp had a prod and said she also didn't think it was pregnancy related and prescribed me some co-codamol. She told me to rest, but to try and move every half hour or so so that I wasn't immobile. The co-codamol doesn't help much with the pain but definitely makes me feel more relaxed. I also self-referred to the antenatal physio at my local hospital although I'm not sure if they'll do anything as everyone keeps saying itsnot pregnancy related. I have a telephone appointment with them on the 26th.

Yesterday I slept most of the day. I think it might be the painkillers so I didn't take any more after 12. I ended up caving in and taking them around 8pm as it was too much. I'm still no better today. It also worries me I haven't been for #2 since this started on Monday night. Yesterday I had a lot of pressure feeling so I thought it might be coming but by the time I get to the toilet (which takes a while) all sensation is gone.

My OH has had all week off but is back at work tomorrow. He is a chef and works long hours. I'm on annual leave next week and it's the school holidays and the thought of being stuck alone for the next 9 days with an 8 and 4 year old fills me with dread.