Back pain - what the heck??

OMG yesterday morning I was having the worst back pain of my life, literally I was crying from the pain. I don't know what was going on. I actually hadn't eaten anything yet and the pain was giving me an upset stomach. Thank god I hadn't eaten or I would have vomited for sure. Anyway after putting on a heating pad and a strong pain killer it went away. I had something to eat around lunch and started to get an upset stomach and back pain again about 30 minutes after that. I took some advil and rested with the heating pad and all was well until about 30 minutes ago when my stomach started feeling upset and the back pain started. I'm heading for the pain killers and heating pad now but just wanted to quickly post. Anyone have anything like this before? I'm trying to determine where it is, about mid/lower back I think, it's hard to tell. I was worried about kidney stones or infection but it seems unlikely to hit both at once and it is definitely back pain, not flank pain which is more common with kidney issues. It seems more centralized than to one side or the other and I'm not having any other symptoms ie fever or problems with urination just the upset stomach.

I know you're a nurse and well informed about this so I'll keep it short. The nausea with the back pain makes me nervous enough that I think it is worth getting checked out fairly urgently. Do you still have your appendix or gallbladder? They can present atypically with referred pain. And then there are the kidneys, as you mentioned, or a blockage or intussusception, etc. Have you had any bowel movements? Think about going to an ER if you think it's severe enough, otherwise you could ask your doc for an ultrasound if you're still having pain on Monday.

I'm not a nurse, but I, too, thought this sounded like more than just back pain.  Definitely get it checked out.

Thanks. It's a little better with the heating pad and advil. Nausea is less, feeling somewhat bloated though. BMs have been regular so not worried about that. I had been doing a lot of training so I thought potentially it was related to that. The episodes don't seem to be related to anything. Just very strange and today wasn't as bad but I caught it sooner. I guess I'll see what tomorrow brings.

 Is it ok for us to be using Advil?  Isn't that an NSAID?

I have a VSG so yes it is okay for me to have advil. Feeling back to normal now. Very, very strange. Yes I still have my appendix and gallbladder. If I have another episode tomorrow I will call my family doctor first thing Monday.

Keep us updated if it happens again. Glad you're feeling better!

 This is so ironic. I am sitting in Emerg for almost the exact pain you described. My pain is upper/mid back in the middle, and so severe it woke me at 12am, then again excruciatingly at 3am. The pain was so intense that I felt I needed to vomit, but couldn't. I managed to consume half a Percocet, that I almost puked up. Around 5am the pain started to back off, by which time I had already arrived at the ER by ambulance. I've never felt pain like that, in that spot, ever before. I peed in a cup and I am waiting for bloodwork to come back. No fever, BP is good, and pain is almost completely gone. Sure would love to know what the hell this was all about. Crazy Severe Muscle spasm? Dunno, I just want to go home & back to bed...

Hey there. Hope that you are feeling better by now. Did you get any feedback on what it might have been? Would be very, very interested to hear what they said. It sounds very much what like I experienced. Yesterday I took advil as soon as I felt the pain starting (I can take advil because of VSG) and sat with the heating pad on my back and it was not nearly as bad as it had been on Friday. I was half hoping it was because I had started doing a lot of exercise the past 2 weeks and maybe I had pulled something but I suspect it is probably not that. Let me know how things work out. I'm hoping to get through the day without another attack.

 Yes, feeling better - but I don't have any answers for you yet. I got tired of waiting for bloodwork results that apparently only a doctor could tell me about. As usual, the ER waiting room started filling up and I starting getting fed up. I had no fever, normal BP and my pain had subsided. I chose to leave. They told me if they found something in my bloodwork, they would call me to come back to the hospital. Unfortunately, I don't trust that hospital in the least -- so I will call my family Doc tomorrow morning and ask him to review the bloodwork & see what he says. In the interim, I'm going to see how I feel. If the pain comes back, then I'm going to start to worry a bit. Where is a person's gallbladder? It can't send pain that dead centre upper middle back spot can it? 
At the moment I am more inclined to think it was an intense muscle spasm...because I really don't know what else to think...but I wasn't going to wait 5+ hours more to find out! The hospital ER wait times up here can be brutal. More than 30,000 people in this city don't have a family doctor so they go to clinic or Emerg. Last time we were here, 13hrs! We could've driven & received care in another city!