Back pain as the main post-surgery pain? Anyone else?

Has anyone else's post-surgical pain manifested as back pain?

I have hardly ever had trouble with back pain.  

However, since surgery, I have had a lot of mid-back pain, sometimes severe and long-lasting.  In fact, I remember that as my anesthesia wore off, before I had my pain pump, I could hardly tolerate the back pain. What I felt in my mid and front abdomen was bearable.  In my woozy state, I kept asking my husband to help me, to get me pillows behind my back, saying, they must have done something to my back surfing surgery.  I kept sitting up, then lying down, seeking pain relief in my back.  

Since then, even in the hospital, I have become pretty convinced that this is how my surgical pain is expressing itself. If I overdo one day, I get the back pain..  If I rest, it tends to ease up.  It can be really awful, even 8 days out now.

Any others with this experience? Thoughts?

Kidney Stones presented themselves to me as back pain. They are very common with RNY, however I had my episode prior to surgery. The pain would come and go over a few years time. I never thought anything of it since back issues are common in my family. They discovered the stones during the many preop appointments. It might be worth checking out. 

Yaargh.  I hope it's not that!  But I will def ask about that at my follow up.  Thanks for the advice!

I have terrible back pain after laying bed for about 6 hours. I always wake up a few hours before my alarm and move to the couch to sleep the rest of the two hours. It's uncanny, but it's like an internal clock. I have never had those issues before surgery. I don't want to take a second dose of pain meds, as I am back at work now. I am a little under one month post surgery.

Maybe you and I are both experiencing what JenniPenni describes below.  Let's hope we both get better soon.

A lot of patients have back pain after surgery. It's the hard, metal surgical table and the pressure put on our mid section when they do the actual surgery. For many of us (me included) our butts are big and laying on a table on our back puts the small of our back and tailbone area at a painful angle. Most post ops have back pain after surgery -my dog said it was the metal table, being strapped to it  for the duration of surgery and the muscles put in an unnatural position while under anesthesia. IT does go away, heat and light stretching will make it feel better.

Jen RNY 2001

This Was very reassuring.  Thanks for that, and for the advice for finding relief.  

makes sense JenniPenny.  I wonder why they couldn't put a sterile, warm pack of towels under that part of the back during surgery to help alleviate this?

it could also be gallbladder,if you still have it.

Well, I do still have it.  Can gallbladder problems develop that quickly after surgery?  I had an ultrasound the week before surgery, and all looked very good for the gallbladder, so they left it in.  I guess that is another good thing to ask at the follow up. Thanks!