back pain

[animallover12]

Hey guys, I have posted in this forum a few times and always gotten positive, helpful feed back so I wanted to post here as well as the neck and back forum. On Tuesday morning I woke up with bad back pain that ran from the top of my right shoulder all the way down to the back of my tigh. I went to a little emergency center here. The doctor said it seem to be my muscle due to the location where the pain is and said it could just be pulled. they ended up giving me a shot and some medicine. They said if I wasn't feeling better by Friday (tomorrow) then they wanted me to call them so they can do an MRI to see if it is something more than a pulled muscle. I honestly thought it was just a really bad pulled muscle but since it is now Thursday and I am still hurting pretty bad, I am starting to be concerned it is more than that. Last night when I got in bed, I was sitting on the bed and kind of turned to the side and my back made a loud pop and was really painful. If it is something more than a pulled muscle, what else could it be? I have ran a low grade fever with the muscle pain, have had nausea, and tingling in my arms and legs from the pain. As far as what I am doing for the pain.. I am taking percocet 5mg every 4-6 hours, taking flexeril for the actual muscle pain, taking phenergen for the nausea and also using a heating pad. Thanks in advance for the feedback!

[animallover12]

Thank you for the replies. I went back to the doctor after making this post and my MRI is set up for the beginning of the week (Tuesday). The doctor seems to think it is either nerve problem or even a ruptured disc. I don't know much about disc problems or anything to do with back problems. I do have fibrmyalgia and thought it might have something to do with it but with the pain still there, I think I must have done something. I don't remember doing anything and immediately thinking "I just hurt my back" but might have done something and took a bit for it to start causing trouble. I will make sure to let you know what my MRI shows and what is planned to help the problem once I know. Thank you all again and have a wonderful weekend!


I do want to add that when I went back to the doctor, he did a urine test to check for kidney/bladder infection that came back negative and did an xray of my back that he said didnt show anything "concerning". So, he did rule out a few things but of course, since they did get ruled out.. we are going forward with the MRI for that reason.

[Narble]

By this point you've probably had the MRI your doctor was suggesting. I hope it doesn't show anything "remarkable," but even if it does, MRI findings do not necessarily correlate well with clinical findings. In other words, an MRI may show some "degenerative disc changes" but the person may feel fine. Or the opposite may happen.

Radiculopathy may be involved in your case. An impinged nerve or similar situation can cause pain that radiates out from the site of injury/insult, creating feelings of tingling, numbness, or pain, weakness, or other odd sensations and discomfort that are hard to describe. These feelings can cause nausea, as can many meds.

Fortunately, most such problems can be treated with anti-inflammatory meds, physical therapy, or similar conservative measures. I hope you find relief quickly.

[mellie4]

Sounds like you need to get that MRI!!!  It could still be a badly pulled muscle.  If there's inflammation, it could certainly cause pain that's extending down from your shoulder.  The fact that it's in your leg could mean there's something impinging on the nerve.  You could have a disk problem in your neck.  An MRI should give you an answer.

Do you remember doing anything to cause this?  Even something seemingly minor?  Or did you just wake up with it?  The fever may or may not be related.  I hope you call about this today.  This isn't something you should really wait on.  If there is some type of herniation in a disk, you need to get some medical advice.  I hope you can get in for the MRI quickly.  That way you'll know what's going on.

Are the medications working for you at all?  You may need something for inflammation as well as something for the pain.