Unexplained Body Pain: PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[NJBob77]

Hi All,
I am a 31 year old male. About six months ago I was in the grocery store and I lifted a case of bottled water into the cart. As I turned doing this I felt a pop in my lower back, left side area. From that day on I have had pain. I was typically able to get through the weeks fine as I sit at my desk at work all day and don't do a lot. The weekends were rough, if I was on my feet more then a half hour tops it felt like all my body wieght was crushing on my lower back. Sometimes drifting over to the right side with with a sharper pain. This went on for months. I went to see an Orthopedic and he suspected a muscle that just wasn't healing OR perhaps a slipped disc. He gave me a Rx for some steroids. I had horrible side affects from them many years ago and I was not pleased about taking them but as my girlfriend and I were headed to Disney World I knew I needed to do something to survive. I took the first dose of 60 mg's and that was all. It wigged me out so bad I decided to stop and deal with the pain. I actually found walking in Fl. helped a bit. The pain continued in this basic form till about two weeks ago. Suddenly every muscle in my body is hurting...my arms and legs are killing me, my hands feel stiff and hurt. My feet especially on the bottom of them hurt terribly. All through my back and neck, I have headaches, warm burning sendations all over. A pain in the back of my right leg almost like I am about to get a bad charlie horse and then it fades. The only thing I did differently was help my father move some fairly light furniture two weeks ago. Perhaps if I have a slipped disc or some other issue I made it worse? I am not sure if it can affect my entire body like this. I am living on Alieve which I don't like to take but have no other choice the pain is so bad. I am going back to the doctor next week. My girlfriend is worried and is convinced I have some horrible disease like ALS... I assured her I don't becuase from what I can tell it wouldn't hit like this and I think the main symptom of that is cramping NOT aching... though I do have some random muscle twitches but nothing major. I also don't seem to have any muscle loss or weakness just the pain. I am at my wits end on this though... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Bob

[NJBob77]

Hi All,
I am a 31 year old male. About six months ago I was in the grocery store and I lifted a case of bottled water into the cart. As I turned doing this I felt a pop in my lower back, left side area. From that day on I have had pain. I was typically able to get through the weeks fine as I sit at my desk at work all day and don't do a lot. The weekends were rough, if I was on my feet more then a half hour tops it felt like all my body wieght was crushing on my lower back. Sometimes drifting over to the right side with with a sharper pain. This went on for months. I went to see an Orthopedic and he suspected a muscle that just wasn't healing OR perhaps a slipped disc. He gave me a Rx for some steroids. I had horrible side affects from them many years ago and I was not pleased about taking them but as my girlfriend and I were headed to Disney World I knew I needed to do something to survive. I took the first dose of 60 mg's and that was all. It wigged me out so bad I decided to stop and deal with the pain. I actually found walking in Fl. helped a bit. The pain continued in this basic form till about two weeks ago. Suddenly every muscle in my body is hurting...my arms and legs are killing me, my hands feel stiff and hurt. My feet especially on the bottom of them hurt terribly. All through my back and neck, I have headaches, warm burning sendations all over. A pain in the back of my right leg almost like I am about to get a bad charlie horse and then it fades. The only thing I did differently was help my father move some fairly light furniture two weeks ago. Perhaps if I have a slipped disc or some other issue I made it worse? I am not sure if it can affect my entire body like this. I am living on Alieve which I don't like to take but have no other choice the pain is so bad. I am going back to the doctor next week. My girlfriend is worried and is convinced I have some horrible disease like ALS... I assured her I don't becuase from what I can tell it wouldn't hit like this and I think the main symptom of that is cramping NOT aching... though I do have some random muscle twitches but nothing major. I also don't seem to have any muscle loss or weakness just the pain. I am at my wits end on this though... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Bob


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Since I posted this last it has come out that I have a slipped disc in my lower back - That accounts for the back pain. However though the body "pain" got a bit better the I was getting a lot of random twitches and the feet were still the worse - Painful and number and tingly. It recently came to my attention that this may be a side effect of the 1000 mg's of Niacin I take daily. Does anyone know if this indeed can cause these symptoms. I stopped it two days ago to see if it makes a difference and I am waiting to see how it goes. I have noticed a slight difference today. Any light anyone can give on this would be greatly appreciated - Thanks -
Bob

[buriedinfur]

Hope that you find answers soon - but I quickly found out that getting a 'label' takes a helluva long time sometimes. I'd really recommend that you look into any pain management courses or support groups in your area - it can help a ton, even if you don't quite know what is going on. It's a way of being proactive while waiting, and helps my frusteration tons.

Hope that you find relief and answers soon!

[NJBob77]

Thank you for the reply. Saw the orthepedic yesterday. He gave me some steroids for a week, although I hate them they took the pain away for the most part already. He also ordered an MRI and suggested anything from a herniated disc to reuhmatoid arthiritis-So we'll see.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello Bob,

Without examination,confirming a diagnosis is tough but the various possibilities for your symptoms are injury or overuse of muscles, ligaments leading to strain or sprain,pressure on the nerve roots in the spinal cord caused by herniated disc,osteoarthritis, spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis or spinal stenosis , ankolysing spondylitis(arthritis of spine),fibromyalgia(a disorder classified by the presence of chronic widespread pain and tactile allodynia(pain even on touching) , polymyositis (means 'many muscle inflammation') and polymyalgia rheumatica(an inflammatory disorder that causes widespread muscle aching and stiffness, primarily in your neck, shoulders, upper arms, thighs and hips.

For treatment of acute back pain,take adequate rest.However ,if you need to continue working then consider using a brace or corset for a few days.Also apply warm compresseses.You can also take over the counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen(motrin), acetaminophen(Tylenol) or naproxen sodium(naprogesic).

If the back pain worsens or persists for greater than 3 months,then it is labeled chronic back pain which needs evaluation by clinical examination from an orthopedician.In such cases the above mentioned possibilities need to be ruled out.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep us posted if you have any additional queries.