Flank pain only during sleep/upon waking

[SJMCRAE]

Every morning I wake in excrutiating pain in the lower back (kidney area) that radiates to the front of stomach.  This pain is so severe that it wakes me up and makes it difficult to take a deep breath.  I feared it was kidney's and had a battery of tests done, along with MRI's that showed nothing.  Dr. thinks it could be muscle related.  The pain seems to arise after 5-6 hours of sleep.  At first it seemed that the pain was immediately relieved once I voided of a morning, now it seems that as soon as I stand I get relief, which makes me think maybe it could be nerve compression?  The pain wakes me from sleep and gives me anxiety in the evenings before bedtime due to the fact that I know I will wake in horrible pain.  This has been going on for the last 9 years after the birth of my daughter and has progressivley gotten worse.  The doctors are stumped as to what this can be and has referred me to a chiro and recommended a nerve block. If anyone has any ideas, please advise.  Thanks!

[AlphaQII]

Did you ever receive any help on this issue. I am experiencing very similar symptoms ( I am male 47 yrs of age). Doctor thought it was muscle related and took Nexproxen for a couple of weeks and seemed to help, but came back. I go to Chiropractor (10 yrs now), and both times seems like it started right after visit, but has never happened before this. As you say, wakes me up due to pain after about 4-5 hrs of sleep and does not get better regardless of how I position myself. Let me know if you ever got this corrected. Thanks.

[JohnDevine]

Flank pain also awakens me after 5-6 hours of sleep, just like you the pain subsidizes after I wake up and move around for a few minutes. Base on my experience, the pain is muscular. As we sleep, our body temperature may slightly drop, leading to a muscular pain/spasm around the kidneys/lower back area. As I am sitting here in this cold library, I can feel the flank pain. Solution: Try to sleep covering your lower back with a warm blanket or wear an extra layer of clothing that will keep your lower back warm through out the night. Let me know how it works out for you.

[ANumberInTheSystem]

I can't believe what I am reading. Here it is 4:30 am and I am in extreme back and stomach pain. So bad I am shaking. This is ther worst yet. I always immediately void, since it feels like a pressure thing and my bladder is somewhat full, but come on,  this is too weird that all of us seem to have the same exact symptom. There has to be a reason for this. I too dread going to bed at night for this reason and it's not every night, but is more commonly occurring than not. I have had epidurals in my back (which has been diagnosed with stenosis and degenerative disc disease), but we all know that is a catch-all diagnosis. I am so frustrated with all these 'doctors' because I have to be the one to figure out which specialist to go to and that is why I am still at the phase of trying to figure out if t's my back, my stomach, or my kidneys/urinary track. Have ANY of you received an acceptable diagnosis???? We supposedly have the most advanced medical care and diagnostic techniques in this country, but yet no doctor can figure out this problem from such SPECIFIC symptoms???? I am too smart to accept that. There is SOMETHING wrong and I don't want that to be found during my autopsy!!

Anyone, anything?

- Educated fellow in pain

[medicbarbie]

Now, I am in shock. I've been suffering from the exact same symptoms for about 4 years now. Pain on waking, excrutiating to turn or move, but when I stand up and move around, it's gone! There are too many posts on here about the exact same thing for this to be going undiagnosed. I've been told it's my hip, back, urinary tract, bladder, intestines.........well, I know it's SOMETHING down there. It seems that it would be muscle or joint related because of the way the pain goes away with movement. Any internal organ problems I would think the pain would stay.
Glad I'm not the only one, I thought I was crazy!

[backyoutome]

I have the same problem, for about 3 months, I wake up in the middle of the night because of a ache in my flanks. No matter what posistion I get it is still uncomfortable. At first it was on both sides, now it is mainly affecting my left. As soon as I stand up and get going for the day, the pain goes away. I went to the Dr. and my blood/urine tests came back normal. He gave me muscle relaxers for the pain, but they don't work anymore.I am going in for an X-ray to see if anything shows up. My urine is almost always cloudy no matter how much water I drink.

[browneyes182]

Thank the Lord...i too, am obviously not crazy. No offence guys...but i was relieved to read all of the above! I actually thought i was about to croak it!!  I have had the above synptoms (all of them) back..front..side etc for about 3 yrs now, and i too have started to dread waking up in the morning, cos i know whats ahead of me. But once i get out of bed, and have a cuppa, and a little walk around the house...there is not a bother on me! I have an appointment with my doctor (looking for answers) on the 15th nov...il let u all know how i get on...but after reading all ur posts...i dont hold out much hope for a cure..:)

[MXJabes]

I too have had the exact same problems which began approx 2months after the birth of my second child.  No back pain during pregnancy or after delivery, until about 2 months after.  My pain is in my lower back and comes on only during sleep.  As soon as I get up and around it disappears.  As tired as I am, I dread bed time, knowing I will soon awaken in extreme pain, tossing and turning all night trying to get comfortable.  No matter what position I try, it doesn't alleviate the pain.  I'm exhausted from not sleeping for the past 4 months.  Went to the doc, he prescribed Daypro which has not helped at all.  I don't want drugs to mask the pain; I want to know what is wrong with me.  I had an epidural w/ the birth of both of my children and last September I had a spinal tap followed by a blood patch (basically like an epidural where they inject blood into your dural space to patch a Cerebral Spinal Fluid leak caused from the spinal tap).  All of these "pokes" in my back were done in the exact same region of my Lumbar spine.  Cooincidentally, that is exactly where my pain radiates from every night during sleep.  I don't know if that is just cooincidence but thought I'd mention it.  The pain is so severe i can hardly roll from one side to the other.  I would describe it as a "burning" type of pain.  My doctor (who, by the way, didn't even get up off his chair to diagnose me) seems to think it is related to muscle loss due to pregnancy (although the pain didn't start until 2-3 months after the birth of my child).  He also prescribed physical therapy.  I'll let you know if it helps.  My next step is to get a different doctor and request an MRI.

[Kristin563]

Has anyone ever tried Massage Therapy for the symptoms? If it is muscle related it seems to make a lot of sense to relieve the myofascial pain pattern you all seem to have. I am a Massage Therapist. I have the same symptoms right now but mine seem to be related to my pregnancy. The weight of my uterus is compressing my kidneys. Are any of you overweight?

Kristin

[Dr J Singh]

Hi,
If the kidneys/ureters have shown no stone, then the possibility of a nerve compression is likely. I’ll suggest getting an MRI of the spine done to confirm the diagnosis. In case, the nerve compression is confirmed, then the further treatment will depend upon the extent of compression. The treatment can be surgical/medical depending upon the severity. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care.

[DocKMC]

I am a 36 year old physician and I am going through exactly what is being described.  This is the second time over the past 5 years I have been through this 'phantom' pain.  In fact, it is currently 6am and I really would rather be sleeping (too uncomfortable).  Numerous test results returned negative last time.  So far, this time, I have only looked at urine chem (negative - even though I though the specimen looked unusually cloudy).  This week I will order blood work, microscopy and an ultrasound (which were all negative last time also...).  On a positive note:  last time this was going on I happened to be away from work for a week and the pain subsided! (really made me consider an ortho issue - similar to what Dr. Singh has described) so when I returned to work I changed both the cheap chairs I used often and paid keen attention to my posture (in front of the computer too!).  The pain went away - until about 2 weeks ago...  Now, I have been watching my posture (could probably do better) and I'm still waking up every night with the aching.  I really have to examine what I am doing each day to see if it is a situation like last time - hopefully it is that simple.  I know you are afraid - how can we not be - it's only human to imagine the potential worst case scenario, but there are lots of other less scary explanations.        
I have to say I was really, really surprised to see such familiar accounts when I read these.  I will continue to research and examine and let you know if I find out anything interesting.  For now, try to assess your activities and posture.
DocKMC