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[Puffin Mama]

Hello ladies  - I could do with a bit of help!

I posted a few days ago about lower back ache and vague nausea but I have now succeeded in absolutely terrifying myself into thinking that it means there is something awful there.  I did suffer with quite bad health anxiety in the past - since my hormones started going mad - but having rushed off to the GP with one weird symptom after another, which all turned out to be nothing,  I thought I had it under control. However, for the past couple of days,  I have been so scared of having something really wrong with me that I can't sleep at night and keep imagining what my daughter would do without me (I am a single parent).  This reduces me to tears of panic and of course makes me feel sicker. I know I am not the only one on here with health anxiety and I would be so very grateful for some calming words and to be told that I am being really stupid.

I am prone to back problems but they tend to last for a few days and then wear off, sometimes assisted by ibuprofen and heat rub.   I felt something in my back 'crunch' when I was doing yoga about 6 weeks ago - I had clearly over-stretched - and was subsequently very careful, doing gentle exercise only.  This seemed to be helping and in fact, the painful aspect has worn off but I am left with a lower back that feels very sore and is also very stiff in the mornings.  It loosens up during the day but I can still feel the soreness and it has now moved up into my middle and upper back, making the area between my shoulder blades and below feel quite uncomfortable.  I am also getting some twinges in the pelvic region and all my other joints have started to feel sore as well. It's not bad enough to need painkillers but I can't stop thinking that it should have cleared up by now and the fact that it hasn't gone within a week or so, as it normally would, means that it is something other than the normal backache I get.

I know this all sounds so stupid but in the past 3 years,  I have lost one good friend to cancer and currently have 3 other women I know at various stages of treatment (all for breast cancer though). I'm sure this is preying on my mind and making me feel vulnerable and I also found out yesterday that my brother and his wife are splitting up and they were the people I had always thought would look after my daughter if anything ever happened to me.  Somehow, this has made me feel even more scared and I have tried to shake myself out of it but can't seem to manage it.

I have an osteopath's appointment tomorrow and will also go to my GP but if anyone can reassure me I would be so so grateful.

Puffin x

[Taz2]

Hi Puffin - I'm sure that most of us on here can relate to what you are feeling at the moment. Obviously you pulled something during yoga (so you do have a valid reason for the initial pain symptoms) and although you feel that it should be better by now it can take quite a while for the pain and inflammation to subside. Also, as with any back problem you tense up and so put other parts of your back under strain. The original pain and discomfort disappear but they are replaced by odd feelings in other parts of the back. Being worried and anxious will have put all of your muscles into a tense mode.

I'm sorry that you are, like me, having to deal with losing close friends and also having to support others coping with cancer at the moment and I also find myself worrying over twinges which I'm sure in the past I wouldn't even have noticed. It does heighten your awareness of how vulnerable we can be.

I'm sure that the osteopath appointment will help to reassure you but, in the meantime have a  from me.

Taz x

[Puffin Mama]

Hi Taz

Thank you so much for your kind and sensible words - I think I will feel better once I have seen the osteo, he knows me quite well and is very calm and reassuring, which is what I need at the moment.  I'm sorry you have lost friends,  life seems to get much harder as we get older and sometimes I find myself thinking that there is no reason why I should be spared what so many other women go through.  Then I try to reassure myself by remembering that both my grand-mothers lived to the age of 90 with no significant health problems - although my maternal grandmother was a terrible hypochondriac and I have started to wonder recently whether that skipped a generation and has now infected me!

Thank you again  - I'd be lost without this forum

Puffin x

[Taz2]

Thanks for your kind words to me too Puffin Mama. It is indeed horrible to see friends go through illnesses but it should make us even more determined to enjoy each day as much as we can. Very difficult to do this though at times.

Let us know how you get on!

Taz x

[Evelyn63]

Puffin Mamma I think we all have area's in our body that carry our stresses !   Mine would be my teeth and bowels !!  The underlying cause is probably a pulled muscle or strain from yoga, I do yoga as well, and appreciate how easy it is to twist something, sometimes without even realising , and it only becomes apparent the next day.  On top of the initial pain you are also continuing as usual , perhaps driving and stretching which would exacerbate it.  The other muscle and joint pains could be referred pain from the original injury site, you might be subconsciously trying to protect that part of your back, thus putting extra strain on the surrounding ligaments and joints.

I would suggest you take regular ibroprofen alternating with Paracetamol for about 48 hrs and see if the pain settles.  Gentle back stretching might also help as would walking .

Watching our close friends deal with serious life changing events, be they illness or personal issues, can have a knock on effect on our own sense of mortality and ability to cope, I know I have gone through a similar experience that left me feeling upset and a bit useless, as I was unsure how to help . 

I sincerely hope you see an improvement soon .

[Puffin Mama]

Thanks Evelyn 63
Since my last posts,  I have been to my osteopath and the GP.  Osteo spent nearly an hour and a half trying to sort out my back as both upper and lower back needed work. He reckons it was initially muscular but that as it has gone on for a while, the joints have stiffened up as well  .    Saw my fab GP, who doesn't think there is any cause for alarm but has ordered some blood tests with a view to investigating the nausea at the same time.   Despite my terrible anxiety about health issues at the moment,  I strongly suspect that the blood tests will all come back clear, as nothing ever shows up in investigations - for which I should be, and am, grateful 

Would like to feel like less of an old crock though 

Puffin x

[Puffin Mama]

You and me both, Sparkle  - I'm sure I just make myself feel worse by all this worrying but some of these symptoms scare me so much and I just can't get logic to prevail........I find that once I can be sure something is hormone-related, then I can more or less ignore it and just get on with things, but every new twinge or ache throws me into a panic at the moment. 

I have joint problems too at the moment!    (although that's not really the right emoticon for them!!) - more like **@!!@*!.     My ankles are quite sore and so are my finger joints and I also have my old friend indigestion back again - and of course, that may well be causing some of the upper back pain I have.  You can't be sleeping well at the moment if you have the same thing and being tired just makes everything worse.  I managed a lovely nap yesterday as I was off work but don't think I can do that at my desk 

We will get through this!!

Puffin x