Joe A Shaw PA-C - 8/19/2008

Question
QUESTION: im desperately in need of answers. i have always had a large chest a 38 DD but never any back problems. it was approximately 4 months ago that this horror begin. i had always sporadically been affected by charlie horses but i never realized that i'd get something so similar in my back. it's similar because both cause soreness the next day. my friend and i had gotten into a car accident. she smashed into another guy's bumper and we were both fine. approximately a week later i was woken out of a sound sleep but what felt like excrutiating back spasms on both sides of my upper back (where the bra opens & closes in the back). it hurt to breathe in and i just started screaming. i couldn't lay on my side because it made the areas feel like they were being pulled and stretched. i layed on my back and did deep breathing, two hours later these horrible pains disappeared. the next day my back felt tight. about a month later before a thunderstorm it started all over again. it woke me out of a sound sleep. it started off slow and before i knew it, there was daggers going through both sides of mid back. i took 2 anaprox and after 40 minutes the pain subsided. last nite was the third random flare up of this mysterious pain. it started off with feelings of tension in both sides of my back then 3 hours later it woke me up out of a sound sleep. this was the most intense i'd ever felt it. i couldn't even breathe in without a sharp pain going through both sides of my back. i was literally rolling around on the floor from pain. it lasted 3 hours and finally with anaprox it subsided. today my back is still sore. these pains remind me of charlie horses. it's like an extremely painful spasm. what could be going on with my back? it feels like a big cramp moving through my whole back. im in alot of pain...sound like a pulled muscle or something? im also very stressed. can stress be the cause? please help

ANSWER: Britt,
It does kind of sound like the type of pain women get with a large chest. Sometimes it is gradual or chronic pain but remember even chronic pain had to start one day. Your back muscles are having to compensate and they tighten up and get stuck in the contracted position and take a while to "unrelease" or relax.
You may find some relief with deep massage or Rolfing massages. Before this though since you give a trauma incident I would get ckd out with xrays/MRI or CTscan of the spine and rule out a compression and or hairline fracture of the thoracic vertebrae or some type of thoracic disc injury (ie rupture) Certainly not common, but w a car wreck who knows?
You might have torn some or strained some muscles around your scapula and thoracic back area as well and now with just the right movement you get this pain. The pain releiving creams and gels rubbed in the specific site (biofreeze or orthogel is what I use) along with NSAIDs will certainly help.
Ice packs alternated with heat packs every 10 mins can help naturally break the spasms when your are having an attack.

http://www.carpal-tunnel-symptoms.com/pain-relief-creams.html

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QUESTION: thankyou. you've definitely provided alot of knowledge. i also take the blood pressure medicine hyzaar. can that worsen it? so basically what im having is attacks? why do you think they happen in the middle of the night when im sleeping? do you think the muscles will heal on their own?

Answer
I never heard of BP meds causing this.

I wouldn't call them "attacks" from a medical standpoint but possibly spasms..or like I said a compression/hairline fx of vert.and thus causing the pain.
Even when you are sleeping you are breathing..ribcage is moving constantly..muscles are being used and moved and due to your breast size you are probably a back sleeper..we move around quite a bit when we sleep anyway..we don't lay there like in a casket with hands folded.

Will it heal on its own?..I don't know it has been 4 mos and you are saying it is "excrutiating"..so..time to try something else If it were me?