Question
Hello. I had a perforated bowel in February of this year. Even after surgery and repairing the bowel I've had episodes of severe non stop back pain. The pain comes on suddenly and lasts for hours at a time. Nothing (muscle relaxers, Bengay, Tylenol,) seems to help. I cannot take ibueprofen because for some reason ever since the bowel issue I can swallow it but I throw it up again.  No abdominal pain is there though. Any advice would be good.

Answer
Carly,
You had a severe, life-threatening condition, as you well know. Without knowing your entire surgical history it is difficult to advise you, however, I would think that the extreme back pain could be coming from adhesions or scar tissue. With the surgery that you probably had there is bound to be a lot of scar tissue formed. This could be the cause of your pain, but you MUST get either the surgeon or your referring doctor to run some form of tests such as a CT or maybe an MRI to see exactly what is going on in there. I would not advise that you use any ibuprofen type medication because it can possibly cause stomach or intestinal bleeding. You also need to tell the physician that the pain comes on suddenly. If you choose to consult with a new physician PLEASE make sure he/she has your complete record in front of them so they'll know your complete history. I don't want to see any "stone unturned" with your case. This is not a simple back pain. I surely wish I could help more. You do need pain control, but you need far more than that. You need a physician who will run the proper tests and ascertain that nothing else needs to be done surgically. I hope you will get back to me and let me know what is found. As I said, I suggest your surgeon who performed this surgery, or the doctor who first found it and referred you for surgery. I wish you luck, and really would like to hear back.