Upper Back and Shoulder Pain – It Friggin HURTS!

Image by ewilman via Flickr

I have had this issue with my upper back and shoulder pain for many years.  It even started before I was ever pregnant.  It’s this horrible pain between my shoulder blades that sometimes just completely lays me out.  Other times, it just makes it painful to drive my car.

My upper back and shoulder pain (in addition to some lower back pain issues) became a real problem during my first pregnancy.  After giving birth, the back pain didn’t go away, so I started physical therapy.

I hadn’t had much trouble with my back for quite a few years, but starting in September of last year, my back pain has returned, and I’m not sure what the cause is.  I will usually wake up with this searing pain that just won’t go away.  No amount of Tylenol or heating pad placement generally helps.

Yesterday’s Upper Back and Shoulder Pain…it still hurts today, by the way

I started my day with such intense pain that I couldn’t dress myself or our 4 year old.  In fact, I didn’t get out of the car to drop our oldest son off at school. Instead, we pulled up to the front, let him out and just sat there and watched until the teachers took the students into class.  Then I drove home, laid out on a Heating Pad and got up feeling much better.

My back still hurt, but I wasn’t as bad off as I was before.

So step 1 worked!  HEATING PAD!  Check!

I spent the rest of the day doing very little.  I took care of the kids’ needs, worked a bit on my sites, and that was about it.  Then we went to the gym. I really needed to work out, because I haven’t done it at all this week, but I didn’t want to push myself.

So, I decided to go ahead and go anyway, and hop on a machine that my physical therapist had me use for my upper back pain after our oldest was born.

I think I used it wrong, because my upper back and shoulder pain got worse

I couldn’t remember how to use the darn thing, but I tried anyway. I’m pretty sure I made my back worse.  JOY!

By the time I got to the gym, I also had a pain in my leg…oh, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, my left leg was hurting too. I was limping.  What the heck was wrong with me?  It’s like I was falling apart.

I had a wonderful friend who offered me some advice:

BIOFREEZE

“What is Biofreeze? Is that like Icy Hot?” I had honestly never heard of the stuff, and I was seriously missing out.

After the kids went to bed, my husband ran over to the drug store and found the only roll on that was made by the makers of BioFreeze to apply to my back -PERFORM.

Please excuse my language here…but it can’t be helped.  That stuff was the shit.  Seriously.  It felt so amazing, and it didn’t smell weird either.  Icy Hot smells bizarre. I always feel like I get a contact high just from being around it.  Plus, it comes in a tube, so you get it all over your fingers when you apply it.  But this stuff, while you can get it in a tube, also comes in a roll on, which is AWESOME!  No sticky fingers.

I also can’t use Icy Hot, because it contains aspirin, and I can’t have aspirin. (Surprise! Something else I can’t have! ).  I can’t even help my husband apply it because I don’t want to risk getting it on my hands. Now I don’t have to, because I have BIOFREEZE.

WOOT WOOT!

Upper Back and Shoulder Pain – Day 2

It’s mostly my neck and shoulders that feel stiff today.  Most of the day, my back has been fine, although starting around dinner time I started to notice the pain between my shoulder blades returning.  I can’t take anything stronger than Tylenol (not helpful in this situation, honestly), so I think I’m going to lay down on the heating pad again until my husband gets home to put some more of that Biofreeze on my back.

What Causes Upper Back and Shoulder Pain?

Please, someone tell me.  Do I need a new mattress?  I wake up with this pain, and it’s usually only when I wake up to find that my kids have taken over the bed and I’ve been sleeping in an awkward position.  However, yesterday, this wasn’t the case.  Why am I waking up with such horrible upper back pain?

Maybe it’s time to see the doctor and get back into physical therapy.  Ugh. This sucks.  I feel broken.  Now I’m always sick and tired and in pain.  BOO!