lower back pain

[peachycajun]

Hello everyone,

I have a question. I was diagnosed with IC about a month ago. I have an appointment with an urologist that specializes in IC tomorrow. But my questions is I have a LOT of lower back pain, could this be from the IC or could I just have other problems? I had back labor with my daughter and it feels alot like that. Please let me know if any of you experience this same thing.

Thank you,

Danielle

[Kathi]

Back pain is very common with IC. Tell your doc, just to make sure it isn't something else.:grouphug: Kathi

[Mainemom]

I have been diagnosed with Ic for about 8 months now and I have severe back pain. I am on vicodin for the pain and it does go away sometimes but the back pain feels just like back labor.
Good luck,
Kirsten

[kelly McC]

Good Luck tomorrow:grouphug: ,
I have had lower back pain for about 1 year now. My doctors say its IC related. I would check with your doctor to make sure !

[Jacquelynn]

You described it so well. I too have back pain and have had since the birth of my 3rd child three years ago. I also had back labor with her.

Actually it was the back pain more than anything that sent me in search of a diagnosis. I thought I could live with the urgency, frequency, and pelvic pain/pressure but this back pain was something else.

Both my Uro and OB/GYN think it is related to the IC. Let us know what you URO thinks.

[Dixiefireball]

i have alot of back pain :( i have also had many test to rule out other things it all boiled down to it was ic pain.:(
sending you hugs and prayers
Rhonda

[Silverfox]

I had really bad low back pain with IC. Then I was diagnosed with a low thyroid disease. I was started on thyroid medication and over time I would have severe pains in my lower back and hips. Finally a Dr. determined that I was not taking enought thyroid hormone and he increased my dose. In only a few weeks my lower back pain and my sciatica hip pains were gone. I have no more lower back pain. My Drs. now say that I was suffering peripheral nerve damage(all the nerves outside the spinal cord and brain) plus autonomic nerve damage(nerves that affect the organs in the body that we are not aware of).

I think you should put this on your list of questions to ask your Dr., just to be certain he is not missing this disease. Hey, now they are linking IC to thyroid diseases. Too bad it took so long, I discovered the connection over 20 years ago. This is way too simple so most do not believe it. It's worth including on your questions for the good Dr.

Best Wishes, Silverfox :thumbsup:

[ICNDonna]

A clarification on thyroid and IC: There is no research study that proves that low thyroid causes IC or contributes to IC. A thyroid screen is not part of the diagnostic process for IC nor is thyroid therapy considered a treatment for IC. If you have a question or comment about thyroid conditions, please post it in the "other conditions" message board.

Anyone who is concerned about a possible thyroid problem should discuss it with a physician. There are simple, accurate tests to diagnose thyroid problems.


Donna

[ICchell]

yes,Ive been having some sharp pains in my lower back on right side... feels like a knife jabbing sharp kinda pain...thing is though my uro doesnt think that i have iC because it doesnt hurt when I pee ...but I do have alot of the other symptoms...I had backlabor with my 2 girls...and that is what it feels like almost.
Michelle

[tigger_gal]

I too have very bad lower back pain, I also have fibro, myofascial pain syndrom, sacralittis and my tail bone is dislocated and stuck in the wrong position from a fall... but I do believe the lower pack pain is from the ic in general the others just help it along...
brat

[skershner3]

Danielle,
I have always had very severe lower back pain with IC, sometimes I described it as feeling like "someone has whacked me across the back with a board." My back pain is somewhat better now after I start doing self catherization. I was doing that every 4 hours and now just at bedtime and as needed but what I found out was I had alot of residual urine. Since the bladder wasnt emptying like it was supposed to my urologist said that the urine would fill up and then press against my spinal cord and said that if you have persistant problems with retention that you can actually have spinal cord compression and kidney damage where your urine also backs up into your kidneys. The main culprit in my case was Detrol. I had to quit taking it because it was causing too much retention. I am not telling you that is your problem what so ever. If you are having to strain to pee you might mention this to your urologist. I am sure that he/she checks you for residual urine every visit when you go. Until I had this problem and got some relief from it and found out more about it, I took the straining and lower back pain as part of IC and feel that alot of people with IC should take it more seriously because it can have some permanent ramifications. I am glad that I caught this in time. Some times I think it has to do with being in pain and pain cycles and everything just getting "out of whack." Definately talk to your urologist about it. Dont worry, it is fairly common among IC'ers and most of the time a simple explanation. Susan

[ICchell]

Susan
Oh my gosh,Thank you for everthing that you said in your post!
I do have urinary retention so bad that it is uncomfortable...Im so bloated!! i really do think that I will need to start self cathing soon.Went to uro one day to have him cath.,...out came half a liter!:(
I didnt know that Detrol could cause that ...Im so glad that Im not taking it anymore.I also didnt know about it causing spinal cord compression
Now im taking Flowmax.
Brat ,I have a broken tailbone too and 3 ruptured discs.
What is Myofascial pain syndrome?
Take Care,Michelle

[skershner3]

Michelle,
I was really afraid to do self catherization when I first started but after I got the hang of it, it was really easy and I havent had one infection. I have found that it is one thing that gives me alot of relief when I need it. If I have alot of retention, I have alot of pain so self catherization for me has been a life saver. My residual at the urologists office was 700 cc's. He about flipped,so no I dont have any problem with bladder capacity but sure do have the signs and symptoms of IC. That explained to the urologist why hydrodistentions did nothing for me but more pain from the procedure and that was it. I would have that much urine in there and sit on the commode at night and strain and strain and pee just a dribble, go back to bed,back up in ten minutes doing the same thing again. Discontinuing the medicine and doing the self catherization got me back on track. Recently, I took Endal for a sinus infection and had to cath again until I got that out of my system because it caused retention, so I am more aware of it now. Susan

[ICchell]

Susan,
The hydro didnt work for me either.I was retaining half a liter before he cathed me,he couldnt believe it.I know that i am still retaining too.:headbang:
I am glad that the self cath is working for you!:grouphug: :kiss:
Michelle

[CathiAxel]

I am so glad I read your message. I haven't been diagnosed yet, so far both Urologists told me I was fine and I left crying. But... I have horrible back pain. And it is crampy. It really feels the way it felt when I was in labor! I am so nauseated and get bloated, too! Thanks for posting!

[m123]

I have lower back pain when I am standing up for long periods of time or when I haven't gone in a while. It's definetly IC related for me.

[skershner3]

I am glad that you found the information helpful. Do your urologists have experience with a lot of IC patients? It seems to me that there are a lot of different symptoms for different people. Some had small bladder capacity and some don't have problems with capacity at all. Some have severe pain, some don't. Some have pain it seems everywhere, like myself and some have pain in just a couple of areas so it is hard sometimes to get a diagnosis. One of the things that makes my back pain worse is stress. I guess I just get so tensed up that my muscles, etc. just tighten up and I have more retention and then more pain. Hope you get a diagnosis soon. Like I have said, it is hard to fight something if you don't know what you are fighting.
Susan

[CathiAxel]

When I went to the Urologists, I thought the pain was my kidneys. They both informed me that my kidneys were higher up, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I asked the second Urologist if he knew what else it could be, and he said that it wasn't his job to determine that... that it was my primary care doctors. So I called my Insurance company On-call nurse and asked for advice. She was very surprised that the doctors didn't look into IC. I didn't know what it was. I've been dealing with it for 4 years and thought it was endometriosis and my kidneys.
Now I have to go to a Urologist and discuss IC. It is sad when people have to diagnose their own problems. I have been feeling like I'm losing my mind, because the Urologists acted like I was a hypochondriac. I'm glad I found this website! :)

[skershner3]

Most of the back pain that I experience is lower back pain, in what some people call the "small of the back." I also experience, at times, pain over the left kidney, which is much higher up, as I assume your urologists explained to you. Why one kidney and not the other I don't know. I had a procedure called and IVP to determine if there were any obstructions, kidney stones, etc. but everything looked fine. This is only my opinion, but if you have another urologist in your area, rather than the one/ones that you saw I think that I would ask for a referral to someone else. If you have ever had a bladder infection you know what kind of back pain you have with that in itself so I can't imagine a urologist stating that it was "not his job" to look into this problem that you have with back pain. I was VERY lucky, living in the rural area that I do, that I found a urologist that was very knowledgable in IC. My first symptoms were very severe and seemed to hit me "out of the blue"" and I was pretty much "down" until I got a diagnosis and was prescribed medications for IC and gave them time to "kick in," which for me was a couple of months. Actually, my urologist was so certain that I had IC and my symptoms were so severe at the time that he did not do the hydrodistention for a diagnosis but treated me for the IC anyway. Like I said, I was just extremely lucky. I believe it was in 1997 that I was first diagnosed. I believe that some urologist don't have a lot of knowledge on IC unfortunately. Just like with the public. You would think that a condition that is as disabling and in my opinion highly under diagnosed that there would be more information on tv, talk shows, newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc. but you don't see many. I believe that there was a show a few months ago on the Discovery Health Channel about IC but I did not get to see it because, if I remember right, it aired at something like 2:00 am. We need more public awareness and unfortunately, I believe that some of the urologist's need more awareness as well. Keep me updated as to what you find out. I told my primary care physician today that I feel that I have more back pain as a result of IC than I do blader pain most of the time.

[CathiAxel]

Well, I went to a new Urologist today. He, at least, seems to believe me. He did a pelvic exam, and when I told him the other two Urologists didn't do that, he was very surprised. He scheduled me for a cystoscopy next week. He told me that he didn't think it was IC because he said people with IC hurt all the time, and I don't. I will have times of excruciating pain every couple of months, and some mild pain in between, but some days with no pain. I can stand all the pain but the excruciating pain, and it seems to be getting more frequent. So far, none of the doctors have offered me pain medication, and I'm afraid to ask because I'm afraid they might think I'm just there for pain medication. I really don't have very much pain abdominally, except when I'm on my period. Is nausea common with IC? I get a lot of that when I am experiencing pain.

[skershner3]

In my case, it is VERY common to have periods of not much pain some days, mild pain other and excrutiating pain other days. It all depends on so much in my case such as stress. Stress makes my pain soooo much worse. Physical activity makes it worse, sexual intercourse, something I eat, sometimes I don't know what makes it worse but in my case the pain definately is a wax and wane sort of thing. I think that many others on the message board will agree. There are many days that I feel half way descent, try to do things that I used to do and then pay for it for three days or more with pain. For some patients pain isn't a major issue for them from what I read here on the boards. Some have frequency, some don't, some have small bladder capacity, some don't, some have pain in different areas. It is just different with different people. Good luck with your cysto. I hope that you get the answers that you need, oh yes, also, I get really nasuated if I am in very severe pain and working in the medical field in the past I have seen that happen many, many times. The nausea with severe pain.

[kaykels]

I'm glad I read this b/c I'm sitting here with such SEVERE back pain and back labor is all I can compare it to. It's worse that the bladder pain.