38 weeks - severe middle/upper back pain, contractions, and vaginal pains

[lenorajoy]

Around 8 this morning I had sudden and severe pain in my middle/upper back, right around where the back of my bra sits over my ribcage on the right side. When it first showed up, it was constant and SEVERE for probably a good 5-10 minutes. I tried to crack my back and stretch, but it didn't make any difference. It was bad enough I was on the verge of tears, and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. Then it faded out and I was fine for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and came back full strength! I didn't time them at first because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. The pain eventually faded in and out in 30 second intervals or so for a couple of hours, then it was gone. I had contractions with some of these pains, but not at any regular intervals. During one of these contractions, the pain spread from my upper back to the lumbar region and around my sides, so I'm guessing these pains could definitely be contraction-related.

I did have some pains around my vagina and cervix through all of this, both the achey, crampy type and the stabbing type that stop you in your tracks and make you gasp.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I've only ever heard of back labor in the low back.

ETA: I forgot to mention I was also nauseous through most of this.

 

[IchigoMewMew]

Have you been checked out? I don't think it's normal to be in such severe pain for so long. Hope all is ok

 

[lenorajoy]

I haven't only because they grew less severe and then went away altogether. I don't have an appointment scheduled to see my midwife until Monday. Unless they start up again, there isn't much a call to my doctor's office could do I wouldn't think, other than to see if I've dilated more? Should I call anyway just to be safe or should I wait to see if anything else happens?

 

[flipporama1]

That high up sounds like kidney or gallbladder. I'd at least let your doctor know.

 

[lenorajoy]

I'll be sure to mention it at my appointment Monday then. If it happens again I'll definitely call in to my doctor's office to see if they want to check into it.

 

[lenorajoy]

Thanks for the advice, ladies!

 

[ameeann]

The original pain, is it close to your spine?

 

[lenorajoy]

Yep, close to the spine on the right side.

 

[ameeann]

It sounds so similar to a pain I was getting a few weeks ago, it's a muscle cramp, cause of the massive muscle groups we have around there and when you get to a certain size, it begins to pull down on them... Makes you wanna vomit and cry, I got my hubby to run a tennis ball up and down it for a while whilst stretching my arms forward and sat up

 

[lenorajoy]

Interesting. Definitely never had a muscle cramp there before! But with all of the crowding and stretching and everything going on in there, a muscle cramp is very possible. A cramping muscle is just a contracting muscle after all, and all of our muscles seem to be practicing doing that! I did have a muscle cramp in an odd place on my ankle this morning as well.

 

[Mummafrog]

It does kind of sound like it was related to the contraction of your uterus, perhaps baby was resting on a nerve and when things tensed up it pushed on that nerve!
But my concern is upper right sided pain, usually under the ribs (liver) can be a pre-eclampsia symptom, not to scare you at all but maybe having a dipstick would be an idea? I know you have the polyhidramnios as well so it's good to keep an eye on things if it has completely gone away since though, I'd guess it was probably just an odd presention of tensing up of muscles x

 

[lenorajoy]

Thanks mummafrog! It hasn't happened again since, so I'm going to say it was just something odd that went along with the contractions at that time. I haven't had any trouble with that sort of back pain with any contractions since, just the typical lower back pain on occasion. Perhaps it did have something to do with the position of baby at the time. Thanks for the input!