I’m a 34 year old guy and I’ve been suffering from back pain between my shoulder blades for the last 4 years. I’ve seen dozens of doctors in various specialties, I even went to the Mayo Clinic in 2012, but I still have no diagnosis and no effective way to manage the pain. Tried an assortment of prescriptions, injections, physical therapy, massage, foam/ma rollers, chiropractors, TENS, and others, but nothing has measurably reduced my pain. Scans and tests are all clean. Generally I like exercising, it is not painful, but I haven’t found that it gives me any lasting relief. Sometimes the pain is sharp on one side of the spine or the other, other times it’s just a general sense of discomfort across the whole region. Sometimes the muscles are tender back there, other times not. Often it is 3-5 level pain for hours a day, almost most every day.
There was no accident or event that caused this – the problem developed over time after I had developed some really bad sciatica. The sciatic went away by itself after 3 years but the upper back pain continued. I originally thought the pain was associated with working on the computer and maybe it was originally, but now it’s expanded to the point where sitting at a keyboard doesn’t seem to matter. I find my open-floor plan work area uncomfortable (though my job itself is not stressful) and if I was sure that my work was the problem, I’d quit tomorrow, but that seems like a high-risk gamble. I’ve cut out extra computer/tablet
In 2015 I had mostly given up on getting medical help and was just bearing it on my own. Then DW got pregnant. It was planned and something we wanted – I could not put living our life on hold forever, and at the time the pain seemed tolerable at least. We had a beautiful son in the summer of 2015.
I ended up with daycare duty because the only one we could get into was at my office, and its 30 miles from where DW works so she can’t help with that. Within a week of starting daycare my pain was worse. I was paying attention to posture and lifting and it’s not the act of lifting him that hurts – it just started hurting worse throughout the day at the same time he started daycare. It also expanded more into interfering with my sleep. Often I will wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get comfortable. Or I will wake up first thing in the morning in pain.
I have times where the pain is low/none, sometimes an afternoon, sometimes a whole day, so I know what it feels like to not have pain. But I can’t find the pattern of the times when I feel better. I get maybe one of these days a week. It’s often a weekend day but not always. I estimate I spend ~75% of my waking hours in some sort of pain. It is just too damn much pain.
I don’t have the energy or patience to give my wife and son the love they deserve and I just don’t know what to do about it.
There was no accident or event that caused this – the problem developed over time after I had developed some really bad sciatica. The sciatic went away by itself after 3 years but the upper back pain continued. I originally thought the pain was associated with working on the computer and maybe it was originally, but now it’s expanded to the point where sitting at a keyboard doesn’t seem to matter. I find my open-floor plan work area uncomfortable (though my job itself is not stressful) and if I was sure that my work was the problem, I’d quit tomorrow, but that seems like a high-risk gamble. I’ve cut out extra computer/tablet
In 2015 I had mostly given up on getting medical help and was just bearing it on my own. Then DW got pregnant. It was planned and something we wanted – I could not put living our life on hold forever, and at the time the pain seemed tolerable at least. We had a beautiful son in the summer of 2015.
I ended up with daycare duty because the only one we could get into was at my office, and its 30 miles from where DW works so she can’t help with that. Within a week of starting daycare my pain was worse. I was paying attention to posture and lifting and it’s not the act of lifting him that hurts – it just started hurting worse throughout the day at the same time he started daycare. It also expanded more into interfering with my sleep. Often I will wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get comfortable. Or I will wake up first thing in the morning in pain.
I have times where the pain is low/none, sometimes an afternoon, sometimes a whole day, so I know what it feels like to not have pain. But I can’t find the pattern of the times when I feel better. I get maybe one of these days a week. It’s often a weekend day but not always. I estimate I spend ~75% of my waking hours in some sort of pain. It is just too damn much pain.
I don’t have the energy or patience to give my wife and son the love they deserve and I just don’t know what to do about it.
