Back/Rib Pain! Aaarrrrggggh.....

[BellyBelly]

I could have written that word for word - spot on. It has me in tears and sometimes I just want to cry because I can't cope with it anymore. Its like a huge tight, aching pain and chinese burn type of pain around the side of my body where my ribs are - so widespread you get beside yourself. At least labour has a start and stop in 12-24 hours, but this is a joke, going on for weeks and getting worse! Nothing has been working for me either, but then I have only been able to have acu once, osteo twice and chiro twice, as I have limited resources here. The worst thing for it seems to be sitting - which is the worst thing for your back anyway in terms of pressure on your spine. The best thing I have found is a hot water bottle if I lie down on it, but it has to be quite hot to numb my back, then when its cooler, it kicks in again and begins to ache I am going to try and book myself in for a massage when I am in Melbourne but being 36 weeks I am resigned to the fact that this is going to be here until birth. Its such a debilitating pain, I never expected to be this uncomfortable, much worse than my first two I hope I don't have to deal with it during labour.

ETA: I was just reminded about Rodney Whyte, who works in the Monash Medical Centre and is seen as a guru in drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Here's what he passed on about pain relief: Absolutely fine to take the maximum daily dose of panadol (8) in any combination as long as you dont exceed the daily limit. Same with panadeine - you can mix up panadol and panadeine if you like, as long as you stick to the daily limits. In the case of pandol osteo (higher dose, slow release) then 6 per day.

If you are taking pain relief remember not to take any ibuprofen (nurofen) drugs, or asprin (thins the blood!) which is not what you want especially before you give birth.