Ways to relieve upper back pain that don't cost money?

Hi all,

For the last week or so I have been having the most horrible upper back pain - sort of between my shoulder blades but to the left.

It's getting worse and worse by the day and NOTHING relieves it... hot showers, warm baths, heat packs, panadol... nothing even takes the edge off.

I'm quite honestly at my wits end with it but DH and I hit hard times financially and although he hates seeing me in pain like this there is simply no way around the fact that I can't get a massage or see an osteo or chiro.

Does anyone have some suggestions of something I can do that might help this pain? I've found swimming and floating around in the pool helps my lower back but doesn't even touch this pain so I'm really quite lost!

Is your hubby any good at massage? Get some lavendar oil and let him loose - gently. He might help if you're knotted up, particularly through stress.
But hun, if somethings just not right with your back, you may have no choice but to see a professional. Could family loan you some $$ just to tide you over?
Sorry, I'm not much help. Hope you feel better soon.

Are you booked into a hospital? They usually have physios to help with that sort of thing, might be worth ringing them?

I had some physio done after Tristan's birth and it only cost me my time ;)

:hug: Hope it eases soon x

I usually get DH to stand in front of me and link his hands behind my back between my shoulder blades and hold tight, then i push backwards off him and crunch! More comfortable for me than him pushing on it trying to crack it coz he's quite strong and this way i have all the control. BUT remember if theres something not sitting right you dont want to do more damage, this way works for me but might or might not for you... maybe try it but stop if it hurts? His hands need to be linked at the base of where the pain starts so as you lean back his hands roll up into it. Sorry cant be anymore help!

Does it feel muscular or bone? This is a big factor in determining how to best treat it
Is your movement affected i.e sitting up, straight arms crossed across your chest, can you rotate 90 degrees left and right without pain? does turning one way hurt more than the other and how far can you get?
Sorry about the questions, but just trying to determine which would be the best advice for you

Hows your blood pressure? Had it done recently?

delphmoon - Hasn't been done in three weeks and won't get done until next week. Wouldn't be surprised if it was up though - have had big, big very nasty family dramas resulting in a lot of stress. Could that have something to do with it?

UntoldAngel - it feels very much muscular. Sitting up hurts a lot, lying down hurts a little less, movement not restricted and doesn't hurt turning left or right. It feels like it is a muscular pain running down the muscles in my back just a tiny bit to the right of my left shoulder blade and it sort of follows the outline of it if that makes any sense!

Thank you ladies :) My husband is terrible at massage and hates doing it but last night I started crying and demanded he try to rub it for me. It hurt like hell and I know he didn't have much pressure on there so I'm pretty sure it's muscular. I got maybe a minute of massage before he said his hand hurt too much and he couldn't keep going so I got him to rub some deep heat in (checked it with the pregnancy drug help line linked with my hospital and they said to go for it) and it felt better this morning but now I've been up for a while the pain is starting to kick in again.

Borrowing the money to get it fixed isn't an option. I'm having huge, huge family dramas at the moment that have turned very nasty and given that my family consists entirely of my parents we're stuck. Hopefully some of the other ideas work :)

oh hon. Pain (any pain) sux.

Alternate with ice and heat on the spot. If it's muscular, it sounds like it is going to be inflammed and ice will help with that. The heat will help relax the muscles.

Have you got a tennis ball at home? Or cricket ball? Try and position it so it's in the area of the pain. Lean against a wall and use your body to move the ball around - it will help break up any tension in the muscles. You can control the pressure by how hard you lean against it. It can be tricky to coordinate the first few times. If you can get DH to rub it on your back, that would be awesome ;)

Also try some stretches. Although ice and heat are often helpful, you still need to stretch it out. Unfortunately, you need to play around to see what stretch is going to help you. In that area, the two that generally help are

1). Stand in front of a banister or horizontal pole. Hold on with your hands on top of the pole/banister. Bend from the waist and stretch the upper back. Gently pull away from the pole without letting go. Gently come forward and stand up.

2). Stand side on to a horizontal pole. It will need to be around waist or knee height depending on what you feel when you try it. Start with the higher pole. With the arm furthest from the pole, grab the pole from the UNDER side. You should be bent forward from the hips and standing square (with your side to the pole). This might be enough to feel a stretch on it's own. Otherwise, gently tilt your shoulder down to the floor (a slight twist). If you can't feel anything, try a lower pole.

Also keep moving your shoulders. Some simple shoulder shrugs should help.

HTH and you feel better soon.

MG

Stress could be playing a major part in it hun, and if you can you need to be able to try and relax, for your health and bub's!

You need to do some gentle stretching exercises to try and relieve some of the tension in the muscles. Gently turning to one side, and holding for 10secs (go as far as you can without pain and support your position with your arms), do on other side and repeat 2 or 3 times. There are a few others but I'll have to try and remember them.

Thank you everyone! Will try pretty much all of it I think :)

I had 3 rotated ribs towards the end of pregnancy. Unfortunately, nothing helped, even going to the osteo and getting them pushed back into position. Bub was just in a certain position and mummy's ribs were in the way, so he kept pushing them out of the way. It was near/under my left shoulder blade and it hurt so much all the time. I kept putting heat packs on it. The only time I ever got relief was doing hydrotherapy. In the end, I think I may have been taking panadol or codeine and I hate taking drugs in pregnancy. I'm sorry to say, the only thing that cured the pain was birth.

I hope you find relief. The tennis ball idea seems a good one. I'll remember that for next time.

Do you know what position bub is in? I had the pain when bub was head down as well as breech. I used to think it was cos he was posterior, but we couldn't tell.

No idea what position she's in, Tash. I don't know how to tell and I have never been told at any of my appointments. I'm going to ask next week though - I'm really curious seeing as everyone else in my bellybuddies group seems to know where their bubs are!

i have a little massager with a red light in it that works really well (for me it did anyway).. if you know of anyone who has one, even if its a light on its own.. it maybe worth a try?

My chiropractor told me to roll a towel or two (one on top of the other) very tightly lengthways then secure tightly with twine (we used cable ties) so it resembles a snake, lay it on the ground and then lay down on it with your spine running along the length of the towel. It is so good for upper back pain and kept me sane between visits. Goodluck :)