Weird back pain in difficult child 1 tonight

gcvmom

Here we go again!
difficult child 1 was in his bathroom and suddenly yelled for me to come help him. He was sitting on the toilet doubled over and said his lower back was killing him. He really seemed to be in a lot of pain. It was mostly his right side and it was sort of like a muscle pain -- he said it wasn't sharp, just intense. At first I thought it was bowel related -- he's had constipation issues on and off lately. But he said no, his bm's are normal today. He begged me to get him an icepack. The pain lasted about a half hour, then gradually resolved. But then it was replaced by very painful skin -- he said it felt like a bad sunburn, in the same area where the "muscle" pain was. Plus, he's got a faint rash starting up on his back and shoulders... not red at all. Looks like a food allergy type of rash (but not hives).

It's very weird.

I gave him a tylenol and he's in bed now. Bizarre. I wonder if it was a muscle spasm and maybe some nerves got irritated in the process....
 

flutterby

Fly away!
I'm sure you know that Crohn's can cause issues outside of the GI tract. He seems to be in a flare or at least a partial flare, right?

When I was having the abdominal issues - the first time, I wasn't constipated at all, but I had horrible lower back pain.

And, you're right, in that it could be residual from muscle spasms, especially if it was that intense.

Keep us posted on how he's feeling.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
No, he didn't have hives. Just a faint rash -- no discoloration -- more like a food reaction and it was on his upper back/shoulders. It looks like fine goosebumps, only they don't go away.

Turns out the muscle pain was on the right side and the nerve/skin pain was on the left (???) Weird. This morning he said his back felt better, but the skin is very sensitive on the left side. I'm wondering if he had his belt too tight... he says it's not that and showed me that it wasn't too tight based on how he wore it this morning.

Oh and now he's got this "thing" on the sole of his foot near the arch -- he thinks there's somethings stuck in it because it hurts. The redness is very localized. I think it may be a plantar wart. I'll try to have someone look at it when he goes in for his flu shot.

Poor kid's falling apart :p
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
My initial thought was kidney stone (common with Crohn's), but that would probably be up higher and the skin thing doesn't fit. Could be "referred pain" from the GI tract. Hope it was an isolated thing.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Crazy, I wondered about that, too. I thought maybe he was impacted again and was cramping and feeling it in his back. But when he said his bm's were normal, I dismissed it. Then again, sometimes he tells me things are okay and later retracts it (something wrong with how his mouth and brain work together).

Heather, there's no sign of inflammation anywhere near the area involved. (His knee is still a mess from the picking (which has thankfully stopped) though).
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
JJJ, I didn't think it was up high enough to be a kidney issue. It is just below the waist/belt line).
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Crazy, that is something he is very lax about doing -- thus the constipation issues he gets! I will continue to urge that.

EB, he has never had chickenpox, and the vaccine did not "take" with him -- we had his titer level checked and it's zero. I agree that it sounds a bit like shingles before the rash... He can't have the cp vaccine because of the immunosupressant he takes to control his Crohn's.

I'm going to watch the bowel/fluids issue -- the referred pain theory (despite what he tells me about having normal bm's, which I cannot always believe) makes sense the more I think on it.
 
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