Weird pain on my back. Ideas?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Required disclaimers: You are not my doctor, any free advice is worth every cent, etc. etc. :slight_smile: Also, I have a doctor’s appt. next week and will mention it then.

Anyway, yesterday I developed an odd pain on my back. I say “on” because it doesn’t feel like it is IN my back, just on and right under the skin.

It comes from an area about 1 inch round, and it is about 1 inch to the right of my spine. If you stretch one arm up your back from below and the other down your back from above, where your fingers meet is about where it is.

I asked my spouse to examine the location. There is nothing appearing on the skin. I feel a little pain (2 to 3 on a 1 - 10 scale) when it is touched.

I haven’t done anything unusual except sit on a beach yesterday, but it seems like I remember feeling it start to get sore before sitting on the beach. I haven’t lifted anything heavy, or done any “bending over” yard work or anything like that.

If I move my arms in different directions (up, down, in front of my chest, behind my back) I don’t get any sharper pain from any of these movements, though I can feel it sometimes just because the skin is moving.

So this is odd. Any idea what could cause it? BTW, I live on the left coast, if that has any bearing on it.

J.

2

You’re growing a massive pimple deep down there.

3

Ewww! Except I don’t really have pimples anywhere, even on my back. I may have had a few on my face in the Paleozoic when I was a teenager, but nothing since then.

J.

4

Is it just under your shoulder blade? I have had similar pain off and on for several years, and decided to get it checked out when I found out it could be my gallbladder, even though I had no GI symptoms. My doctor agreed, because gallbladder disease is not something you want to fool around with, and an x-ray and ultrasound both came up normal and he said it was actually what else he thought it might be: a pulled muscle.

5

Are you feeling run down? Shingles sometimes start near the spine, though you’d generally experience multiple spots in a sort of downward curve.

6

You could be getting a cyst there. They are kind of like pimples, but not really related to acne. If that’s what it is, it can get infected and huge and very painful, in which case you will have to see a doctor for antibiotics and/or lancing. They can go away and come back intermittently until you have them surgically removed.

Or it could be shingles starting, or some kind of nerve thing. You should be seeing new signs very shortly if it doesn’t just go away.

7

I’m REALLY hoping it’s not shingles. My dad had it after he retired and I remember everything he went through.

It’s actually feeling a little bit better now. I also have dermatologist appt. Thursday. Hopefully, she will clue me in on what it is.

Thanks,
J.

8

No, I’m not feeling run down. And it’s feeling a little better this evening.

Thanks,
J.

9

Just an update. Well, the pain went away. No more tenderness at the place at all. So I guess it’s nothing.

Thanks for the responses,
J.