Morning only

[Asherleymoco]

Every morning I wake up with lower back pain on the left hand side. It does spread round the to side and front on occasions. It eases off when I get up and move around. Does anyone else have this and have any advice?

I also wake up with extremely dry mouth - I am on famotodine for gastritis - verapamil for AFIb - betnesol drops for sinusitis - could this be anything to do with it.

[xjrs]

I'm not a doctor, so it is always best to discuss any symptoms with your doctor, for them to diagnose you, including possible side effects of any medication you are on.

I had something similar which involved me getting pain in my lower to mid back anywhere from 2am onwards, which used to resolve on standing. I was diagnosed with visceral hypersensitivity (functional abdominal pain) - there is info about it here:

iffgd.org/lower-gi-disorder...

It is where the brain interprets the normal activity of the bowel as pain - this is due to a wearing down of neurons in pain control centres of the brain which can be caused by PTSD, neglect or abuse in childhood, extreme stressful events etc. The first line treatment is nerve pain agents such as low dose amitriptyline. There is a theory that being on something like amitriptyline for 6-12 months can help the pain control centre neurons to regenerate. Note that amitriptyline can cause constipation, but this can be helpful in people who are diarrhea dominant. Unfortunately I couldn't tolerate these. Linaclotide (for IBS-C only) & Alflorex probiotic have helped me with this intestinal pain.

Pain may be due to a gut bacterial imbalance, which is why Alflorex helped me. This has been scientifically studied for IBS.

I got these symptoms in the early hours of the morning, since this is the time that the colon is at its most active preparing for a BM. The more activity, the more the intestinal nerves are going to get stimulated causing pain. Perhaps on rising gravity helps to keep things moving along so there is less impact on the nerves (just a theory I have).

You may also find assistance with enteric coated peppermint, since some say this helps with pain.

You can find some info on self management of IBS here:

theibsnetwork.org/the-self-...

As mentioned though, it would be best to get a phone appointment with the GP - see what they have to say and if they seem stumped, you can always raise with them what I have mentioned. For a long time my GPs said that I had acid reflux, but if it were reflux, I would feel the pain between my shoulder blades rather than lower down my back. The visceral hypersensitivity diagnosis came about when I had some unusually painful colonoscopies.