Heya,

I'm seeking advice. Since Christmas morning - I have had back pain from my waistline to my lower back all the way across. At first I thought I just strained muscles during my gym workout 2 days prior, but the pain has continued and progressively gotten worse. I've been using a heating paid & tylenol 3, then I took oxy for it (just twice) and it helped a lot. The pain comes & goes. Early this morning to mid-morning - I felt fine... but I had the Oxy the night before and slept 8 hours on the heating pad. The pain resurfaced about noon today, then progressively got my intense.

My brother started thinking it was kidney related and I googled around and found many gastric sleeve patients get kidney stones.. I have some of the symptoms.

I bought a AZO test to see if it was a UTI & the nitrite part was negative, but the leukocytes turned up positive (but the test strip was light colored, so if it truly is positive, then it's not by much).

I was going to just go to my primary care tomorrow, but she won't be able to do Xrays. I got furloughed a few months ago from my job and got insurance via Obama care.. and it very expensive to go to the ER ($1,000 + cost of tests, etc). Urgent care will be a little less expensive, but of course they don't have the same equipment/care as the hospital.

Do you guys think this sounds like it could be kidney related?

What would you do in my situation?

They can evaluate your kidneys with a urine and blood test. X-ray would be 2nd step and probably more expensive? Maybe go to an ER where they take indigent patients? This way, if you can’t pay out of pocket, and since you are not working, maybe they can take the hit? Regardless, they are required to treat you by law and cannot turn you away. Also, ERs have more capabilities than urgent care. A lot of urgent cares will send you to LabCorb or something like that to outsource your labs. Best of luck to you but get it checked out as it seems debilitating and you deserve solid quality of life, especially after surgery and weight loss.

I do have insurance, but my copays are very high. I am going to go to my PCP first and see what she thinks. The pain is still there this morning, but not as bad. Of course it tends to be worse at night.. and come and go.

Thank you for your advice!

My be gallbladder. I had real bad back pain that happened at night and then would get better until the bile duct got blocked from gall stones

Get checked

4 hours ago, IWantTheDream said:

My be gallbladder. I had real bad back pain that happened at night and then would get better until the bile duct got blocked from gall stones

Ugh. I am petrified of that. I've been scared of having gallbladder problems since the surgery. I am going to the doctor tomorrow morning and see what she thinks. The back pain is minimal today but still there.

Try drinking a gallon of liquids a day (throw in some cherry stem tea, too). If it's kidney related, it will help you pass whatever is blocking the ways in there.