I have sever back pain after surgery. The doctors haven't found anything, why?

[mike_kima]

Hello Everyone,

First off, I want to say thank you for spending the time to read this post. My girlfriend has been having some really bad back pain (towards the middle back). This pain is sudden and is not always present. She describes it as a ton of pressure with a stabbing feeling. It is so scary to see it. She winces in pain, cries and cannot move. We have gone to two different ERs and the first one said she had a bladder infection and maybe it went up to the kidneys, so they prescribed her antibiotics. They also did a CT scan on her chest to look for blood clots - none were found. The infection went away after 14 days but she still had the pain - it happens like once a day and would happen after eating. She would have to throw up for the back pain to go away. After the persistent pain, we went again to another ER room - we'll refer to it as ER number 2. They did more tests and said they didn't wanna do another CT scan because it had not even been a month, so they did a ultrasound and said they found stones in her gall bladder - they thought this was the cause. She was then referred to see a specialist. The specialist sat down, asked a few questions and said okay, those are symptoms of the gall bladder stones. The next day she was scheduled for surgery and the gall bladder was removed, but then they said "it was infected there was no stones". Four days post surgery, she woke up in the morning and woke me up as well. She was again wincing in pain and crying because the back paid had came back. I took her again to the hospital - this time it was the worst pain - worse than labor she said. She had the sever back pain and once we got to the hospital she wanted to throw up, but could not because her incisions from surgery were giving her more pain. So now it was a double edged sword. She had severe back pain, and now bad abdominal pain, because she mimicked vomiting - but did not vomit. She was fainting from the pain already and they finally took her in. Nurses did lab tests - blood, urine and a cat scan of the abdomen. Dr. said everything looked good and once again sent her home. I am writing this in desperate help to see if anyone has ever had this issue before and have been cured from it.

Notes about her: all this happened in the time lapse of a month, she gave birth a little over a month ago, in her early 20s.

[specialmom]

Hi.  Wow, what a hard time.  Plus just having a baby?  Poor lady!  I'm sure this is really hard for you to watch.  I will tell you that a kidney infection can cause pain in the back but it is usually lower.  But she must have had the kidney infection as they test for that.  She had a positive urine culture?  And I've personally suffered gall bladder issues.  They said it was infected.  I'm not actually fully sure what that means.  But I had a gall bladder flare up and it was awful. Pains, nausea, etc.  I also get nausea with and without vomiting as a pain response.  I threw up several times during MY labor due to contraction pain.  Joy.    So, I'm not fully sure what is happening with her.  Does she have a regular primary care doctor?  Something I wonder about is that they have found infection both times, kidney and gallbladder you say.  What about making sure she doesn't have sepsis?  Sepsis is very serious and I'm guessing they checked for it but it can cause a good deal of pain. I think I'd schedule an appointment either with her regular care doctor to discuss this ongoing issue.  

Infection of the pancreas can cause severe abdominal pain that can radiate down the back as well. So, ask about that too.

And she had a baby 1 month ago before all of this began?