Night time backache between shoulder blades

Bones, joints and muscles
1

For a decade or three I've suffered from back pain between my shoulder blades at night. The pain comes and goes for weeks - lasting from 2 weeks to 2 months but only at night. I had all R ribs broken in a car crash in 1997 but tbh I don't think it's related. The pain is similar to what I had walking along a street one cold winter's day (this was before the car crash) so I'm tending to think it's muscular rather than spinal.

X-ray shows some spinal degeneration & bone density (DEXA) scan showed borderline osteopenia. So now on Calcium & vit D supplements.

The pains have always disappeared for months, then they'll be back - only at night. Using Tramadol for pain management.

Tried different sleeping positions and 3 different beds. Sleeping on either side is the least comfortable.

I've wondered if my back's not been warm enough through the night and muscles are tensing up. Pain takes at least 4 hours to appear after going to sleep. The quickest relief is by getting up in the morning. I can't say I've noticed it being seasonal - although possibly related to switching back to summer bedclothes!

Anyone had anything similar or any thoughts on what could be causing it ?

Mike.

2

I once read something online about back pain. In this article it said that people with back pain always try to look back at where they injured their back. But sometimes it's not an injury that is causing the pain at all it is just your back acting up because of some condition it has.

Where you are suffering from your back pain is the least common place you can have back pain. The neck and lower back are by far the overriding common areas. So if you're having pain in your thorax area then it may very well be a pinched nerve that only gets pinched when you're sleeping because of the position you're in. I know a lot of people who sleep in their recliners when their pain is at its worst because it somehow stop they're hurting some what. If you have a recliner you might try sleeping in it and see if you get the same pain you getting bad. It just sounds like an interesting test. I suffered from chronic lower back pain since 2007. My pain is 24/7/365. I hope you get this figured out soon. Keep us posted.