maybe someone can give some idea of what this could be. my best friend has been having " back spasms " that have been increasing in frequency lately. the pain actually starts on the front,right between her breasts and then spreads to her back, and stays on her spine. it settles about midway down her back. she is in excrutiating pain for about an hour. she says it hurts so bad she has trouble breathing and she can't sit,lean,or even lay down. her only choice is standing and a little walking. her pain is bad eneough to make cry and say things that make no sense. i'm worried because she's not an overdramatic type of person. she's been to the doctor, but all he did was listen to her heart and tell her it was probably just back spasms which he could do nothing about. she's had this for about three years and they have been more frequent and more painful this year. it doesn't sound like any back pain i've ever heard of. an suggestions?

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MOLLY

sorry I can't help. It sounds like she needs to be really insistant with her docs to proceed further to get to the root of the problem
Good luck

Hi Molly,

I am a firefighter/paramedic (disabled by traumatic back injury), when I was working if somebody presented with this hx I would be very suspicious of an AAA - asending aortic aneurism. It usually presents as cx pain with radiation to the mid or low back followed by severe loss of b.p. and rapid decline if it ruptures. The call usually is dispatched as "back pain" and if not suspected could easilly missed....(worst case), or sometimes an ulcerated esoph will present with back pain, with out further hx and testing it is really hard to diagnose, I would think the doc (after this much time) would order testing, considering another doc may be warranted.

Ray