Pain sucks... (ping:doctors)

[Chief Rum]

This weekend has been weird, thanks to this odd neck-shoulder pain I have. Want to see if anyone else has had experienced this. It's not serious, so far as I know. I wouldn't equate it to what duckman went through or AlanT's girlfriend, and others, but it certainly has made an impact for me.

As most here know, I work two jobs and stay very busy. I also work out every day (when not injured), but tend to stick to cardio/calorie-burning exercises. About two weeks ago, maybe a little less, I felt some pain in my left shoulder blade. It wasn't during a workout, it wasn't a flash of pain and it was there. It just all of a sudden hit me one day that I had some pain there and had had it for probably two or three days. It was one of those unconscious things I just realized I had. I was pretty sure about when it started, and it was well after my last workout with weights, so I felt certain it wasn't related to that. But I get pains and sores all the time. They usually just go away, so i didn't put any more thought into it.

Well, time went by, and the pain didn't go away. It didn't get worse, but it should have gotten better. I still shrugged it off and continued doing my thing.

Well, about the middle of this week, it started getting worse, once again no real indication as to why. It was particularly tough in the mornings, where rising from lying down was painful, and looking left in particular brought pain to my neck. I stopped all workouts and told myself to limit any physical activity and rest up. The pain got bad enough on Thursday that I almost went home from work. I decided to rest up this weekend and see if it got better. If it didn't I would go to the doctor's.

Well, Friday morning was the worst yet. I wasn't feeling pain in just my neck and shoulder now, but my left arm as well, to the bicep. And it wasn't just pain in motion. Now it was pain all the time. And finding a comfortable position to put myself in to relieve the pain was difficult. I called out from my second job Friday night and went to see the doc. He gave me anti-inflammatory shot, a prescription for pain meds and muscle relaxers, told me to take five days off from work and try not to do anything to aggravate the area if I could. I was hoping all this and resting up this weekend would ease the pain and discomfort, and I would be feeling considerably better by the time I saw him again (tomorrow). Well, the pain hasn't gotten any better. Not much worse either, but it's defintiely not better.

So now I am wondering if when I go in, he's going after to check me like athletes are checked out, with an MRI or something like that, to see if I have a tear or if it's a pinched nerve or what. I just want to know what the heck is going on. It's hard to sleep, even with the pain meds. And I feel like a loaf just sitting around doing nothing.

Anyone seen anything like this?

[terpkristin]

It sounds a bit to me like something might be pinched but I'm really no expert.
Is the pain medication working? If you're not having any relief, the next step will likely be an MRI or CT. Did you see a regular doc or an orthopod? If you haven't seen an orthopod, I would... Good luck, I wish I had more to offer.

/tk

[Chief Rum]

It sounds a bit to me like something might be pinched but I'm really no expert.
Is the pain medication working? If you're not having any relief, the next step will likely be an MRI or CT. Did you see a regular doc or an orthopod? If you haven't seen an orthopod, I would... Good luck, I wish I had more to offer.

/tk

I have thought pinch or muscle strain. What always tripped me out was it being completely localised on my left side. I mean, I have complete painless motion and rotation in my right shoulder and arm. The only pain I feel when making motions on the right side of my body is where those movements also move my left side.

It was my PCP, regular doc. I figured I would start with him before going to a specialist. He actually didn't really say what he thought it was, mostly listened to my describe my symptoms and prescribed from there. I think he will be more hands on, probing tomorrow.

The pain medication has worked, taking much of the edge off for a while. But when it comes back, it seems to come back full. So the medicine helpsm but it isn't get8ng better (so much I can tell anyway).

[Eaglesfan27]

Really tough to say what this is. Hopefully, you have a decent insurance company and a decent doc who will do a good workup to try to ascertain the cause. Let us know how it goes.

[Rizon]

I've had the same pain in my left shoulder like yours for years. Comes and goes. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes not. Pain relievers don't help at all. I'm use to it by now, though.

[st.cronin]

I had a broken collarbone which didn't heal properly when I was younger, and I'm susceptible to pain in that part of the body, supposedly as a result of that.

[Ragone]

Yea, my first thought reading your description was a pinched nerve, and the fact that its worse in the morning leads me to believe you might be sleeping wrong as well

[Izulde]

My initial hunch says pinched nerve, in which case an acupuncturist did great for me.

Don't, however, let a chiropractor touch it. From my limited experience they make the neck pain worse and that much more difficult to treat. Great for backs, though.

[Chief Rum]

Just got back from the doc's. He says it's a muscle cramp, and the reason I feel the extended pain in my arm is because the nerve to my arm runs through the cramped muscle. When I feel my upper back, I can tell a difference between my left and right side, with a bump/ridge of sorts above the shoulder blade on the left.

He upped my muscle relaxers and gave me a prescription for Benadryl to help me sleep better at night (but told me only to take it when I was about to go to bed). He also prescribed a steroid pack (okay, that freaks em a bit) and recommended I use heating pads/compresses on my shoulder (he recommended simple fix of sprinkling water on a towel and microwaving it).

He still has me drinking at least 4 liters of water a day as well. We got the paperwork going on a referral for an orthopedic, but we're hoping it won't be necessary. And I bought this orthopedic pillow at the store. We'll see how that goes.

Wish me luck!

[Lathum]

Just got back from the doc's. He says it's a muscle cramp, and the reason I feel the extended pain in my arm is because the nerve to my arm runs through the cramped muscle. When I feel my upper back, I can tell a difference between my left and right side, with a bump/ridge of sorts above the shoulder blade on the left.

He upped my muscle relaxers and gave me a prescription for Benadryl to help me sleep better at night (but told me only to take it when I was about to go to bed). He also prescribed a steroid pack (okay, that freaks em a bit) and recommended I use heating pads/compresses on my shoulder (he recommended simple fix of sprinkling water on a towel and microwaving it).

He still has me drinking at least 4 liters of water a day as well. We got the paperwork going on a referral for an orthopedic, but we're hoping it won't be necessary. And I bought this orthopedic pillow at the store. We'll see how that goes.

Wish me luck!


Good luck CR.

Having herniated 3 disks in my back last year I understand how it can suck being in that kind of pain. One of the disks was pressing on my sciatic nerve so there was pain all the way down my right leg and into my foot. It was so bad I couldn't sleep.

[kenparker23]

Could be coming from your cervical spine. With no improvements on anti-inflammatories, I would probably get an MRI scan of your C-spine. That would be a start. Doubt the pain is from the shoulder (i.e. rotator cuff) usually have to have an actual event or injury in someone your age (assuming you are under 50). Even if it is a disk in your neck, you should be able to treat without surgery.

[chesapeake]

I had something similar happen to me about 6 years ago, without the arm pain. It was a muscle cramp on the high side of my left shoulder blade, causing excruciating pain in my neck. The pain for a couple of nights was too great to sleep, as I could find no position where the pain wasn't extreme.

Pain killers and muscle relaxants helped some, but what really allowed me to recover wasl lying on my back with a rolled up dish towel under my neck, causing my head to tilt way back. Somehow, that position for the head relieves the pressure on those muscles supporting the neck. I snored badly those nights, but I slept and gradually got better. Be careful sitting up again from the reclined position. That hurts like hell.

[Chief Rum]

Thanks, chesapeake. I might try that tonight. And ken, I am hoping it's not my neck. No praying. I know that injuries to that area get a lot more messy. I'm somewhat confident it is only peripherally connected to my neck by the fact I have no pain or motion issues at all on my right side. But what do I know?

Yesterday went a little better, and I had longer periods of good sleep last night, but the morning was still just gawd awful, and my pain was still coming through strong even with the pain medicine today.

I would think a muscle cramp would ease up after a bit, but this one shows no give. With all the muscle relaxers I am taking and water I am drinking, it should come unclenched byut it hasn't.

Seeing my PCP is a bit of a pain becuase he's one of those treat everyone sorts of doctors--which is great on a humanistic level, but not so much on how long it takes me to see him and how there aren't too many comfortable places for me to wait to see him.

So today (without his advice), I am visiting a massage therapist/chiropractor. I have seen myself how a little massaging of the area has relieved the pain for a bit and that's with me and my untrained hands reaching over my shoulder and kneading the area. I figure a trained therapeutic massage therapist might be able to get unwound completely. Worth a shot anyway.

I'm hoping not to go too much toward the chiropractic area. I still don't think this is a neck/spne issue and would rather avoid back breaking treatments.

[Chief Rum]

Oh, and thanks everyone for the well wishes.

[Chief Rum]

Okay, I THINK I'm getting better. It will probably be through the weekend before I can be sure.

The visit to the massage therapist/doctor of chiropracty has helped. He beat the hell out of that cramped muscle and told it to play it straight. Now, one day later, most of the soreness I have in my neck and back is from soreness from the treatment, not from the muscle injury itself.

The bad news is the nerve to my arm still seems to be very affected, meaning I still have a lot of difficulty sleeping due now to arm pain. I am hoping a couple more days of recovery will see this lessen.

I am going back to one of my jobs tonight, but will probably get a doctor's note to stay away from the other one through the weekend (the other job, a serving job, is more physical).