I think I got a good taste of what I may be in for later. today I had a pain in my arm that was worse than any before, I had my daughter over and I had just taken out the kitchen trash and was alone in the garage when the pain hit my shoulder to my elbow. it was a 10 on the scale and lasted a couple minutes. So I stayed in the garage until I could regain my composure. Is this likely to be nerve pain?

Oops, nasty. Sounds like it could indeed by emanating from the neck. And, yes, pain can shoot down the arm.

Neck probs are absolute hell. My neck crunches and grates, and then throws googlies at me in the shape of searing pain in the neck itself and, the continual ache. Right fed up with it all.

Don't think there is much that one can do -

Elmer, have you Dr. take an M.R.I. of it of course and see what is up. I'm going to the go with Neurostimulator. I have 3 bulging disc in the neck alone and all of my Dr.s are saying this is the way to go. FyrFytr on here has one and swears by it.

Sorry you had to endure that 10. Dang that hurts. Makes me hurt thinking about it. I saw a P.T. and he told me there are a few stretches I could do but not man and definitely not to hold my head back.

Its nothing new to me, just a new billable diagnosis.
I have already got a good taste of just how bad anxiety can become, doing better in that area. But last week when I was at my doctors office we watched sweat go down my left arm and drip off my elbow. And this is my doctor of 23 yrs and the one who has been a friend to me, as well as a doctor.
I did a little reading on the cervical spondylosis, I am just grateful I am not losing more of my health than what is possible. I am so afraid of losing my sight, so for now I will just graciously accept things as they are for today, and not focus too much on my tomorrows, or my sorrows.

hey I am a poet and didn't know it.....

Pea,
I don't think its anything more than nerve pain, I think the doc thinks so also, thats probably why he didn't do a mri test.
last december I had what felt like a lightning bolt that hit my shoulder and arm.
One of the administrators mentioned nueropathy, so I did a search and the lightning bolt sensation was mentioned.

I have a herniated disk c4 c5 and had the lightning bolts down both arms,muscle spasms,pain and stiffness.5yrs ago I injured myself and I think was the start of my a.s. problems,but anyway.I got great relief from disk decompression.I bought a traction unit ,a tens unit( really didn't help much) and an ultrasound unit.I haven't had to use any of those for the last 2 yrs.But the thing I still use and always will is the cervical pillow Arc4life I think this baby kept me from surgery.

Have a great day
Tim

I have a couple of bulging disks in neck. Worst it's thrown are some zaps that reach the index and middle fingers and a gnawing pain in either shoulder. Fortunately, they are not terribly frequent, but pain doc did a cervical epidural a couple of days ago. I wait with baited breath to see when next symptoms may hit. After the MRI, see if your doc will set you up for epidurals to push symptoms into control.

I have bone spurs in the facet joints (left side) of a few of my C-spine discs. Since 1998, they have been pressing on nerves and making my life a living $%#$!

For me, the nerves that are compressed are the ones that feed into the upper back; tons of muscle spasms, triggerpoints, pain. And what has made sitting in cars, on planes, and many chairs, etc next to impossible.

But the chiro finally was able to figure out what several PTs, several physiatrists, several orthopedists, and a neurologist could not.

And he had me go back to my physiatrist with the new information. She suggested "behavioral therapy" (code word for a psychiatrist / psychologist). I told her no, that I had an excellent support network in my husband, family, friends, and forum.

But what I needed was someone to address the nerve impingement and pain. So she asked me how she could help me, and I told her to refer me on to someone who could, like a surgeon. She stated flat out that surgery was out of the question and

referred me on to an interventionalist. He has helped me a lot, and get this, suggested that I talk to the surgeons in the practice he's in, after seeing how bad the bone spurs were through fluoroscopy. I'd prefer to avoid surgery as long as possible, and between the interventionalist and my chiro, we're managing the symptoms; so long as I'm very careful as to where I sit. If i sit somewhere and feel the smallest amount of numbness in my face or tightness (spasms) in my upper back, i get up right away. Also flares that cause inflammation in all the joints will flare it as well; thus important that i squelch any flares ASAP.

As a side note: I truly wish doctors would stop suggesting psychological counseling when they are at a loss of how to help. Just because they are overwhelmed and out of ideas and hope doesn't mean that I am. I guess I'm lucky though because that's the only time a doctor tried that with me. Sadly, this was a doctor that I used to have a good working relationship with; until my disease symptoms became more than she could handle. Fine, you can't help me; just say so and we'll part ways. You don't have to be mean to me because of it.

As for what the interventionalist has done so far: cortisone injections into the facet joints. that helped a lot, but very short term. So we're back to the trigger point injections to the upper back; they seem to help a lot. He said he could do nerve ablations for me as well if I want him to; i just might do that since others here have had good luck with them.

Also, I'm seeing all the time other methods of blocking nerve pain, so there's hope out there.

The latest was the cryo-pen.

I did try lyrica, but it gave me migraines. That's another approach, drugs that work on the nerve pain.

And the chiro doing things like manual traction, gentle massage, gentle ART. Going to him twice a week has been very helpful.

And he is the one that dx'ed this properly, after way too many doctors for 13 years just kept saying it was "localized myofascial pain syndrome". One doctor even wrote that my pain was worse than it should have been for "myofascial pain"; maybe that should have been a clue that it was not.

Well, at least I've got good people working on it now.

But still, even with that, the fact that its so challenging to manage and that its not a simple thing to treat, well, sometimes that's a bit depressing, so i try not to think about it too often. At least its managed as well as it is.

I also find driving everywhere with an icepack on my back is helping as much as all the other things I'm doing.

As molly said, neck stuff is the pits.

I am going to see my general doctor tomorrow about my arm and shoulder. It has become a constant pain and I can't lift my right arm, reaching for things is something is nearly impossible now. Hurts and throbs all night with a whammy pain when I wake up. Not sure where the a.s. ends so hopefully he can x ray or MRI.
I go see a social security doctor this saturday. I know something is wrong with my shoulder and arm, just not sure what it is, I just know its getting worse fast. And I doubt as doc will take the time so hoping my doc can find something
I get another evaluation also, they want to see how crazy I am evidently.
The anxiety is getting worse as this drags on.
The only good thing about mornings is that I just continue to get better looking every day....

Could be a couple of things - apart from cervical 'could also' be an impingement, and therefore needing a SAD/ACJ. All information to be found on shoulderdoc.co.uk - best shoulder website to be found - anywhere. (I posted on this to cemc the other week).

BTW - do NOT permit cortisone injections into the shoulder. Weakens tendons and ligamnts. Synvisc, under ultrasound guided needle, will not damage.

-Ray will show bone, MRI will show bone and soft tissue. MRI is the better choice. Though they might do both, starting with X-Ray.

Good luck, hope it goes well for you - REST that shoulder. Do NOT aggravate it. Oh yes, might ALSO have a torn rotator cuff - all yr symptoms can cover that little lot!

Take care -