Add'l Pain While Driving

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SoManyFeelings

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Hi everyone, hope someone can help me out here. For the past 2 mos I've been in severe pain in my right shoulder down to my elbow to my wrist and it's worse when I drive. (I've had a history of 8 slipped disks from my cervical to lurabar for the past 10 yrs and the past month I've been going to a neurologist who thinks it's mainly osteoarthritis and am going thru P/T for traction, lucky me!). Anyway, no one can actually pinpoint where my pain is actually coming from except possibly my C5-6 which is highly possible. I'm trying to look at every angle here and thinking it's possibly shoulder related instead of constantly blaming everything on my C5-6 so I think Monday I'll call a ortho dr. Also, has anyone ever had their pain intensify in the shoulder and full arm while driving? This is crazy! Please help and thanks for reading my post, bye now,

angel:angel:
 
really glad you are seeing your ortho about this. just a thought for ya since i just went thru this myself and also have hell going on in my c spine too. its kinda messy in there? this "could' possibly stemming from the shoulder itself. i was having pain in the upper arm and in the lower areas of my right arm too,but this didn't exactly feel like the radiculopathy i have had in the past with my c spine problems. then one day i just went to lift my purse up that was sitting on top of the fridge and boom,instant severe pain knife jabs into the actual top of my arm into the shoulder area? i had just torn the rest of what had started i guess a long time ago,of my supraspinatus tendon.

this just could possibly be an actual rotator cuff issue more so than related to your c spine area,thats all. how is your range of motion with that particular arm? any pain IN the shoulder cuff area at the top? any increase in pain upon extenstion with that arm? your ortho would be able to tell just by checking your ROM and what your real symptoms are whether this could be a possible shoulder issue and not a c spine one. i do think you are seeng the right person for this type of eval tho. thats a plus for you believe me.

rotator cuff tears are a very very common type of injury to have. you can run on this for quite awhile before it really starts to show itself with stronger symptoms. i KNOW when i started this tear and it was well over 15 years ago. i 'felt" something back then when i was lifting something very heavy,but it got better and i moved on. a few lttle issues popped up from time to time,then bam. that one day,it all hit the fan for me. anyone who has done heavy lifting for a living or really strains the upper arm area alot can have this type of injury and not know it til it just reaches that certain point.

i would most definitely ask your ortho for the eval for possible rotator cuff tear,just as a precaution. i never knew my shoulder area was as bad as it was til they did that MRI on it after the knife jab event occured. just one other possibility that could be giving you the symptoms you are having.

hope it isn;t the rotator cuff. it can get a bit nastier than dealing with the spinal stuff if left un fixed. i wish you luck that your ortho can find the source for you quickly. please let me know what you find out,K? marcia
 
Hey Marcia, thanks so much for your post and I'm so sorry I didn't respond, I thought I did and just realized I hadn't since I had posted this under "bone problems" ... so, I'm "copying" to you what I had posted a few days back, here goes:

(As to my neurologist, he had done the nerve conductor test which was extremely painful vs the one I had 2 yrs back. As to the orthopedic I went to last week, he was just going to let me leave with no diagnosis except to keep up with the painful traction for my neck, however, I told him I'd appreciate having a shoulder MRI done and fortunately he said fine ... I had it (the MRI) done last Thursday and will meet with him this Wednesday for the findings of it. Also, I have been requesting a thoracic MRI to be done for the past few months with the neurologist and he's been reluctant in approving it, have no idea why ... I did have one done about 7 yrs back ... the reason I'm wanting one done now is because of how my pain radiates from the shoulder and arm down under my arm to my right side of my lung and causes shortness of pain ... not sure if it's from pain, cramping or whatever. So, as to these drs. I'm going to now, they're most likely fired, and I'll be going to see new ones soon. When I went to my orthopedic, he pulled up my few x-rays on his laptop and said oh yeah, definitely arthritis and reviewed my c-spine MRI showing bulging from C-3 through 7, and herniation and bone spur at C-5&6, and said my arm pain shouldn't be from all that ... then asked me to squeeze his 2 fingers on each hand and that was it. He never examined my arm, incredible. So, as soon as I meet with him this Wednesday, I'll decide which new dr. to call.

Oh, at the moment, I'm in add'l pain ... I was making tacos for my family and frienRAB yesterday and when I went to stir the 4lbs of beef with the big spoon, it felt like the top of my shoulder popped out and it was so painful, I couldn't even stir so what's funny is the men took over, lol, which was perfect since it was Mother's Day)!.

Marcia, I'll be meeting with my ortho this afternoon and will find out my MRI results, I'll post as soon as I know. Thank you so much for your time in posting me, you certainly have more expertise in these areas vs the doctors :), bye now :angel: p.s. I hope you're feeling better from your surgery, "prayers for you" :angel:
 
i will be awaiting your reply. what you just explained happened with your shoulder when you went to "stir" happened to me too,only it was trying to just scoop up a cup of dog food one morning. going from side to side,that motion,really just hurt like all get out that day and had ever since. also,stirring anything on the stove that had ANY resistance? bad,bad bad stuff there. i really do think you have at least some rotator issues going on just based upon your symptoms and how you have described things. like i said,MANY people actually have rotator tears,but becasue of the muslce there too,it can compensate for it,in some cases,like mine,for years before it really starts to show itself. my ortho told me it is one of the most common surgeries they do and most often seen in his practice when people come in with similar symptoms to what you have going on and what i had. all this time,i just assumed since my c spine was such a freaking mess that the shoulder stuff was part of it too(radiated pain?). but it was its own little pain process from tendon damage. go figure.

if there is an actual problem up in that rotator,it would show up upon MRI. mine was very crystal clear. along with about five other major shoulder issues all going on too. luckily you were already seeing an ortho and able to get the needed MRI done really soon. most people end up just waiting to even get that MRI done.

i hope things are not too bad for you. please let me know just what you find out. marcia
 
Yesterday, the PM dr. put a steroid ion patch across my shoulder for 4 hrs and it's really hurting today, it was already hurting terribly and now it's worse and hoping it'll calm down ... does this make sense to any of you? In addition, from receiving the patch yesterday it made me additionally fatigued and I just don't feel right ... but I do remeraber from my past yrs that I've never done well with steroiRAB. Anyway, help??? (I also have a post under "bone")
 
just how old is that c spine MRI and what did it actually state as hard findings in the end in that summary? i am just a bit suprised that a doc like this wouldn;t have wanted a follow up comparative MRI since you did have some definitive issues show in the other one. the T spine,tho would be a good idea just for alot of reasons,but generally wouldn;t be affecting what you are dascribing here. that in most cases would stem from the c spine or at the very least,down to only T 1. it all depenRAB upon the exact symptoms you are having in that arm and what it tracks down to as in the hand/fingers. all the spinal nerves correlate to very specific innervated areas called 'dermatomes"? you can kind of track a problem back from like one or two fingers,right up to the culprit nerve in most cases,it just depenRAB upon where this is generating from,you know what i mean? knowing EXACTLY what you are feeling in that arm down thru the fingers would help alot in trying to narrow down a possible problem area up there.

just one big thing here,even within only a matter of months(over six?) ALOT can change within the spine and what will actually show changes upon a new MRI being done. this is why most specialists want you to have an MRI,when doing any eval or consult,that has been done no longer than six months ago,espescially when a possible surgery may be involved. things can just change that quickly in some cases.

tho your MRI on that shoulder thankfully did not show full thickness tears,it would probably be a pain source and casue some level of problems. i do think your c spine is probably more involved here than your shoulder right now,just my own opinion here. that supraspinatus is the very top tendon that runs across the top of our shoulder area from the top of the humorus to the base of the neck area,so it 'could' be just contributing. my supra was a full thickness trear among other issues that i had that required surgical repair for me.

for you,i really would be looking at your c spine alot more closely here as the culprit for the arm issues and other symptoms you are having there that may run to your fingers. are there any of your fingers that seem affected more than others in any way? just a suggestion for you here. look up what dermatomes actually are,there is alot of info and actual diagrams of just how the spinal nerves innervate particular areas in our bodies. this may help in tracking back to your c spine from your symptoms just where your problem areas are. but if you can, let me know what the summary stated about the more pertinent issues up in that c spine area and also just how long ago that MRI actually was. thanks,Marcia
 
Hi Marcia, thanks for responding so quickly :) ... I just got back from seeing the orthopedic and wanted to let you know my findings in hope that you can explain everything to me in layman's terms :)

Impression:

Supraspinatus tendinosis and fraying without a full-thickness tear.

Mildly hooked, laterally downsloping acromion with a small subacromial osteophyte. In the appropriate clinical circumstances, this could represent an impinging lesion.

AC arthrosis.

Mild subacromial subdeltoid bursitis.

He gave me a referral for P/T for 4 wks which I already dropped off at the Total Rehab Care ... and if it's not better then he may possibly do an injection. He also feels that what's going on with my shoulder is separate from my c-spine and forearm. (I will be going to my first visit with pain management tomorrow to see if they can be of any help to me, sure hope so, have been in sooo much pain as mostly everyone on this board is).

Please let me know what you feel with my findings okay? Thanks so so much Marcia, bye now :angel: p.s. also, anyone else who has feelings from my post, please respond :)
 
Thanks for responding Marcia, appreciate it. As to my shoulder issue, it may have a little to do with the c-spine, however, from what the Ortho and PM said after looking at the MRI pics on their computer, is from what they see, it doesn't look too good in my shoulder, they both can see alot going on in there and most definitely impingement as well as many other things, a mess for sure they said. For the first time in 2 mos I have a real diagnosis of my deep pain in my right shoulder. And the Ortho and PM drs both feel that most definitely my shoulder issue is a separate issue from my many several issues going on. From going thru so much in the past yrs from my spine, cervical to lurabar, I knew that this time, that it was something add'l unfortunately. Incredible now, that the drs. believe that I'm severe pain from what they've seen from my shoulder MRI, finally, and also how they've treated me a little bit more compassionately than before.

(you had mentioned something about a c-spine MRI comparison? I had a c-spine 2 mos back vs the one from yrs back which shows the bulging in most disks and herniation and osteophyte in C5-6 ... but from what they all saw from the c-spine MRI just disn't correspond to the deep pain I was having in my shoulder/arm ... well, hello docs, it's my shoulder, I know the difference of pain, nurabness, tingling that can come from the neck. Thank goodness I requested the shoulder MRI). Thanks so much Marcia for your response. Bye now.:angel:
 
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