Do I need surgery or what?...

  • Thread starter Thread starter chalander
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chalander

Guest
-Present-
Hi, i sturabled upon this forum while researching information that pertained to my current issue. I am 21 years old and suffer from shoulder/arm pain with both pain and nurabness in my back that radiates around my t5, t6, and t7 vertebrae. Some days my pain scale hits 5-6 and i have to take medicine to function throughout my day normally. Other days however my back will feel completely fine. I work in a mill, fire fighting, and lift weight/strength train 3-5 times a week, i am in the best shape of my life.

-Past-
My back problems first arouse at the end of my sophomore year in high school as shoulder pain that was ignored until the beginning of my junior year. After 3 months of weight training and wrestling my shoulder pain became a lot worst. i would experience the most pain in the mornings and it would gradually get better throughout the day. But during that time i would wake up and shower in the morning with the inability to use my arm, it would dangle and set me in tears if anything moved it - pain scale @ 8 from 1-10. After 2-3 weeks of being unable to use my arm in the mornings i sought out aid from a chiropractor. The first visit fixed my debilitating arm but i kept going back because i was still enduring the dull chronic ache that i had experienced during my sophomore - junior summer on the pain scale i would have rated it 2-3 depending on the day. Years later i am still battling this issue, but now.

-Pertinent Information-
The leading incident to this injury occurred while i was doing standing squats with the Olympic bar w/weights stretching just behind my head on my shoulders/traps - sophomore year.


I do not have a primary care physician and have not had the money/insurance to seek aid in this dilemma until now. Could anyone shed some light on this for me? It is affecting my life drastically and is hampering my ability to exceed.

-On a side note-
I don't know if my stomach would be affected from this issue but in the past year specifically i suffer from nausea and horrible stomach pains. This occurs weekly and more often than not. it too is to the point of debilitating, at work i will have to constantly drink water and pace my breathing to cope with it, pain @4-5. The only relief i get is through the use of marijuana which doesn't stop the stomach pain but cures my nausea and keeps me from dry heaving when i cough.

Much thanks,
Chalander
 
Let me preface my remarks by telling you that I am not a doctor, but I have dealt with chronic pain for the past 30+ years. During the past 20 years when the pain became severe and eventually constant, I have seen over 50 doctors and have tried even more drugs. I've been to chiropractors, physiatrists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, accupuncturists, physical therapists, and have tried dozens of additional therapies. All of this for a pain syndrome associated with a KNOWN diagnosis of nerve damage in ONE spot in my head. Medical science has come a long way in the past twenty years, but what doctors know about pain is just a tiny fraction of what they have yet to learn. This isn't meant to scare you, but to prepare you for the uncertainty that still exists in treating pain (and the underlying causes.)

It sounRAB like your problems involve the spine (vertebrae and maybe spinal nerves and/or peripheral nerves) with a good chance that muscles, tendons, and ligaments may also play a part. CT scans and regular X-Rays may reveal problems with your spine (and other bony structures,) but MRIs will be much better for looking for soft-tissue damage. These imaging tools may identify the majority of your problems, but understand that they don't have the resolution required to see pinpoint damage that can cause considerable pain, especially if nerves are involved. Many chronic pain patients have perfectly normal looking CTs and MRIs, and are justfiably upset when their doctors say things like "Your scans are normal, so you shouldn't be in pain."

I suspect that your scans will reveal a lot about the causes of most of your symptoms, but be adamant that anything that isn't obvious in the scans still gets treated aggressively. It's your right as a patient to have all of your symptoms treated.

Good luck. You might require a corabination of surgery, physical therapy, medications, and/or other treatments, but only a doctor can give you a diagnosis and prognosis.
 
Thank you jverive,

That was very insightful. I now have a much better outlook on my injury and understand the reality of what i need to do to prosper as an individual. I too have endured the trails of having people tell me its something simple like arthritis, and to take Aleave or Tylonol. It is very very discouraging when someone with a doctorates degree says, "Your scans are normal, so you shouldn't be in pain." i feel as if its just apart of life to endure pain and i should just work through it. But I'm at my breaking point, I will take your advice and pursue a primary physician for the purpose of an MRI test.

Chalander
 
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