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Cervical Issues

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rpowell01

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I have a question for people who has Cervical Radiculopathy. For the past few months I have been having severe pain going down the base of my neck into my shoulder into the back of my left arm into my forearm. The pain is a shooting pain, severe pain and burning pain. I also have been having muscle spasms next to my shoulder blade. I notice that whenever I tilt my head backwards I can really feel the shooting pain. For the past week I've been getting the pain in my right arm, not as bad as my left arm, but the symptoms are pretty much the same. Whenever I sit down, it does not matter where I sit, the pain gets worse in my left arm so I have to lay down for a bit before I can get back up. I also been dropping a lot of items I hold in my left hand even though I don't have any tingling in my hands like I did back in 2010 whenever all the DJD changes began. Even whenever I stand it gets worse. I'm thinking gravity is pulling down on my spine causing the pain to get worse.

Does it appear I may have herniated a disc or the foramina might have some bone spurs?  To be honest the pain was so bad I thought it was my shoulder because I would hear this popping sound but realized that is coming from all the muscle spasms pulling down on my shoulder causing it to pop. Does this make any sense?

I go see my private PCP on Nov 3 and I'm going to request a new XRay and MRI on my neck, upper back and shoulder to see what in the world is going on.

Edited by rpowell01
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  • Content Curator/HadIt.com Elder

The X-ray will show any arthritis and bone spacing/alignment problems, but it definitely sounds link impingement of some form which will be more evident on the MRI. 

The VA gives me robaxin (methocarbamol) and it helps relax the muscles with less intensity of the flexeril. I can drive on robaxin, but on flexeril I can barely get out of bed.

I had a bone spur in my shoulder and it radiated into my trapezius muscle and the "referred pain" cascaded into my upper back, neck, and down my arm. I went to PT for six months, but surgery resolved it. There's a big difference between surgery on your shoulder and spine. Have them look at your shoulders too.

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You really should go see a neurologist.

You listed:

  • radiculopathy from the back of your neck to your forearm
  • weakness holding things with your hand
  • muscle spasm
  • possibility that the autonomous nerve to your heart is affected somehow

 

The nerves that come out of the cervical spine (your neck) are as follows;

Myotome and Dermatome Testing Nerve Root Sensory Testing Level  Motor Testing  Reflex Testing  C1-C2  Front of face  Neck ...

Edited by pwrslm
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Well the last time I seen a VA Neurologist was back in 2013 and he was from Pain Management. My VA PCP denied me to send me back to him, give me a new MRI, nothing. Yes he has ordered an Xray because I have to know how severe the Osteoarthritis has gotten, ie, bone spur development. It was only when I fired him is he now listening to me. But on Nov 3 I go see my private PCP and I'm going to ask him to order me an upright MRI on my neck and thoracic spine so we can see the severity of everything and to get a true reading as upright MRI are in fact more accurate because you sit or standing during the MRI and it allows for Gravity compensation while the recumbent (laying down type) doesn't. 

 

I've taken Robaxin and have been taking it for awhile now and that stuff does nothing for me. The Flexeril is strong on me but like tonight I didn't take it. Here are my meds:

Naproxen, Gabapentin, Methocarbomal (Robaxin)(I quit taking this Saturday afternoon as you cannot take this with Flexeril whatsoever), Cymbalta, levothyroxine, Oxycodone, Flexeril.

I now have OSA so I cannot take any sedatives like I was such as Ambien and Xanax anymore as it was making the OSA worse. I'm also waiting to see my private PCP as a following up on Nov 3 about the OSA. If you want to hear another story short, the VA did the same test and said I didn't have OSA but I had all the tale-tale signs of it. So I went outside of the VA to get a 2nd opinion and found out I do have OSA.

What I am waiting on now if to hopefully to get approved for low doses of Abilify. I found 4 case studies that showed it actually helps with chronic pain: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184588/

I found out about after my sister in-law who has fibromyalgia started taking it and it helped her tremendously. If you read the case studies there are 4 different types of pain it was used for. It can't hurt to at least try it, only if my VA MH doctor can get the VA pharmacy to approve it.

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The upright MRI definitely should show your spine problems better than the horizontal variety. We have one here in town, but I have had some docs complain it is lower resolution. One doc dismissed that statement by other docs because gravity shows everything compressed, which was his explanation of why the other doc could not see what he wanted.

Remember that the VA likes medications like robaxin and flexeril because they are very cheap.

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I asked for one from an ortho spec in Orlando VAMC and he refused it.  Said it does not help (but I don't believe him).

The VA doesn't have a upright MRI that is why he refused it. If you have insurance or medicare its best to go to a private Doctor to get a prescription. I was going to get one back in 2011 but I had to have emergency gallbladder removal surgery so I had to wait for it to heal but then my insurance which was blue cross blue shield denied it because the prescription was written to far out. By the time I was able to get healed the MD who wrote it retired. Go figure. Since then I have argued with my VA PCP to write me a written prescription but he refuses. He wants to wait a couple more years before doing another MRI. I understand his concern because if you didn't know too many MRIs can actually cause cancer. I had one in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and one in 2014 but the last cervical MRI was in 2013..

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