So about three weeks ago I woke up with pain in my neck and left shoulder. A couple days in, it woke me up at night and so I went to the doctor who gave me some muscle relaxers and Ibuprofen after diagnosing as a muscle strain with spasms. A week later, no real improvement so she tells me to get an x-ray which shows compression between my C5 and C6, not major, I don't need surgery, but enough to probably cause the pain in my shoulder. Over the last week my neck pain has improved, but my left arm is significantly weaker than normal. So my question before racking up another doctor bill is, is this par for the course with vertebrae compression? I've got a PT appointment next Tuesday, but google tells me everything from pulled muscle to my arm is going to fall off in my sleep. Appreciate any insight in advance.

TS

Had something similar. Eventually went down the arm. I think the biggest help was just time. I did the PT but I think it was just arthritis had irritated the nerves severely and it took months to heal. I still have minor pains but nothing like it was. Nerve pain is weird and extreme. Actually made knots in muscles.

I did have the MRI that gave the ortho the complete picture of the issues.

Don't know if it would help compression but you might try a tens unit (google it; sold over the counter and is in the $100 or so range). It is an electronic stimulation device. You select the time (say 20 or thirty minutes, the mode (say Swedish massage) and the intensity. Controller is smaller than a cell phone and can go into your shirt pocket.

I have the same to C5, 6 and 7. It's never completely gone away , but PT , meds and the right exercises help.
Sorry to hear about it.

Thanks for the reply. It seems time is the biggest factor here. I'm 36 so I'm hoping it isn't arthritis. I've been working from home the last year, stuck at my computer for 12 hours a day. Fucking tech neck is what my colleague calls it. In any event, it blows.

TS

My wife is going for surgery on April 12 for the C5-C6 and potentially the C7. This will be her second spine surgery.

You’ve got a doctor and the two of you know what the images reveal and what you’re experiencing. It might seem an irrelevant distinction, but you don’t have “vertebrae compression,” you’ve got spinal cord compression. I had extensive C-spine decompression surgery 8 months ago. Funny thing is, I experienced none of the symptoms that typically drives a person to see a neurosurgeon—-no tingling, no numbness, unsteady gait, no loss of strength on one side of my body. Traumatic injury and family history led me to a surgical solution. Sounds like you’re ok for now, but don’t ignore further signs and symptoms. It’s harder to reverse peripheral nerve degeneration than it is to preserve it.
T

I know a real good neck/spine surgeon in the San Diego area if you need a second opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by blueye:
I know a real good neck/spine surgeon in the San Diego area if you need a second opinion.

Who would that be.
Ive been opened, neck from c1 - t2 with 4 titanium straps and cadaver bones fused.
Now my lower disc are plaguing me. My previous doc was Dr Garfin but he is now out of my insurance group.

Dr. Daniel Barba MD,(760) 743-4789 he is in Escondido.

My e-mail is in my profile. I have experience with this as a patient and can help you steer through the maze of tests and surgical options from a patient’s point of view.

A better computer chair helped me after the fact with the mild recurrences. I could tell a difference sitting in one with a hard bottom that the cushion had compacted vs one with nice new supportive foam. I also had to make it a point to get up and walk around more.

I don't know exactly why or how given it was my neck where the nerves branch out.

A lifetime of bad posture (tall, always looking down) and a tractor accident where I flew up and hit the roof did me in a few years ago. Strangest thing, I got a mild concussion but my neck didn't hurt for weeks. Then one day I couldn't stand up. Even stranger, it hurt like crazy if I DIDN'T move every five or ten minutes. Which meant I any sleep I got came in 5 minute intervals, which probably totaled about 2 hours in the three days before I could get to a doctor. Laying on the floor at 3am crying, wondering if there was a way I could cut my arm off and not bleed to death. lol I wouldn't say I was thinking about killing myself, but I had certainly reached the point where I understood why someone would.

The doctors gave me steroids, goodly doses of ibuprofen and muscle relaxers. That knocked the unbearable pain down. I bought an at home cervical traction thingamabob and used it daily, sometimes twice, for a couple weeks until the pain was gone. I get an occasional flair up and doing the traction again usually takes care of it. Sometimes if I let it get real bad I'll see the doctor again and they're put me on a course of steroids.



It never goes away, at least for me. At the time I lost use of pretty much 3 fingers and feeling in 2 for a couple months. I have a constant shake in my left hand and my fingers cramp up in all odd shapes if I get even slightly dehydrated.(that has improved, used to do it all day long for no reason) That arm is a little atrophied, smaller than it was. If I bump my head on something it's like I've been hit with lightening, a zap down my spine that almost puts me on the ground. So I'm careful, do the cervical traction when I need to. I don't want surgery if I can help it.

quote:

Originally posted by blueye:
Dr. Daniel Barba MD,(760) 743-4789 he is in Escondido.

Thank You so much. If this keeps aggravating me I'm going to have to make some
calls. I just don't want to be opened up like my back neck. Would hope for orthoscopic.
Again thanks Blueye.

Irv (RB)

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
A better computer chair helped me after the fact with the mild recurrences. I could tell a difference sitting in one with a hard bottom that the cushion had compacted vs one with nice new supportive foam. I also had to make it a point to get up and walk around more.

I don't know exactly why or how given it was my neck where the nerves branch out.

I snagged my Knoll chair from the office, and that's helped a lot in addition to getting up and moving more. My neck seems to be getting slowly better, but I'm mostly concerned about the decreased strength in my left arm. No joke, it's noticeable reaching into a cabinet for a mug, washing my hair, turning my steering wheel, my left arm feels immediately fatigued and heavy, not ideal with a five year old and six month old jamming around.

I really appreciate all the responses so far; I may go back to my doctor if things don't improve after PT this week.

TS

My right arm was significantly weaker too. It took about 3-4 months until it was normal again. Hope yours gets better with the conservative approach. I was shakey just pouring coffee. I had to use my left arm to lift my right while I was shaving.

I also wore a soft neck collar while sleeping and had to mentally train myself not to use my neck to lift my whole body shifting positions when I slept. That is once I was able to sleep again. The early pain was pretty intense.

Oh yeah - ice packs at the base of my neck helped some too. Usually an hour before bed.

This is common on persons who work on the computer all day, also for tall persons.

If your posture was perfect, the center of your ear would line up with the center of the shoulders and center of the hips and the ankles. There is an old fashioned exercise that reverses this, both the pain the bad habit.

1. Stand with your back against the wall, shoulder blades against the wall as well the buttocks.
2. Keeping your head level, push the head straight back, ideally to where the ear canal lines up with the center of the shoulder.
3. Hold this position for five minutes, and do this twice per day.

After a few weeks the posture becomes normal. You can do this as often you have time for, or as long as you wish. For most persons the back of the head will be touching the wall, but if your torso is big, the head does not have to go back that far.

Most persons make the mistake of tilting the head up so they can touch the wall. Avoid that, just go straight back as far as is comfortable. Each time you do it, you will go farther back.

I had surgery on C5-C6 (ACF with Fusion) and a titanium plate. My spinal cord was severely compressed by bone then “jelly” from the disk, but at that level you also have large nerve bundles that branch for the arms / shoulders. My pain level in my shoulders - which I had become “comfortable” with - dropped immensely after the surgery. Grip weakness and loss of precision was what hit me, still get occasional bilateral numbness (tingling) in hands (draw a line from Index finger to wrist).

Work with your doctor, do your therapy religiously. I have to continually train/“rehab” to keep strength - Nerve stuff is weird, but not something to mess about with.

I went thru the whole business short of surgery.
I wound up going the chiropractic route.
That was about 40 years ago and am still fine.

Bob