Arm, back and neck pain

[Poppy7402]

Over the past 10 days I have developed terrible pain.  It started off as flashes of pain in my left arm so I upped the Gabapentin by another 600 mg and this seemed to do the trick for a few days.  Now, 10 days later the pain is unbearable, with my back feeling like I've pulled all the muscles on the top left side and when I flex my neck forward it sends a bolt of pain down my back.   I'm thinking that curling up and dying is a good option at the moment it's so bad.

I have an appointment with my PCP but wondered what ideas people on here might have?

Many thanks

Poppy

[HVAC]

Sounds really hard. It might be hard to break the cycle of pain. Sometimes drugs do not work when the pain has been there for awhile. They might have to give you a shot to stop the pain and let the system reboot so to speak.

Alex

[Poppy7402]

Thanks Kyle.  I'm almost 100% certain it's neuropathic pain.  I've only been on Gabapentin since about November and have only got to 2400 mg with it so far, but do have a very dry mouth.  

I was up at 3 am this morning swallowing more drugs but nothing has touched my pain and now it's also quite well established in my ribs so it's either back to my PCP today or possibly the ER as I notice the sinus tachycardia that I get when I'm unwell has returned.  This, as far as I know, is an autonomic nervous system problem.

Whatever all this is, I feel really gross!!

Poppy

[kwarendorf]

Another possibilty is that your pain is neuropathic. That you were already taking Gabapentin suggests a non-mechanical source.

If that's the case, you may want to speak with your neuro, rather than an ortho. I was taking 3600mg of Gabapentin a day for neuropathic foot pain. It gradually stopped working and the oain returned. I switched to Lyrica and the pain retreated.

You may just need to switch meds.

Kyle

[supermum_ms]

ROFL :D

[Poppy7402]

Sorry, was me who hit a sheep about six weeks ago.  Now look who is losing the plot completely.

[supermum_ms]

oops i could of sworn it was you that hit a cow, though it was after 12 last night that i came up with that little nugget of oopsie....

cheers.........JJ

[Poppy7402]

Must have me confused with someone else, no car crash for me, only the odd rapid dismount off a horse lol.  I've been racking my brains and I just haven't 'done' anything that could cause this.  The pain is fairly well under control at present so will just wait and see what happens now.

[HVAC]

I have all those symptoms from a disk in my neck, not MS. You might need a muscle relaxer.

It is always best to check with a PCP. Even for those of us diagnosed with MS, all maladies are not MS.

Gabenpentin can have serious side effects if you go up on it quickly or go off it abruptly.

Alex

[supermum_ms]

Hmmm bone spurs develop for various reasons, degenerative spinal issues and trauma spring to mind but i didn't think they did develop quickly. A couple of thoughts now i've read heaps looking for something that might answer your Q's, nothing really did actually but one of the medical text books was discussing how it was possible to miss Osteophytes, so one idea is that it's not new just missed.

The other thought, didn't you recently have a car accident and a hard fall?A lot mentioned how they were often accidental findings and don't necessarily cause any symptoms, it often depends on the level and amount of other damage there to but it had me thinking about your crash and if it was possibly there before and the crash possibly caused whiplash which made it more of an issue than it was before. I don't know, just throwing out ideas....

Cheers.......JJ

PS glad to hear your hearts fine :D  

[Poppy7402]

X-ray results came back last night and have supposedly shown a bridging osteophyte at C7 that 'could' be responsible for my symptoms.  I'm curious about how quickly these osteophytes form as I had a spinal MRI in June last year and this didn't show any osteophyte formation at this level at all.

From the reading I've done, it just doesn't fit.  Osteophytes are supposed to cause pain on movement, yet I feel heaps better if I keep moving and it's only after I've been in bed that things are really bad.  Pain is also supposed to be worse with neck extension and better with flexion but I'm the complete opposite.  I also wouldn't have expected the pain to start near my wrist and then move up my arm into my shoulder, back and neck with an osteophyte but can't find any information on the web to see whether my thought is correct.

I've been referred to an Ortho but will have to wait 4-5 weeks for an appointment, time I really don't have with our upcoming holiday so with this in mind I've put in a call to my Neuro and will see what he says.

Poppy

[Poppy7402]

Thanks JJ.  I saw my PCP and the options on the table so far are infection, tumour (unlikely) or MS lesion.  There's apparently some weakness in my arm pointing to a problem at about C7.  With all this in mind I've had blood tests and spine x-rays and now await the results.  If the bloods come back normal I'm to start steroids and see what happens.  If that doesn't fix things it will be off to an orthopaedic surgeon for possibly another C-spine MRI.

As far as relieving the infernal pain, I was told to take Morphine so will give that a go again and see how I get on.  Not expecting any miracles with that one as it hasn't been known to kill off my pain in the past, but we shall see.

Poppy

[supermum_ms]

Hey babe,

Okay please seriously consider if you think you need to be going to the ER or push for an earlier appointment with your PCP!

I don't believe its ever a good idea to up your meds again with out your doc making the call to do so, especially when your experiencing something new to you. It's just too easy to forget that no one is immune to something else happening and a lot of these meds could be inadvertently masking other medical issues too.

Left arm, left upper ribcage, intense pain, travelling with movement - my first thought was your spine eg pinched nerve, slipped disc, maybe the Hug Second thought was it could possibly be heart related, more classic in males but its better not to muck about if there is even a remote possibility of it being heart. For years mum's GP blamed her heart symtom's on a frozen shoulder but it was always her heart, i'm definitely not trying to be an alarmist but it happens and worth considering, right?

If your pain is a 8-10 i'm be thinking it might be better to try the ER first, follow up with your PCP!

Let us know!!!

Hugs...........JJ