i had much the same thing which they found to be the muscles in my neck & shoulder blades......... my physio found the trigger points and releived it a bit for me, I still get it but at least I know what it is and dont worry about it so much now
The liklihood is you have compression of a nerve in the cervical region, which they should have picked up 12 years ago. The fact that none of your doctors can find a cause, suggests the dismal state of medicine, medical education, and general intelligence of those in the medical profession these days. Quack quack. Quack quack. Yes. It is a pinched nerve! What to do about this is another issue. Axial traction for several minutes several times a day is in order, as well as good hydration and prescdription prednisone for a few days to dampen the inflammation, followed by daily ibuprufin. The you have to perform daily "range of motion" exercises, moving your head through the limits of pain and "crackling" 36- degrees several times a day. An MRI will generally show a narrowing of one of the passageways through which the pinched nerve passes. An x-ray will do not good excert increase the probability of you contracting cancer.