Hi everyone, hope someone can help me out here. For the past 2 mos I've been in severe deep pain in my right shoulder down to my elbow to my wrist and it's worse when I drive. (I've had a history of 8 slipped disks from my cervical to lumbar for the past 10 yrs and the past month I've been going to a neurologist who thinks it's mainly osteoarthritis and am going thru P/T for traction, lucky me!). Anyway, no one can actually pinpoint where my pain is actually coming from except possibly my C5-6 which is highly possible. I'm trying to look at every angle here and thinking it's possibly shoulder related instead of constantly blaming everything on my C5-6 so I think Monday I'll call a ortho dr. Also, has anyone ever had their pain intensify in the shoulder and full arm while driving? This is crazy! Please help and thanks for reading my post, bye now, angel

:angel:

Hi Sorry to hear about your pain I know how you feel I was the same but my problem was carpial tunnel. Both hands pain from sholder all the way down to hands and nothing would help. Only pain killers till operation on both ,one at a time also left rotator cuff had a spur Do you have pins and needels in your hands If so you might ask your Dr to explore that .I dont know if that gives you some thing to look at ???

hi Singel ... thanks for your help. I just got back from the orthopedic office from having a shoulder MRI done and will know the results next week. However, when I met with the orthopedic this past Monday, he had received the report from my neurologist stating that I possibly may have carpal tunnel in my right hand ... but, the orthopedic said my pain would only be in my wrist and hand and not anywhere else. What's your thoughts because in your post you wrote most of your pain went through your whole arm, please let me know exactly what you were feeling from your wrist to your shoulder okay? Thanks so much for your post, I really appreciate it :)

Ok what he said is right . It starts off with pins & needles like when you cut the blood flow to your hands when you straighten your arm out pins & needles stop.The next stage is p&n dont go away when you straighten the arm and thay start to throb then the pain when your in bed.When your driving the prosses starts again and the pain starts up the whole arm & sholder and it does not matter how you try to move your arm the pain is still there. Not very nice, but after the operation no more pain and a good nights sleep. So I hope you can get it fixted up

hello -

I've had both neck problems and wrist problems. What type of tests did your neurologist do to determine it was possibly carpal tunnel? Has your orthopaedic surgeon ruled out thoracic outlet? This is a syndrome where your nerves and sometimes blood supply gets compressed in the neck and shoulder area. It's symptoms are very similar to carpal tunnel. In fact some times people are misdiagnosed and have the carpal tunnel release surgery , and find out later they actually have thoracic outlet.

hi kkl, thanks for responding ... as to my neurologist, he had done the nerve conductor test which was extremely painful vs the one I had 2 yrs back. As to the orthopedic I went to last week, he was just going to let me leave with no diagnosis except to keep up with the painful traction for my neck, however, I told him I'd appreciate having a shoulder MRI done and fortunately he said fine ... I had it done last Thursday and will meet with him this Wednesday for the findings of it. Also, I have been requesting a thoracic MRI to be done for the past few months with the neurologist and he's been reluctant in approving it, have no idea why ... I did have one done about 7 yrs back ... the reason I'm wanting one done now is because of how my pain radiates from the shoulder and arm down under my arm to my right side of my lung and causes shortness of pain ... not sure if it's from pain, cramping or whatever. I do appreciate you mentioning the thoracic outlet ... because when the pain is from the neck, shoulder, and full arm, we need to check out all the conditions why/where it's coming from.

So, as to these drs. I'm going to now, they're most likely fired, and I'll be going to see new ones soon. (When I went to my orthopedic, he pulled up my few x-rays on his laptop and said oh yeah, definitely arthritis and reviewed my c-spine MRI showing bulging from C-3 through 7, and herniation and bone spur at C-5&6, and said my arm pain shouldn't be from all that ... then asked me to squeeze his 2 fingers on each hand and that was it. He never examined my arm, incredible). So, as soon as I meet with him this Wednesday, I'll decide which new dr. to call.

Oh, at the moment, I'm in add'l pain ... I was making tacos for my family and friends yesterday and when I went to stir the 4lbs of beef with the big spoon, it felt like the top of my shoulder popped out and it was so painful, I couldn't even stir so what's funny is the men took over, lol, which was perfect since it was Mother's Day!

Thanks again for replying and if you have any other feelings/ideas for me to look into, please let me know, much appreciation :)

angel:
angel: