neck-upper back and shoulder pain

Thanks Blu from me too!
I suspect spinal stenosis may be causing symptoms, but maybe not the cervical dystonia until I get some more testing and talk to my pain doc. I've started having a bit of urine leaking, had no idea it could be connected with cervical spine until you prompted me to read!!!! I thought it trouble with lower lumbar spine trouble, for which I am getting injections, or maybe pressure from uterine fibroids and tortuous sigmoid colon. I knew about cauda equina, but not the cervical connection.

Trigger point injections hurt, had them for shoulder pain but didn't work, although they did help neck pain, which I hadn't even complained about. My neck pain isn't tic-like, more constant.

Thanks Babette for the good discussion. You're asking questions I didn't think to ask.

Thanks cogito for the link. Some of these symptoms sound right too. I'll have to discuss all these possibilities with the pain doc. My ortho appt for shoulder isn't for a while yet, but he doesn't do anything with spine anyway. Neuro appt next month, but I don't want to confuse this with my main issue of headache. Time to do lots more reading!

Hello 2 everybody who replied about Dystonia. It was hard 4 them 2 find because of my fibromyalgia and several other things I had going on. Great neuro as I said. It presents in me as terrible pain and you can see and feel the huge bulges of knotted up muscle n tendons on my neck sticking out at attention. Its usually just locked, I call it. There is some spasm and pulling but not as its treated. Once in a great while I will have a sharp twitch to my head from a nasty neck spasm but rarely. I have seen ppl who cannot lift their head off their shoulder or who do have those twitches like Parkinsons but thank God I dont. I dont know what it wld be like without treatment and meds. I have to wear heavy pain patches and muscle relaxers and the trigger points. We tried everything in an effort to correct it but it doesnt correct unfortunately. The brain is telling the muscles to pull the discs in my neck shoulders and back because it thinks they are out of place but the only thing that pulls them out of place is because they are pulling! Ive seen some ppl have deep brain stimulation because theirs is so bad. Again thank God mine isnt. Put that with the fibro and some disc degeneration and it finally got me when I was diagnosed with Addisons Disease which brought on gout. Havent been able 2 work in a yr now. Going to have to get ssdi. Anyway, I hope desperately no one else has Dystonia even tho it seems to show itself in different stages of severity. But if you feel you might then please have it checked out. The pain is horrendous. My fibro is so bad I cant hardly stand to be touched. Tried all kinds of meds for that too. Has anyone had any relief from meds for FM? CAREFUL HUGGZ

Hi B! You know tho, I was just thinking after that last post I made, theyve told me 3 or 4 times in my life when Ive had emergency surgeries that they werent sure Id make it but I did. In 2005 they had 2 remove my entire stomach spleen n part of my intestine and they told me "your life as you know it is over". They said Id nvr work again have to live on liquids would just not be able to do anything. Anything. And I stunned them all. I worked full time til the last year, I generally eat what I want and while I tired easily and had many struggles with my health I did NOT go down. It wasnt til the Addisons kicked in and the stress hormones which run unchecked from it kept pulling my body down that I almost did die and was going to do so from stubbornness if I didnt let work go and take care of myself. I just pushed it too far. While I hate being incapacitated....Im still here and I still have a life. I am grateful for that. HUGGZ

Chronic pain in upper back, neck, and shoulders sounds similar to something I went through for awhile. While my doctor's said my x-rays look fine, it wasn't till I went to my chiropractor. He took his own x-rays of my neck and upper back and was apalled that my doctor's told me I was "fine" when my curvature of my neck was so bad it had actually reversed directions. I went in to see him 3 times a week for regular adjustments to my whole spinal colum, and then went through extreme traction treatments. They were only mildly uncomfortable, but the goal was to get the curve back in the right direction. After a few minutes of localized traction to my neck then I'd get an ice pack and TENs unit for several minutes before I was done. It took about 6 weeks, and the thoughest thing was to remember my posture afterwards so I didn't like it revert back to it's previous state.

I'm not saying that's what wrong, but it is another possibility, and depending on what's going on in that area it could be causing issues with the discs and your nerves.

I sincerely hope you find someone that can tell you soon what's wrong and get you fixed back up so you're good as new!