New here but deperate for suggestions on Chronic Neck pain.

ok this will be a bit long but here goes. I have had fibromyalgia and arthritis problems since I was 10 years old. I am not 30 and it has only gotten worse for me.

Stiffness and pain in joints has been a normal for me since I was 10, but in 2001 I got whiplash from a roller coaster ride. I was in pain, had bad headaches, nausea, dizziness, balance issues, and ringing in my ears. I finally went to the dr after about a week and they told me that it was due to how long my hair was, it was supposedly weighing my neck and head down. So I went out and cut my hair from past my butt all the way up to my ears in hope that the pain would subside. It did not.

I waited another week or so and went back for the dr to then tell me he was wrong and that I actually had whiplash. This irritated me to no end but I was happy to finally have a diagnosis they could possibly fix. They had me wear a neck brace and gave me pain killers and muscle relaxers. This helped a bit but it took ages for it to go back to near normal.

Well in 2004 I was in a horrible car accident and fractured my neck, though they didn't see it on the x-rays at the time. I was given prescription ibuprofen and more muscle relaxers.

I went on with my life through the pain but started getting more bad headaches. within 2 years I had pain and numbness that would shoot down my shoulders and arms and I had limited movement of my neck. I went to another dr and they said I had a pinched nerve in my neck and gave me an anti-inflammatory that I had to take 4 times a day for like 3 months. I ended up moving and couldn't get refills anymore so I went without. I took ibuprofen as the pain started and just tried to live through the pain.

In 2010 my neck completely froze up to the point I had only about 1/4 of an inch of movement from side to side and none up or down and I had the worst headache I could imagine. My husband rushed me to the emergency room where the dr proceeded to jerk my head from side to side making everything hurt even worse and told me he didn't know why it happened. He didn't do any x-rays or mri or anything.

So the next day I went to a hospital out of town to get a second opinion. They did x-rays and an MRI and revealed to me that I had fractured my neck years ago (I believe it was in 2004 and they agreed) and that it had healed wrong and overly so and was pinching nerves into my shoulders and arms.

Also they said I have bones spurs, bulging disc, and large amounts of bone loss in my neck. There was also narrowing in my spine. They also showed me that because of the strong muscle spasms I was having the curvature of my neck was actually non-existant with some parts curving the wrong way. They once again put me in a neck brace with pain killers and muscle relaxers and set me up to go physical therapy to help. I went to physical therapy for about 6 months without any improvement seen by me or the drs or therapists. So I stopped going and once again went back to my regime of pain killers, muscle relaxers, and anti-inflammatories.

I have back and forth to several drs since hoping they may either find a treatment or refer me to a specialist who can help but have had no luck. All they ever do is give me pain killers and muscle relaxers and I hate to take meds instead of just fixing the issue causing the pain.

I have asked a few drs if there were any surgical remedies and most say no but a couple have told me that I could have surgery to remove the bone spurs and shave off the excess bone from the mishealed fracture but it was very dangerous and will likely just make the pain even worse.

I have tried absolutely everything the drs have told me to do, everything I have found on the internet, everything friends and family have recomended to help relieve the pain but have yet to find anything that helps. So now I guess I am looking for off the wall remedies that may work.

I have done the heating pad/ice packs, medications, exercises, stretching, massage, ultrasound therapy, electrotherapy, meditating, all kinds of over the counter muscle relieving rubs, pain patches over the counter and prescribed, before they realized I had bone loss I was getting steroid injections in my neck (the called it painting or something),

I tried to go to a chiropractor but they won't touch me because I have had injuries to my neck, there are no acupuncturists for over 200 miles from me so I haven't tried that, I have tried lessening trigger movements, I changed my pillow to an orthopedic memory foam pillow that supports my neck, I have tried sleeping in all different recommended positions, I have tried swimming therapy, showers, baths, and I know there is more but I can't think of them right now. so my question is has anyone else found anything that can help. I am not against anything. I have heard tattoos or piercings may help if done a specific way but I can't find info on it. I am lost on what to do and I can't go on living with this pain. any help is greatly appreciated. thank you in advance.

Hello, I have broken your post up & made paragraphs. Some of us have tracking problems & have a difficult time reading posts with out the paragraphs. Thanks.

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 2/12/2014 12:52:59 PM (GMT-7)

Hi Lynobe & welcome to the chronic pain forum. I am glad that you found us but sorry you have to be here. One thing we all have in common here at this forum is pain so we can relate.

Everyone that comes here has a story to tell as to what started their journey of living with chronic pain. Boy, you sure have a story to tell. It pretty much sounds like you have been put through the wringer with your neck.

Quite honestly, if this were me I would have my primary care dr to refer me out for another MRI of the neck to see if there any changes or anything new since the previous scan. Then I would find myself the very best board certified, fellowship trained neurosurgeon & get a consult to see what his opinion is on things. The reason I picked a neurosurgeon is those guys are trained to deal with nerve problems and doing delicate brain surgeries. An orthopedic is more trained to handle bones & the bony structures. Even if you have to drive to a larger city next to you if could very well be the best money you have ever spent. He may think he can help you by way of surgery as there may be more options for you than you realize.

I know you said you had done some steroid injections. Are you talking about epidural steroid Injections? Have you ever been under the care of a pain mgt dr for this. There is a procedure done by a lot of pain mgt drs that were anesthesiologist prior to getting onto pain mgt. It is called radio frequency ablation where they go in & burn the nerve endings hoping that will stop the pain signal. The dr does a diagnostic block before doing this procedure to see if you are a candidate for it or not. This was the only thing that helped get my neck pain under control after years of trying everything else. I have two herniated disc in my neck with nerve involvement. Not everyone gets relief with these, its hit or miss type of thing.

I would not let a chiropractor touch my neck if I were you. Sometimes chiropractic care can make things worse instead of better. From what you have described on the findings with the MRI, I would not go to a chiropractor & have him/her doing adjustments on my neck. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against chiropractors & know they can help some people. Acupuncture may be something to give it a shot at. When I had my first car wreck I ended up going to my sisters dr who knew how to do the Chinese method using the real tiny thin needles. I am terrified of needles and it was painless. If you don't see any difference in 3-4 appts then i would stop it, no sense in wasting your money.

If the neurosurgeon says he cannot help you, the only other thing I can think of you trying and that is finding a good pain mgt dr. I know you don't want to be on the medication train wreck, but when you start talking about quality of life issues, some times that is the only thing left. A good pain mgt dr should be able to give you some relief. Pretty much everyone at this forum is under the care of a pain mgt dr. There are new rules & guidelines that drs have to abide by since the DEA is involved. They have made is so that our primary care drs do not want to handle chronic pain patients because of all the red tape they would have to go through. It is a real mess now. From what you have written I think you have pretty much tried all there is out there at this point.

Anyway, this is my 2 cents for what its worth, lol. Again, welcome aboard.

Hi Lynobe,

I have had chronic pain for 14 years. back issues. I agree with all of the above mentioned. Number one issue is to find a very good neurosurgeon. Get several opinions. Sometimes they are not very sympathetic, but if they are good, they will tell you what is wrong.

I am sorry you are here and suffering, but this website is awsome.

Good luck,

Lumiere

Lynobe, push for a new MRI, that is a real important xray the drs like to see. That one will tell the story as to what is going on with your neck. Be sure when you see the neurosurgeon that you have both MRI's that way he can look for any differences or changes between the two.

Also, I forgot to tell you that we also have a Fibro forum here at Healing Well that you may want to check out. There are some really nice ladies over there. Alot of us visit more than one forum because of various illnesses. Has any of your drs ever tried you on any of the nerve meds like Lyrica, Gabapentin or Cymbalta to name a couple? I know a lot of the Fibro people are on Lyrica and it can also help with other nerve pain too.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about the Fibro forum too.

I went to the dr this morning and he agreed I needed to be seen by a neurosurgeon. So he ordered a CT scan and an MRI. I had my CT scan done today and I have to go out of town tomorrow to get my MRI done. they called me this afternoon though to tell me they got the results from the CT scan. EVERYTHING came back normal. I said that couldn't be right and she said that is what the reader saw so the dr wants to see the mri to get a better view. as far as I am aware CT scans only view soft tissue and my issues are with the actual bones but not sure. but they said they didn't see any evidence of trauma and the spaces between the disc are of normal range. I asked if they could see the bone spurs and they said no. So either their machine is messed up or they mixed my results up with the other person that was getting a CT scan right after me. Every scan I have had done since 2010 has shown narrowing in the spine, bone spurs, and a bulging disc. So I guess we will have to wait and see. I'll keep you guys posted.

Be sure that you get copies of the written reports along with either films or CD's of these tests. The neurosurgeon will need to review these when you go see him. It is always good to have at least a copy of same for yourself too.

I got my results today. the dr made me come in and pay for a whole nother appointment to get the results instead of just telling me over the phone. The dr told me that I have "buffaloed" him because every scan came back perfectly normal and now he sees no reasons to send me to a specialist. I told him I couldn't understand how there were so many scans of all kinds done in 2010 that showed tons of abnormalities and were even documented and now the pain is even worse and the scans are all clear with no abnormalities. He told me he couldn't tell me. and said he doesn't have any clue why I am in pain but I shouldn't be. Then he said I may have fibromyalgia (which I was diagnosed with when I was 10 but they never believed me out here before) and wants to put me on Cymbalta 30mg for 1 week and then 60mg for 1 week and wants to see me before the second week is over because he thinks it will completely clear everything up by then. As I see it he has taken all hope of fixing my pain issues from me because I have been on tons of different meds for fibromyalgia and they have never done anything for me in the past. And now that he thinks I am pretty much faking my pain I doubt he is gonna let me continue to get pain meds as needed either. so I am completely out of hope and have no desire to see tomorrow and live with the pain.

I agree that they shouldn't have said any of that but these dr's out here would rather die then admit they don't know something. Also, I do not have a pain management dr because the only one out here happens to be the neurosurgeon that the dr was going to send me to and now is not.

Lynobe is your doctor a specialist in any thing or just a General Practitioner. Is he a neurologist? Did he actually examine the pictures of the CT and MRI and go over them or did he just go by the reports from the radiologist that read them? Did you actually see the written reports from the radiologist? Either way I would go to a different doctor for a second opinion! Often a neurosurgeon can see things on an MRI and CT that the normal radiologist that does the original reading might miss.

Personally I think neurologist are good for doing the basic testing, nerve studies, EMG's and stuff like that, but with that said I have never met a neurologist that I have liked or trusted, and have been lied to by more than one of them! In my experience most neurologist I have seen have been rude and unprofessional and have been just plain wrong and if I would have just listened to them I would have been in a world of hurt! I am not saying there are not good ones out there, but I just have not met one! Just my personal opinion!

If your hurting and you are not satisfied with your doctor, I would seek out different doctor for a second opinion. I will tell you this, if a doctor told me "" I have "buffaloed" him "" I would have fired him on the spot!! That's uncalled for! He is calling you a liar right to your face!

Just my thoughts on the matter! I wish you well!

White Beard

Post Edited (White Beard) : 2/19/2014 8:38:26 PM (GMT-7)

...and White Beard makes an excellent point. This donkey is your employee. I would value any of his comments, conclusions, OR referrals as he valued you. Time for another doc IMO.

After reading all of your comments I have a few questions to answer that were asked. First The neurosurgeon/pain management dr will not see me at all in his office until I have scans and documentation to show him SENT FROM my dr's office with dr notes to back them up. So unfortunately I cannot even see him for just pain management either. And I cannot see my regular dr for pain cuz he thinks I am faking.

Second the dr that I saw was only a general practitioner and has no specialty or any kind of special training in reading films of any kind. The only films he will bother to even look at are normal x-rays. he doesn't touch anything else. Even when he looks at an x-ray and can plainly see there is a problem he still goes by the radiologist's report. I know this from personal experience. A few years ago I broke a bone in the arch of my foot which I had broken multiple times before. I never once told him it has happened before and he pointed out the break and then was able to point out the scars from previous breaks. He wanted to put me in a cast but I insisted that I needed to walk for work so he put me in a walking boot instead and told me to try to stay off of it as much as possible. A few days later the radiologist report came back as all clear with absolutely no evidence of any breaks/fractures and they didn't see any scar tissue from previous breaks. The dr then called me up to let me know there was nothing wrong and to take the boot off because it would only hinder the problems. I ignored him and left it on for about 4 weeks and then take it off as was his direction from the beginning. It was not completely better but it did heal quicker than the previous times when I didn't have treatment.

Third no the dr did not read the films or even see them at all. He strictly went by what the reports said. He did offer me the copy of the report but not the films because he has no access to those by his words. I will search them down and get them for myself. I will try to search around for drs in the area who will actually read the films themselves. Though I know all doctors out here will not do pain management out here for long term other than the neurosurgeon/pain management dr 2 hours away. So maybe at least I can find a dr that will refer me to the neurosurgeoun/pain management dr after actually reading the films.

Lastly, The nearest teaching hospital is also 2 hours away and they won't even see anyone that has access to other dr's in their area unless I went to emergency room. Then they would simply refer me back to my primary. The drs and hospitals out here are pretty useless out here. I have already talked to them thinking that I could get a better chance at getting to a neurosurgeon in their group, but I was wrong. I have also gone to many different drs out here looking for second opinions and I have had 1 tell me I was a drug addict because of the psych meds I was on that I was prescibed by a psychiatrist. He even accused me of not needing any of them and that my conditions were fake. that dr I did fire after giving him an ear full to which he finally realized my psych meds were needed. There is only 1 dr I found out here that gave me tons of tests and found a lot and treated me for it and worked with me after reading the reports himself. However he is no longer around because he was pretty gullible when it came to people's claims of pain. He would prescribe you meds to help with the pain as he did test after test and there was a lot of drug addicts that were getting pain killers from him. So eventually he lost his license for it. I tried to stay with the practice he was a part of but they discontinued all services to his patients in fear that they were all drug addicts and were going to cause problems.

Well guys, I hope this answered everything. I will keep working on it but the hope just isn't there still. Thank you guys for being here for me.

I have neck pain and I put the Salon Pas pain patches each morning.......

It really helps me.


caren