Thoracic Facet Joint Question

@soccer1477 While I do think facet joints may be able to cause pain in their local area, they are not associated with the spinal nerves. I have at times had an audible click and felt my facet joints catch in my neck with a slight pain, but there never has been pain radiating to other parts of the body from that. Spinal nerves exit in the foramen that are the spaces between the vertebrae where they exit the spinal cord. Facet joints are located on each vertebrae and allow the sliding or twisting motion of the vertebrae. The discs act as cushions on the spine.

If you look at my other response to you, I think you may be describing symptoms associated with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Leg and feet pain would not be related to TOS, but may be associated with cervical spinal cord compression. That is what happened in my case, and I had pain all over my body from cord compression at C5/C6.

I agree with Jennifer that facet joint pain hurts at the level of the facet arthritis but doesn’t radiate down the course of the spinal nerves. Since it’s caused by arthritis though, it’s often accompanied by other spinal problems like disc disease, cord compression, stenosis and foraminal narrowing both above and below (cervical and lumbosacral). An MRI is needed to get detailed images for a complete diagnosis. Pain in the legs and feet are usually associated with lumbar/sacral issues, although cervical problems may cause pain that far down. The whole spine may need to be imaged with MRI either segmentally or all at once if you can lie still for a long time. You could have a T2 nerve block for the facet joints and see what pain gets relieved, then possibly an RFA (radio frequency ablation) that provides relief for about 9-12 months and repeated if needed. Whatever pain remains should be worked up and treated according to findings.