1. < Chronic Pain

Shoulder Muscle and neck pain

Posted by normaprice2003 @normaprice2003, Sep 25 7:23am

My shoulder muscles are knotted and I have neck pain especially in one vertebrae. It's even sore to touch. I live in an area where doctors are few and heavily overworked and they tend to fluff off any ailments that don't require emergency intervention so asking them might be a waste of time.

My question is: would a water pillow help? I haven't found a pillow that doesn't make my neck hurt.

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windyshores | @windyshores | Sep 25 7:59am

Have you tried Ben Gay or BioFreeze? My neuro calls this myelopathy and I have been told the shoulder blade pain comes from the neck. I also take Baclofen.

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normaprice2003 | @normaprice2003 | Sep 25 8:48am

Thank you and no I haven't tried anything topical. I will get some today

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staceywood | @staceywood | Sep 25 9:09am

I wool strongly try physical therapy. It is probably multifactorial. Posture, stress behaviors, muscle imbalances, and sleeping positions. I wouldn’t buy water pillow yet.

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Mentor
Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Sep 25 10:54am

@normaprice2003 Have you considered getting an evaluation from a physical therapist? Having pain is enough to warrant a visit, and they can make recommendations and explain what they find. Often they know who the good specialists are because they rehab patients after surgeries. You do need a doctor who has an interest in the symptoms that you have.

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1 reply
normaprice2003 | @normaprice2003 | Sep 25 11:55am
In reply to @jenniferhunter "@normaprice2003 Have you considered getting an evaluation from a physical therapist? Having pain is enough to..." + (show)
@jenniferhunter

@normaprice2003 Have you considered getting an evaluation from a physical therapist? Having pain is enough to warrant a visit, and they can make recommendations and explain what they find. Often they know who the good specialists are because they rehab patients after surgeries. You do need a doctor who has an interest in the symptoms that you have.

Jump to this post

I will make an appointment with one for ASAP. Thank you

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1 reply
windyshores | @windyshores | Sep 25 2:04pm
In reply to @normaprice2003 "I will make an appointment with one for ASAP. Thank you" + (show)
@normaprice2003

I will make an appointment with one for ASAP. Thank you

Jump to this post

My PT does massage only and is very good at it. It helps with the shoulder pain but doesn't get to the root cause.

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1 reply
dlydailyhope | @dlydailyhope | Sep 26 6:17am

@normaprice2003
I had daily headaches, neck/shoulder/shoulder blade pain and knots. I bought a cervical pillow that is firm to support head/neck when sleeping on side and back.

I did massage but it never got to the root cause. I had a spine specialist do a MRI of my cervical spine and it showed spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease and cervical spondylotic myelopathy compression of spinal cord/nerve roots at C5-C6. It also caused weakness/numbness in arms/hands and I dropped things. I also had heaviness in legs when walking. It caused bladder control issues, too. Once I had ACDF surgery in my cervical spine, it relieved most of my symptoms. If you don’t address the spinal cord compression asap, it can cause permanent damage.

Have you seen an orthopedic spine specialist?

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2 replies
normaprice2003 | @normaprice2003 | Sep 26 6:50am
In reply to @dlydailyhope "@normaprice2003 I had daily headaches, neck/shoulder/shoulder blade pain and knots. I bought a cervical pillow that..." + (show)
@dlydailyhope

@normaprice2003
I had daily headaches, neck/shoulder/shoulder blade pain and knots. I bought a cervical pillow that is firm to support head/neck when sleeping on side and back.

I did massage but it never got to the root cause. I had a spine specialist do a MRI of my cervical spine and it showed spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease and cervical spondylotic myelopathy compression of spinal cord/nerve roots at C5-C6. It also caused weakness/numbness in arms/hands and I dropped things. I also had heaviness in legs when walking. It caused bladder control issues, too. Once I had ACDF surgery in my cervical spine, it relieved most of my symptoms. If you don’t address the spinal cord compression asap, it can cause permanent damage.

Have you seen an orthopedic spine specialist?

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Unfortunately where I live the first problem is getting my GP to take it seriously then it will be a 3-4 year wait to setup an appointment with any specialist and then up to a year before getting a consultation. Our medical system is overloaded and my area gets very little government help. Most help goes to cities. So I haven't mentioned it to my GP yet

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1 reply
dlydailyhope | @dlydailyhope | Sep 26 8:07am
In reply to @normaprice2003 "Unfortunately where I live the first problem is getting my GP to take it seriously then..." + (show)
@normaprice2003

Unfortunately where I live the first problem is getting my GP to take it seriously then it will be a 3-4 year wait to setup an appointment with any specialist and then up to a year before getting a consultation. Our medical system is overloaded and my area gets very little government help. Most help goes to cities. So I haven't mentioned it to my GP yet

Jump to this post

Where do you live?

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1 reply
normaprice2003 | @normaprice2003 | Sep 26 9:15am
In reply to @dlydailyhope "Where do you live?" + (show)
@dlydailyhope

Where do you live?

Jump to this post

I live in Bruce County, Ontario Canada. 2 hours from any bigger city

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