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← Return to Shoulder Muscle and neck pain
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@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?
Replies to "@normaprice2003 I had daily headaches, neck/shoulder/shoulder blade pain and knots. I bought a cervical pillow that..."
Wow, you got what I've got, almost to the last detail. I have severe spondylosis and stenosis from injuries in the military and I have almost constant pain with vertigo. I've found that wearing a cervical collar while working on the computer helped me a lot. For what it's worth.
I also live in Canada. My doctor could not understand why I had so much neck pain. Because of wait times to see a neuro- spine surgeon, I had a C5,6,7 fusion at a Kirkland Wash, clinic. I was so fortunate to get a good surgeon. This greatly reduced the pain but then the pain started above in the C2,3,4 which was not operable. This pain is not as bad as the first but I have been to the pain clinic for cortisone injections and nerve ablations. I also take Gabapentin. I use hot packs and a gun massager to the neck muscles. I hope this has been some help to you
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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