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Excruciating chronic left side neck pain plus lumbar issues
Spine Health | Last Active: Nov 18, 2023 | Replies (360)Comment receiving replies
Hi Alfred
When pain shifts from side to side, that is sign of spine instability, it can happen. It's scary, but for me on a positive note sometimes it give me a breather as the pain on the old side gets a rest. The creaking or cracking is called crepitis .
No one but a dr can tell you to increase your doses. Sorry to say drowsiness, dry mouth and constipation and (stomach pain probably from Diclofenac, zinc and tumeric) are just par for the course. Eat soda crackers as empty stomach makes it worse.
I completely rest in ice all day long, use Biotene gel for dry mouth and senna, when this bad.
You sound so bad today, it might be time to go to hosptial and get the morphine shots. At least it will be medically supervised and provide some relief quickly. Prayers for you
Replies to "Hi Alfred When pain shifts from side to side, that is sign of spine instability, it..."
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@jenniferhunter @jm1
Hi jm1,
nice to hear from you again.
How are you?
Now the problem is that I am getting pain on both sides just as bad, but more on the right.
Plenty of referred pain all over the body also due to the impingement of right nerve root in the neural foramina at L2/3, L3/4 levels and potential for impingement at L4/5 level.
The spine is messed up due to all the accidents that I had in the past when riding the bike, drivers' fault.
I feel pain starting from C4 and possibly going up to T5 bilaterally.
Sleeping is impossible. I can't sleep on my left/right side or on my back. Standing is the only position that reduces the pain. When I walk I limp due to the pain in the right lumbar region.
Recently the pain medication is not working at times. For example 2 days ago I managed to sleep well, got up and was feeling nearly normal for the rest of the day. Last night I had a horrible night with a lot of burning pain in that area that I mentioned. Since 2 months ago I developed right ear tinnitus. I already had left sided tinnitus due to an acoustic neuroma and I am basically deaf in the left ear. I have all these stressors which are consuming me.
The classical music eased my mind a bit by distracting me for a while.
I have booked the following based on the DR's requests:
1) cervicothoracic injections based on pain mapping
2)Left C5/6 transforaminal injection to treat bone scan report of increased disc degenerative activity at C5/6 with less-marked disc degenerative activity at C4/5, as well as severe left C5/6 foraminal stenosis.
This will be happening in the next 2 weeks.
I hope that this will help identify the source of the pain. There could be more nerve blocks because pain is a strange beast.
If I have to go to the surgery path, I would prefer an artificial disc replacement (expensive) rather than a fusion which would make me lose quite a bit of flexibility.
If I had fusion does this mean a a 4 vertebrae fusion? Would this would be restrictive?
Would I still be able to drive a car, reverse, tie my shoe lace or cut my toe nails?
Has anyone had a multi level fusion in the cervical spine?
In the latest MRI they detected:
Approximately 2mm retrolisthesis of C4 on C5 and 1.5mm retrolisthesis of the C5 on C6 vertebral body
noted.
C5/6: Spondylolisthesis and uncovering of the intervertebral disc in conjunction with discophytic lipping associated with mild spinal canal narrowing along with moderate left neural foraminal narrowing seen impinging the exiting left C6 nerve root. Mild right neural foraminal narrowing contacting the exiting right
Anyway that's all from me today and that the Lord will look after me.
I am 66 and I have sons and grandchildren that I want to see grow up.
Thank you
Best regards
Alfred