Excruciating chronic left side neck pain plus lumbar issues

Alfred, they always tell me , after the shots, no heat!!!! It can disperse the fluid too fast. Ice is fine. AND no diclofenac, it's an antiinflam and they just gave you steroid so it would be double dosing. Please check your instructions

Hi jm1
thank you for this warning. They haven't told me anything about this.

The doctor told me that he injected anesthetic.

Since 2 days ago I have been feeling more excruciating pain from around T1 hurting (left and right) really badly, as if there is something filling inside the neck. pushing out.

The sides of my neck are extremely sensitive, painful and numb. The same feeling felt in my lumbar area, the legs and the feet. I feel burning pain in my lumbar area.

When I try to bend slightly forward I also feel pain and numbness in the groin, back, legs and feet.

Yesterday I took 2 x Targin 10mg/5mg(Naxolone) because the pain was unbearable. I still felt it. I think something inside is not right. It wasn't like this 3 days ago.

Before, when I stood I hardly had any pain only when I lay down.
Here in Aus is Sunday and I am not sure whether I should call emergency or wait till Monday to call my doctors. Have the injections caused this or was it his fingers pressure when He was pain mapping?

Alfred

Alfred,
By all means if you feel you need to go to the emergency hospital, then call 911 and go. You have to decide how badly you feel.
In my personal experience, I have had injections that hurt for several days worse. I think Jennifer said she did too. I always ice 20mins on 20mins off and repeat all day long. In my experience I have spent weeks in bed awaiting relief, one time it took 6 weeks of injections and meds. I wrote my meds on a log sheet with date time and dose, so I wouldn't forget when I took something. Esp impt when you are taking higher does of multiple meds. . Prayers for you.

Hi jm1,
Thanks for the support once again.
You have the luxury to lie down and probably sleep or probably not. My pain won't let me lie down. When lying down my pain is at its worst, standing his better but I can't fall asleep that way. I didn't call the ambulance I just kept using an the ice pack.

Yesterday I wasn't able to manage my pain with 20mg of Oxycodone and Amytripiline.

My problems are not only cervical but also some thoracic and right nerve impingement L2/3, L3/4. Yesterday I was used la Tens machine for the first time to relieve some neck pain but it made it worse and now all my right hand side is burning bad inside. Have I done some damage to the nerves, joints and soft tissue? Or is it just inflammation? Will it get better? I am so annoyed with myself because maybe I should have used it on a lower setting.

I can't drive a car or catch public transport due to the pain which makes it difficult to go to doctors appointments.

I didn't need this one.

Alfred

I take 2 Extra Strength
Excedrin twice a day and it has been the best remedy for my pinched nerve and spinal stenosis.
It’s not a panacea, but gives me some relief.
It’s much more effective than Tylenol 650.
I don’t take the Excedrin at night because it has caffeine in it.
Also, a good acupuncturist May able to alleviate some of your pain.

Hi Alfred
Feeling for you and the lack of sleep is adding to your pain cycle. The only time I dare use a tens is when my pain is very low. When raging pain and inflamed, I too learned the tens made it worse no matter the setting. The way I look at it is, you are electrifying something that is already electrified and adding to your inflammation problem. There is another current called interferential which helps heal, much different than tens. When I am this bad acupuncture doesnt make a dent or help .Once again I will suggest you speak to your dr to change your medications as I recommended on earlier thread. And yes, you should be able to take Tylenol with your current meds , research shows nsaid and tylenol combined are ok and have increased pain relief benefit. but not Excedrin as it is got aspirin in it and would bleed your stomach in combination with you nsaid (the diclofenac) . And no nsaid is allowed after steroid injection.,if he indeed dr did use a steroid in your recent injection. Hope this helps. Was on ice myself last nite and this morn. God Bless.

@ab6540183
Hi Alfred, if your question was for me, yes, my cervical fusion resolved all of my spine generated pain instantly. I could tell as soon as I woke up from anesthesia that it was gone. The only pain left was from the surgical path.

You are on a lot of medication, and that can cause tinnitus. If you look up the drug name with the word ototoxic, you may find information related to that. Ototoxic drugs cause damage to the ear internally. Hearing depends on nerve endings that are hairlike that float in fluid and receive vibrations of sound traveling through the fluid in the inner ear. Those hair cells are easily damaged by loud noises, and ototoxic drugs can warp and deform them, causing a hearing loss, or tinnitus. If you have an environment medicine doctor who does detoxing, you could ask what you can take to help detox from your medications. Sometimes the tinnitus can be temporary, or it can be permanent depending on what drugs are causing it. I have tinnitus from taking a high dose of an antibiotic which I have accepted as my normal. With aging and medications, I think tinnitus is pretty common.

Jennifer

@ab6540183 @jm1 No.... I am not a fan of steroid injections. My experience with one epidural injection I had in my neck was it did take away the pre-existing pain for only 5 days, and then it started coming back. It also gave me a new strong sharp electric burning pain that I didn't have before the injection that affected the thumb and fingers in my dominant hand. Any time I moved my hand or fingers it sent a shock to them, and I couldn't touch the nerve pathways through my arm that was inflamed by the injections or there was another electric shock. I kept getting random electric shock pain for around 6 weeks before it subsided. It did over time become less often, and the anesthesiologist who did the injection kept calling me to see if I was still having trouble. After that pain stopped, the hand was cold and heat sensitive for a year and a half. I refused to do any more of those epidural injections. I guess it helps some people, but it also carries some big risks if something goes wrong.

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

this neck issues are also causing me other intermittent problems such as:

1) General un-wellness
2) Periods of clear thinking alternating with periods not so clear
3)Headaches that come and go
4) Left earache and jaw ache
5)When bending forward slightly I feel more pain in the left side around C7/T1 and concurrently feeling it in the left lumbar spine, groin, leg and foot
6) Anxiety for no apparent reason
7) Shortness of breath. Struggling drawing air
8)Blocked nostrils even though I am not sick, no sinus, hardly any mucus
9)Dizziness
10)Mental fog. Because I am deaf in my left ear, I feel a pulsating fullness.
11)Seeing blurry at times
12)Something in neck shifting making a single knock sound
13)Balance issues when walking also due to pain in the right hand lumbar nerve impingement
14)Hypersensitivity to sound, mainly cutlery hitting plates sounds.
15)Right side tinnitus as mentioned before.
16) Periods of high blood pressure.
17)Constant fatigue, arms weakness, shoulders pain.

I tell my pain management doctor but he doesn't address these issues.

The inflammation on the right end side has disappeared after taking 900mg of magnesium, I couldn't believe it.

Last night after having my worst pain, it suddenly disappeared after standing on 4 legs like a dog and applying the ice pack for a long time. Unbelievably I went to sleep without taking any meds and slept 6 hours straight, woke up to go to the toilet, went back to sleep and woke up at 7:30. I was feeling good. But later in the day my neck pain started rising, but still sort of bearable

Currently I have a sharp stab between C7 and T1, I am feeling tired, light headed and short of breath.

I am going to get my vertebral arteries checked soon after having seen the neurologist on 13/2/2023.

I wish I never got these bad issues after 20 years of peak physical activity.
In all this trouble I have faith in GOD and pray.

I have attached a picture of me in better times back in 2008.
That day I rode 220km non stop. It is called Around the Bay in day Melbourne Australia.
I kept riding until August 2022 when this problem struck for the first time. I haven't been riding since September 2022. I hope that I can get out of this condition and go back to some normality.

Thank you

Alfred

Hi Alfred, I’ve just looked at your MRI results, it mentioned a lesion at T1-2, what does your doctor say about that? That is very concerning. I also have moderate stenosis at C4-C7, also have stenosis in the lumbar area, and have had injections there in the past; they never helped me but I know they’ve helped many others. I had ablations done on my L4, L5 lumbar area. The first ablation helped, the second one didn’t six months later. Pain medication helps to a certain degree, keeps me off the bed anyway- my pain is lessened by reclining. It hasn’t helped as much lately. I’m going back to the doctors in mid-March for a Spect scan and X-rays on my hips to see it it’s referred pain, as I’ve had pain across the hips since a few weeks after my fusion on L4-5 January 2021. They wanted to wait 2 years for full healing. Fusions don’t always help, especially if there are multiple areas of damage, it’s important to have the right doctor. I wish you relieve some pain and hope you can find some answers!