Mystery 10/10 pain, getting hard to keep going

@kenc Thank you !!!

@carol1024 in this vein, a simple blood test for ESR, a nonspecific test for inflammation may be useful, it’s inexpensive and only involves a blood sample

@bellamarielongo Try an MFR therapist. You might need to try a few before you find one that you want to go to regularly. I am sorry, but none of the responses here are directly related to what you highlighted as your problem. You also need to be referred to an orthopedic spine surgeon who will interpret the structure of your spine. You have to start with the foundation – the structural support of your body. And just because the MRI doesn’t show a problem does not mean that the orthopedic surgeon won’t give you a diagnosis and plan. According to your MRI, you may be normal, but not according to a spine surgeon. They see things differently and will look at your physical self. At the young, tender age of 23 with the reversal of the curvature of your spine, I can only think that your regular cell phone user And you have spent too much time with your head in poor posture. I have the same thing, but it happened much later and it came through repetitive work sitting at a drafting table. You need to exercise your neck and shoulders to strengthen the muscles around and supporting your head. An MFR therapist will help you realign your neck, shoulders and head to relieve the pain. I tried everything and every doctor. In the end, a very good about our therapist could put my head properly seated on my cervical spine, but then after two days the lack of muscle supporthad my head misaligned causing all of the pain that you’re having. At 67 I was too old to build the muscle support in that area Which was needed so they had to do cervical spine surgery. At my age, my bones were too weak so they had to do a second surgery and put a rod in the back of my neck to hold everything in place. I think at your age there’s a lot of opportunity to repair your problem. But you have to get in to see the correct doctors. There are things like Botox injections. That were really helpful along the way. But they only weaken the muscles that you really need to be strengthening. Lying in bed with the pain is not going to heal you. You need to get to Neurology doctors, Kinzie, Knology, doctors, rehab, and at the basis of all of this a good orthopedic surgeon. Once I identified the problem through the MFR therapist and seeing what it was like to have my headset on my neck and shoulders properly over my spine surgery was the only answer for me. For the rest of my life, I will need to exercise the area and stay with an MFR therapist. I make it a point to always hold my cell phone with proper posture and do my artwork with the same. There is hope and recovery for you. You’re going to have to advocate for yourself. I hope you get help! I looked up POTS. The POTS might be a result of the pain you are experiencing. After I read what POT constitutes I felt like I should revise my comment to say it sounds like you could possibly have a pinched nerve Exiting your your cervical spine. I certainly had a lot of cervical spinedisc compression which caused the kind of pain you seem to be experiencing. I think the first thing is to have an MFR therapist and see if you can alleviate some of the pain, alleviate the symptoms of POTSand get some direction. I still think it is best to have an orthopedic surgeon in your mix, but being so young I don’t know if you can easily get the referral to start top down. You might have to start bottom up.

I wonder if traction might help. I use an inversion table to create traction for my back. It helped my neck issue too. I was on the table for some sciatica and noticed after the treatment my neck felt better too.
Check with the dr first to be sure it’s a safe avenue to pursue. They can be bought for cheap on fb marketplace

I have a post on my page explaining what I usually go through. However recently I’ve been having new symptoms that are really scaring me. I’m 23yr old female for reference. - The past 3 shifts at my desk job I have had a “ flare up” that lasts 30min- an hour. It’s HORRIBLE. It starts with severe neck/ spine and head pressure and when I say severe it feels like my head and neck are going to explode out of my body. Then it’s followed up with me feeling extremely weak extremely fast, holding my head up seems like a heavy duty task, even sitting up In my chair is damn near unbearable, I get this out of body feeling like I can’t feel / fully control my body, it gets hard to concentrate and most recently today - I got two new additions : a sloshing wooshing sensation in the back of my neck and collarbone area, and a LOUD ringing that lasted for maybe 10 seconds but I couldn’t hear anything else when it happened. I’ve also been having burning in my temples / temple pain and pressure but that isn’t new I’ve had it before so I’m not too worried about that but it is really bothersome. I have a neruo appointment coming up end of Feb ( I’ve had an mri done of my head and neck a while back it was normal ) but I’m seriously so confused and scared at what’s happening to me. Any ideas of what this could be ? Also I dropped a pic below of some of the things I felt the prior episode

Hello @bellamarielongo,

I combined your new discussion on mystery pain with your previous discussion titled:

"Mystery 10/10 pain, getting hard to keep going"
- https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mystery-1010-pain-getting-hard-to-keep-going/

Here, members who previously discussed with you will have a chance to see your new experience.

Hello,
Terribly sorry you are going through this. Seems to me that you may need more tender care as well as physical care. I agree a neurologist would be a terrific go to. They test your muscles and nerves and your gait. Since this has been so hard on you, perhaps a support group of people going through similar circumstances may comfort you. You need both love and physical care.

@bellamarielongo sitting at your desk doing PC work just sucks. Our necks were not meant to keep a 9 pound head in place for an extended period of time especially if you have neck issues already. I retired from my last job due to the back problems this added to. I wonder whether you had back issues as a youth leading into adult hood? Consider seeing a physical medicine doctor and also get a physical therapy evaluation as well. PT’s are very knowledgeable and part of their work involves evaluating patients and making treatment recommendations to physicians. Also consider your negative MRI a positive finding because you now know what it is not. I hope you find relief?

I recommend you read They Way Out by Alan Gordon, and look into Pain Reprocessing Therapy. I was in terrible pain and after many months (over a year) of medical tests and procedures, this is what is finally helping me.

I have all of your same symptoms and more, vertigo and pain in my face. Be very careful of traction, even gentle manual traction, it made my situation so much worse after one try. Over 2 years and no answers.