Shoulder and Neck problems - not sure what to do next

I am at a loss as to how to proceed with my shoulder/neck issues. I had a traumatic posterior shoulder dislocation in late 2023. This resulted in a posterior Bankart labral tear (from the bone) and a Type II SLAP tear. At the time, my shoulder would just fall out of place because there wasn’t enough tension on the labrum to hold it in place. I had surgery in July 2024 where they placed anchors and sutured the labrum back to the bone. I did the PT and progressed well. Was released from PT early and got back into pilates. The shoulder felt good and didn’t give me much trouble.

Around December 2024, my shoulder started hurting very bad again and felt very loose and started slipping out again. I went back to the doctor who advised me to do home PT again and stop pilates. I did all of that and it still kept hurting. He decided to do another MRI to check it but also wanted to MRI my cervical spine to see if that might be causing the shoulder pain. I wasn’t convinced at all that my neck had anything to do with the shoulder pain only because the shoulder pain was exactly like when I injured it. But I did both MRI’s.

The results of those are listed below:

April 2025 Shoulder MRI Results:
1. Posterior inferior labral detachment with a 3 mm para labral cyst.
2. Intact rotator cuff.

April 2025 C-Spine MRI Results:
C2-3: Disc bulge measuring 3 mm indents the ventral thecal sac without canal stenosis or neural foraminal narrowing.
C3-4: Disc bulge measuring 3 mm indents the ventral thecal sac without canal stenosis. Right uncinate process hypertrophy and facet arthrosis causes mild right neural foraminal narrowing.
C4-5: Disc bulge measuring 3 mm indents the ventral thecal sac without canal stenosis. Left uncinate process hypertrophy/disc bulge causes mild left neural foraminal narrowing.
C5-6: Disc protrusion measuring 4 mm indents the ventral thecal sac without canal stenosis. Disc bulge and uncinate process hypertrophy causes moderate right/severe left neural foraminal narrowing.
C6-7: Disc bulge measuring 2 mm indents the ventral thecal sac without canal stenosis or neural foraminal narrowing.
C7-T1: No HNP, canal stenosis or neural foraminal narrowing is identified.
1. Disc bulges and disc protrusions as described above without canal stenosis.
2. Mild right neural foraminal narrowing at C3-C4 and on the left at C4-C5. Moderate right neural foraminal narrowing at C5-C6. Severe left neural foraminal narrowing at C5-C6.
3. Non deforming hemangioma in the C7 vertebral body level.

As soon as my ortho saw the c-spine results, he immediately decided my neck is the problem and referred me to pain management even though the shoulder MRI shows another labral detachment. I cannot take steroid injections. I have a bad reaction resulting in extremely increased pain for 3-4 days then it goes back to the same way it was prior to the injection. I am also not a fan of “pain management” because to me, that is just treating symptoms and masking the pain and doesn’t actually fix any problems.

I went to my PCP for a consult because I was so torn on what to do and he knows and understands why I won’t do injections. At the time, my pain was solely in my shoulder with no numbness, tingling or anything related to nerve pain. Again, it was exactly the same as when I injured it. He referred me for a second opinion with a different ortho several hours away in a much bigger city. When I saw that doctor he really pushed me to do injections in the shoulder but I refused. He said my only other option was more PT. I just continued what I had been doing and it stayed the same for a while. My shoulder has lots of grinding when I move it and I have to make sure I engage all the muscles when carrying anything around the weight of a gallon of milk so it doesn’t slip out of place.

I also spoke to my chiropractor (I only go once a month for maintenance) and she said that if I wasn’t having nerve symptoms that I could wait a while, but I would have to address it at some point because what the MRI of my c-spine showed is definitely problematic even if asymptomatic at the time.

That time has now come I think. Recently I have been having pain in my neck and my left shoulder (the bad one) is numb most of the time. My right arm has also started “falling asleep” especially at night. I realize that these symptoms are more nerve related than just shoulder related but I am in a catch 22. Everyone wants to refer me to pain management for injections and that is not an option. I’m also not interested in just numbing or killing the nerves because it’s not addressing the problems in my neck.

So what do you do when everyone’s first choice for care doesn’t work for you? What are my options? I’m asking others before I make anymore appointments so that I can be as informed as possible. I have found that the minute I tell them I am opposed to injections, they are done with me and basically tell me to live with it. But I am not interested in going through a lot of additional pain or expense for something that has already proven not to work for me. I’ve given in to other doctors and done injections in my hands, ankles, knees and always had the same reaction with no benefits.

Hoping some of you may have some advice for me. I know my problems aren’t anywhere near as bad as others, but they are still frustrating and painful.