Undiagnosed chronic pain-open to advice

Hi all, I currently have an undiagnosed chronic condition for going on a year now. Last year, my right side began hurting in my rib cage area. Sometimes it would wrap around to my back or shoulder but sometimes it wouldn’t. Other than throbbing, it would be burning, tingling, numbness, and also felt squeezing at times. It was very intense the first few days and it gradually faded until it was a mild ache. It would come and go depending on what was going on that day, but never again did it hurt like it did when it first came on.

I had my gallbladder removed a couple of months before. I was convinced it was a complication from the surgery. They did labs, an abdomen MRI, a chest CT, x-rays. Everything was normal. I went to the spine specialist who thought I may have intercostal neuralgia from the surgery. I did 8 weeks of PT, which included dry needling and TENS therapy. Nothing helped long term. The therapist initially said I had scar tissue adhesions, but she was doubting this diagnosis when I didn’t improve.

A few weeks later I had an intercostal nerve block for the same nerve they had previously thought was the problem. While the lidocaine immediately calmed the nerve, The area that he threaded the needle through in my back was hurting. I figured it would be bruised for a few days so I tried to not touch it. Over the next couple of weeks, the steroid wore off. I had been off a couple of days when I had an acute pain crisis. Not only did my ribs hurt, but my entire body hurt. I felt like I was dying. I was also having vertigo and nygstimis. I went to the emergency room after conferring with my doctor due to the amount of pain and pressure I was having in my chest, along with numbness and tingling in forearm/hand. The chest pain was so intense that I couldn’t take a deep breath. The ER staff did an EKG and an X-ray with some bloodwork and said I was fine. They didn’t know why that happened, but to follow up with my doctor.

When seeing the spine specialist , they requested another MRI for my thoracic spine to see if I had a herniated disc or something. I didn’t. Because everything had been normal, he did not feel like he could help me. He didn’t know what was wrong with me but felt there was something there. He commented that the procedure shouldn’t have been so painful and suggested I not have anything else done to my body until I figure out what is going on.

No one knew where to send me next, so he said shortness of breath should be cardio. He immediately said I didn’t have anything wrong with my heart but did an ECHO just in case. He also ran bloodwork testing for autoimmune diseases. They were normal. By the time I left his service I had gained a lot of new symptoms like numbness in my tongue and face. Pain and tingling in the tops of my feet. Also pain in my shoulder blade and back of neck. Leg numbness and pain. I can’t use my hand for too long, otherwise it just stops working and will tremor and spasm. I also have what feels like a tremor when I lay my head back for too long, almost like I can’t get it balanced on the couch.

He referred me to a neurologist which I can’t get into until next month. My primary doctor has already scheduled me a brain MRI for this month just to rule out the bigger things.

Sorry, I know that was super long. I’ve been going through this for an entire year. What I thought were some scar tissue adhesions I was going to have to work through turned into so much more. Now I’m truly clueless. All the physicians seem to be as well. I’m hoping the neurologist will have some ideas! Thanks for reading.