Suggest Treatment For Chronic Neck Pain

Hello,

I have chronic neck pain for seven years now. It all started when i was seventeen years old and i felt a strange fatigue feeling while I was practicing my ballroom dances ( at that time i was dancing for ten years). I thought maybe I’m overtired or something. So, i quitted the practice early and went to sleep. The next morning i was feeling the same, since then that feeling never left me... Later as I read some information on health topics I would identify this feeling with a medical term called "tension headache". I always feel pressure on my occipital area, as if my head would be in some kind of press mechanism. As time progressed other problems occurred, witch I am going to describe in detail in my story after a little while... In addition, I would like to mention that I had Lyme disease when I was a child, but my mother spotted this in time and we went to the doctor who prescribed me antibiotics course. I took the course as I was supposed to Also I didn’t feel any changes( no headaches, no temperature rising, vomiting….nothing) I remembered that and I thought maybe this can be the cause of my problems?( maybe this still is…I am not one-hundred percent sure) I had my Lime disease test a couple years ago and the company that did it sad it was positive and I went to a infection hospital, showed the test and they sad that the test only shows that I have antibodies from lime disease and this will stay for the rest of my life, but to completely be sure they made an offer to do an additional test. So they stabbed a syringe with a long needle into my lower back between vertebrae and pulled some liquid (cerebrospinal fluid) from that spot. After three days lying in bed the doctors sad that the fluid doesn’t show any changes towards my spine condition.

So not to expand my story too much I would like to submit the information about me:



My condition at the moment:

weakness, strong occipital pain(“tension headache”) and fatigue from when I wake up till I go down, memory loss (~80%) it feels as if there is a “wall” in my occipital area, witch is blocking my thoughts and erases the information that I have, lack of concentration, hand, palm, finger numbness when I am a sleep, muscle twitching(especially in my crural area twenty-four hours a day) , right shoulder and right shoulder blade pain( the pain level in these areas is not the same, as day progresses the pain becomes more sharp and some times not, the same pain level always stays the same in my neck area), sometimes two fingers of my right arm are numb all the day, always feeling tense muscle in my neck and shoulder areas.

Additional information (what other symptoms I have noticed over the years starting from my childhood, maybe this can have influence on my problems, I don’t know…)”

1) Sometimes when I’m in a sitting position for a while and then stand up, I get dizzy for approximately 10s;

2) Sometimes when I’m in a very nervous condition or when it is very cold, I get a feeling as if a “ electric wave” is ran through my body, starting from my feet and going upwards my head. Muscles start to contract by themselves; you can’t control your body at that moment. This condition lasts about 2-3s. Afterwards I get goose bumps all over my body;

3) I was in a car accident, when I was a kid. I was struck by a car in my right side. I didn’t feel any pain; only saw white light in my eyes. I just stood up and went my way;

4) When I was a baby I fell into a concrete pit and blood was running from my mouth. From this action I have injured my teeth. Later on as I turned into a teenager my one front tooth fell from my mouth. So I had to change it constantly;

5) Sometimes when I lie in my bed and it seems that you immediately will go to sleep, you get some kind of shocking, fear feeling and your legs go up in the air and you wake up, but I you aren’t asleep just close to this condition. When I’m asleep I don’t get this feeling.

6) As I was a child I used to grind my teeth when sleeping, not sure if I’m doing that nowadays.



I have done two MRI. This years and five years ago.

The past MRI summary (2005):



MR (C1-C7):

C2-C3, C3-C4 small degenerative changes, at the bottom surface of C3 5-6mm Schmorl knot, C5-C6 “disk is shroud”( I don’t know how to Wright correctly in English) , C4-C5, C6-C7 disks are less shroud. C5-C6 disk is more shroud by the left edge, narrows the intervertebral foramen. C3-C7 are rotated counter clockwise.



The new MRI summary (2010):



Analyzed by: T1W, PD

Performed axial, coronary cuts.



Straightened physiological cervical spine part of lordosis

Vertebral rotation of cervical spine

C2-3-4-5 disks between vertebrae are abstemiously lower, circulars are shroud, covering plates are not even, at the bottom surface of C3 small Schmorl knot, C5-6-7 vertebrae disks marginally lower, circulars are shroud. C5-C6 disk is more shroud by the left edge posterolaterally marginally narrowing the intervertebral foramen.



Comparing with the old MRI view, changes within vertebrae disks remain without major dynamics; rotation is expressed a little less.



Medical ways I tried to heal:

Chiropractors, acupuncture, massage, neck traction, osteopathy, physiotherapy, procedures (ultrasound with gel, laser, electro-stimulation).



Recently, I have been to a sport and rehabilitation doctor, also to a neurosurgeon for a consultation. The neurosurgeon sad that there are two ways: rehab or surgery – procedure called “radiofrequency destruction of the disc” for C5-C6 disk. But I have doubts on this, because basically the intervertebral foreman is narrowed more on the left side, so the pain should be on the same side, or not? I don’t have pain on the left side, only now I have a numb hand on that side, when I am asleep. Every night I wake up from this, but it gets numb when I’m sleeping on my back. When I sleep on the side, I rarely get a numb hand. The permanent pain is on my right side (shoulder, shoulder blade, arm (rarely, but sometimes two numb fingers of the arm). As I mentioned before the pain is constant, but the intensity differs, sometimes it gets stronger. Also the pain seems to be “traveling”, sometimes you feel more in the shoulder, and sometimes in t scapular and so on….. So I had doubts and asked the neurosurgeon about this situation. He sad that sometimes when the nerve is pressed on the left side, you feel the pain in your right side… Can it be so? Also I asked him if that particular disc can cause all these problems – right shoulder, shoulder blade pain, neck pain, occipital pain( tension headache), always left arm numbness when I am asleep and time to time right arm numbness, at daytime sometimes right arm two finger numbness, always feeling of tense muscles in neck, shoulder area. Will correction of this particular disk solve all these problems? Or do I have multiple problematic areas in my neck that should be corrected? My neurosurgeon says that “most likely” it will solve these problems. ..I would be the happiest person in the world if that would be true. He is the only one in my country (Lithuania) to do this kind of procedure. The procedure costs 2000 dollars. It is a very high price for Lithuanian standards. By the way the procedure only lasts 18s, excluding time for preparation. Is he talking sincerely, or he just wants the money? What is your opinion?



At the moment I’m doing rehabilitation procedures: ultrasound with gel, laser, and electro-stimulation.



I don’t now if I am allowed but I am adding a link with my information (MRI, X-Rays, video):



WWW.WWWW.WW


I have chronic neck pain for seven years now. That pain enervated me over the years. I always get the feeling that I have to try 10 times harder then a normal person to achieve something and sometimes I just don’t have the strength to do anything, because the constant huge discomfort overcomes my body. My soul and my heart simply can’t accept this condition. I want to do and achieve so many things in my life….I’m sincerely asking for your help and advise. I hope you understood what i had in mind, especially the MRI part( It was very hard for me to write this text, because English is not my mother tongue language and also of my health condition at the moment, but I want to say only one thing- I have written this text from all of my heart!!!). I’m living a dream of a pain free day…

best wishes,

Dalius