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Cervical Spondylosis ?, waiting for MRI.

Posted , 3 users are following.

jules831b
jules831b

Hi I have just joined today and would like some feedback please.

I will try to make it short, but have various conditions, so please bare with me.....

I will be 47 years old next week and have had osteoarthritis since I was 30 and it all started to go downhill from then.

Ok I have osteoarthritis in my feet and hands and have painful other joints too and I have had 18 knee surgeries ending in both knees being replaced when I was 40 years old. I have Fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder and carpal tunnel (which I had surgery on both hands in 2010), and a couple of other things that don't relate to this topic.

The medications I'm on are:-

Simvastatin 40mgs (taken one at night)

Naproxen 250mgs (one taken twice daily)

Calcichew D3 500mg/400unit caplets (one twice a day)

Co-codamol 30/500mg (as required)

Amitriptyline 100mg (taken at night)

Omeprazole 20mg gastro-resistant capsule (one in the morning)

In the past I have had two whiplash injuries and a frozen shoulder, many years ago.

I have suffered with varying amounts and types of pain for 20 years now so it is difficult to say which pain actually belongs to which condition?

So for a long time I have been having what I would call real bad tension in the muscles in my neck down to my left shoulder and across the very top of my back/bottom of my neck. It seemed that it didn't take much to actually pull any of these muscles and lately Its been constant tense muscles and just turning round it would pull one. I also experience back of the neck pain that goes down my left shoulder and in between the shoulder blades. I put a lot of it down to the Fibromyalgia.

I started to feel light headed when things were at there worst lasting anything from a few minutes to an hour. My hands have started to tingle and go partially numb, which I put down to a recurrence of the carpel tunnel. Also for a long time I have had grinding/scrunching at the very top of my neck as it reaches the skull. I also had a suspected slipped disc a couple of years ago in my lower back and now hurts intermittently.

I went to see my GP, who is excellent and she is booking me in for an MRI of my total spine, which could take weeks. Even if it is CS, I'm not really sure they could do that much as I'm on so many pain killers and anti-inflammatories any way?

I'm just so fed up that yet I have to have another problem on top of what I have already and don't even remember what a pain free day feels like!

Could these symptoms be down to my existing conditions or is more likely to be CS?

Also do you have the same symptoms?

Sorry its a bit lengthy, look forward to hearing from you all.

Thanks for reading this in advance.

xx

0 likes, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Gerry_the_neck
    Gerry_the_neck

    Posted

    Hi Jules

    Its really impossible for anyone here to advise your symptoms, thats better left to the GPs etc. However, I would say that the neck/shoulder problems you're experiencing are familiar to me as a C/S sufferer. You would need a MRI of the neck area to confirm this, and it seems you've already set this in motion. They might offer surgery depending on MRI results, but not in every case...they have to consider other aspects as well. I hope that your scan goes well and you get a good outcome.

  • jules831b
    jules831b

    Posted

    Hi Gerry, thank you so much for your reply, I know it could be various things because of the different conditions that I have, but like you said I will have to wait and see what the MRI shows. Thanks again.
  • WhippetWoman
    WhippetWoman jules831b

    Posted

    Hi jules831b,

    i read your your case with interest as much of it is akin to mine. I had early onset arthritis (23) cervical spondylitis, frozen shoulder, TMJD, fainting, pins and needles in extremities neck pain etc.

    i was finally diagnosed with hypothyroidism and wonder if anyone has bothered to run a thyroid function test for you? I had a family history of it but no one bothered in my case until it was overt and incredibly debilitating.

    Some ar of the opinion that fibromyalgia is just undiagnosed hypothyroidism. It only appeared along with ME after the medical profession started using TSH tests for diagnosing it rather than going on symptoms and began treating it with synthetic thryoxine in preference to porcine desiccated thyroid which was the first treatment that actually saved lives before that it was untreatable and if it worsened death ensued.

    Thyroid UK is a very good site if you want to check on hypothroidism. I always felt cold or very cold and this is a classic symptom of the disorder. 

    medication does improve symptoms.

    i saw an osteopath for the neck pains and trapped nerves in arms and legs and it really helped, but being treated for hypo has been a life saver in my case.

    sounds like you have been really in the wars so my sympathies there.

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