Back Pain Community

Hello and welcome.

I'm sorry to read of your pain but fully understand.

Make sure the orthopedic is a spine specialist. An orthopedic spine specialist/surgeon or neurosurgeon are the best doctors to see for spine related problems.

Have you had an MRI or CT Scan? What did the report say? Before pursuing any type of treatment you need a spine specialist to give you an accurate diagnosis. A pain management specialist, especially a physiatrist, would be a good doctor to see once you have an accurate diagnosis.

We are a group of lay people who have experience with back pain. We can not actually diagnose or give medical advice, but we can share our knowledge and experiences.

I pray you can get the proper treatment and relief soon.

Have they checked your gallbladder? Just an idea, I know that causes shoulder pain also.

Lost my gallbladder 30 years ago. Thanks

I know that I can not get medical advice but I was hoping that someone out there has had or is having the same kind of problem that I am having. All my test say that there is nothing wrong. I just can not get my doctor to send me to a specialist. She did have her BOSS call me the other day and told me that he agrees with her that it is just a muscle pain and that I need to stop doing everything that I love to do and to sit in a chair all day so that it will not happen again. What doctor tells you to give up on life? If I have to stop doing what I love, than what is there to live for. Thanks for your understanding Dave.

Hello again.

How easy would it be for you to change primary doctors? Sometimes that is a drastic but needed step to take to get the care we need. I've done it once or twice and was always glad I did.

Thanks Dave - I will be seeing my new doctor tomorrow. I have asked my old doctor about a neurosurgeon dozens of times and she just kept telling me that it is a muscle problem and I do not need to see a specialist.

Once again, thank you for your advice.

God Bless & Have a great day

Bonnie

This sounds almost identical to the back pain I've been dealing with for the last 7 years or so.

In my case, I get sharp stabbing pain right at the base of the shoulder blades. This is extreme pain. It's normally on my right side, although it's currently on my left side (or I wouldn't be browsing back pain websites right now!).

I've been able to determine what has been happening. Typically I'll do some activity that causes a lot of stress back there. The first time it was swinging a hatchet to clear out roots in my yard. There is no immediate pain, but within 24 hours things get very bad.

My theory here is that I'm irritating the muscles surrounding the nerve. They get inflamed and pinch down on the nerve. The pain is so intense that my muscles then involuntarily clench constantly (since it's so bad I can't even breathe deeply) that it just further irritates the same muscles and pinches it even more.

Along that theory, I've been able to come up with a plan to reduce the irritation and swelling of the muscles, and this has worked very well since I figured this out a few years ago. My treatment is basically a lot of ibuprofen (600 or 800 mg every 4 hours, religiously), and basically bed rest.

The ibuprofen really works well for me. It typically works for pain on me, but at these high doses and intervals the same medicine will reduce swelling and inflammation also.

If I keep moving around, then the pain will continue until I stop. In the past, this has gone on for weeks. In the last few years I start the ibuprofen immediately as well as rest, and I can usually be done with it in less than a day. When it's gone, I go back to living as normal. I'll typically have one of these episodes about every 3-5 months.

If your pain has the same cause as mine, then you need to get serious about resting. There's no other way to get the swelling down and relieve that nerve. Pain management is important too, but I generally don't get pain if I'm not moving.

What did your new doc say?

Hi JTAYLOR996 - welcome to the support group -

first I just wanted to let you know the posts you are responding to are 3-5 months old. We have not received any more posts from the member.

next - regarding the intake of ibuprofen - along with Tylenol the maximum dosage is 3000-4000 mg daily (3000 for Tylenol and 4000 for Ibuprofen). and taking these at high or higher dosages daily can cause liver damage. So please be careful how much you are taking.

What I would suggest you do is see either a Orthopedic Spine Specialist or Neurosurgeon Spine Specialist. They are the only ones that can read film results of MRI/CT Scans/X-rays accurately and give diagnosis. Once that is done they can offer treatment options.

In most times, when muscles are tight/tense it could be they are protecting something that may be from an old injury/new injury etc.,

As an example, I have tight muscles on the left side of my back from just under my shoulder blade going down to my buttocks. Reason this is so tight is I have lots of problems, i.e., I have a blood vessel tumor at T9, my facet joints at T-11 and T-12 are shot. I also have some tightness on thelower right side and lower left side because, i.e., Fusion surgery at L5-S1 disc removed and hardware put in. Facet joints on both sides at L5, L4, L3 and L2 are shot.

The tightness of the muscles are warning me and protecting these areas so I don't over do anything.

You've this for a long time and I would suggest you get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. You could have an underlying problem that is being covered up by the muscles.

please keep us posted what you find out~~