Upper back/shoulder pain, weak arm = MRI

[Mogwog]

Hi

I posted a few weeks ago about my left arm feeling weak and like it needed to jerk all of the time.

My Dr referred me to a neuro, who I have seen, she did all of the strength tests and said they were fine but said I should have an MRI of the brain (in the letter she has written to my Dr it says for reassurance)

Im not sure the problem is my brain though as I have upper back/ shoulder pain which makes my arm ache and have funny sensations in it etc. I have the aching pain in the shoulder/ back most of the time and if I turm my head or move a certain way I get "stuck" and its really painful to move - anyone have any idea what it could be? obviously I am telling myself its something awful!

Thank you.xxxxx

[countrygirl]

Could be simple arthritis in the neck. I have bad arthritis and a prolapsed disc in my neck and I could fill two A4 sheets with list of symptoms this can cause and for many many years I was convinced I had a brain tumour! EVentually with the advent of mri I was proved wrong and an mri of neck showed the reason for my varied and strange symptoms.

To be honest unless you lose use of arms or the pain is unrelieved by the strongest meds then no neurosurgeon will operate on a neck because of the high risk of paralysis so its not as if you can do much about it!

I am sure your mri of brain will be fine and its is more than possible that a bit of wear and tear as they call it in the neck is responsible for your symptms.

My neck can affect everywhere from chest to top of head including ears and tongue and eyes. I could not start to list the effects but range form pain to twiching to crawling sensations and all sorts of ear symptoms.

[linaa]

hi mogwog,

i have a similar problem to yours... and a brisk reflex in one limb... could you let me know what your mri results were?

[Lily1970]

Hi Countrygirl explained it really well. I too have degenerative discs in my neck and it can cause all sorts of fairly scary symptoms that actually are not life threatening or anything. I have trapped nerves and get a lot of the sensations you have described. The thing is although it is really unpleasant to suffer from these sensations they can be lived with. It's basically osteoathritis for me. I hope your neck is ok and that you get your results soon. If you do have athritis or trapped nerves they should be able to help you in lots of different ways. Good Luck, try not to worry as these sorts of symptoms are quite common and not dangerous at all. All the best.