chandlerhair
09-12-08, 23:29
Hi all...Well this post goes out to Mary8 (read her post on here about similar pain), so if you are out there Mary8 I feel your pain and fears.
My name is Justine and I live in the USA. I am 43 years old and a hairstylist. I have suffered with health anxiety for YEARS! It's always something. I can relate to tons of posts here, so I think I will sit down and make myself at home here. I have had SO many tests for different symptoms. Brain Scan, Sinus CT, Colonoscopy, Uterine Biopsy, Pelvic Ultrasound, countless bloodwork, Steroid shots, chest x-rays, skin cancer screens, x-rays of shoulder, forearm, spine, low back, back MRI and on and on. To this day, and I knock on wood, I HAVE NEVER had anything wrong. Every single test I have just named has come back normal.
So what brings me here today. Well it began like this........sitting at work one day in Sept. O8 on the computer no less, I was eating some food and as I swallowed that food....I felt a pain in my left, shoulder blade. Hmmm, that was weird. So I think nothing of it and keep computing, keep eating. With the next bite and swallow, as it passes by my shoulder blade (which food doesn't go through your shoulder blade, but that is where it hurt) I would feel the pain again. Again...I thought it that I had slept wrong, which since we bought our sleep #bed, I have felt like the Princess and the Pea (not comfortable). Anyway....so this went on for probably a week and I really tried to ignore it but it kept on. I remember going out to dinner on the 4th of September and by then could not keep my mind off of this pain in my shoulder blade.
So about 26 days into this...I decide to go to the doctor. Now it takes me awhile to get the courage up to even go, so that is why it's 26 days later. During this time, I am also getting this weird neck popping/spasm thing happening that jolts me pretty good. Doesn't happen everyday, but maybe twice a week. Never had that before. And...I go home from my hairdressing job everynight with my head feeling like it's too heavy for my neck to support. Throw in a bunch of STRESS, muscle tension in my shoulders and neck, and the need to throw myself down and cry....I think set me up for this.
Anyway...back to the day of the doctor. So I decide to go into Urgent Care which is kind of like Emergency but one level down, and usually easy to get into if it's not full on flu season. I walk in, I'm the only one there. WooHoo. As I tell this PA what my symptoms are.....and I'm pointing to neck, upper back area, down into left shoulder blade...the first thing she says is "we need to do a chest x-ray, and EKG"...so of course I am FREAKING out...thinking okay this is it, this is the one. I get those done, and as I'm waiting in the office I start to cry. Honestly I am SO stressed out with my job and now the pain. So she comes back in and says "oh they both came back normal." Of course they did. She then says "well maybe you should see a Gastroenterologist, because of the pain when swallowing in your back" Again I am FREAKING out cause prior to me going there, I looked up symptoms on the internet and sure enough found a baddie with that symptom. GREAT.
So I make the appt with the GI doctor tell him the symptoms again, and he doesn't seem concerned. Wants to know if I have trouble swallowing. I tell him NO, just that my shoulder blade hurts MORE when I swallow. It already hurts without swallowing, it intensifys with food going down. So he tells me to have a barium swallow test done. Went and had that done on Oct. 13th and it comes back normal.
Okay at this point, I'm still having pain. It's kind of getting worse in the shoulder blade, I am stressing out even more, my neck is killing me and I am working my tail off making it worse. So a friend of mine tells me about this Myopractor friend who is like a chiropractor but deals with myofacsial pain...so I saw her for awhile. She did adjustments like a chiro would do, but nothing really helped. She got to a point where she felt bad taking my money cause it wasn't helping me, and she was kind of frustrated that it didn't help some. I told her not to worry that I had pain in my low back once and the chiro I went to eventually had to send me to pain management. It did not help me, so that is nothing new.
I decide to go see my regular MD who I had not seen up until last week. So at this point, I have anti-inflammatories to take, and then a prescription to get Physical Therapy. Now here comes the hypochondria part. I am scared. I am scared that this is NOT going away on it's own. I keep thinking tumor on the spine, tumor somewhere around shoulderblade, but can't really put my finger on where. I keep thinking (and my mind will go in a zillion different directions) pancreatic cancer, esophagus cancer, lung cancer, shoulder cancer. The only one that hasn't crept up for me, is tumor of the neck. So then I go through all the re-affirmations of the different symptoms of the stuff I just listed....hmmm, not turning yellow, no pain in stomach, no problem swallowing food, no cough and breathing fine...okay good, no cancer. I go through waves of it's nothing...it's muscular, it has to do with your job (repetitive motion, cutting hair, holding blow dryer, foiling haircolor, arms always up, neck muscles not strong etc.)
It's driving me crazy, these thoughts of what it could be and what it probably is. Some days I go, "oh it's gotta be a herniated disc in the neck, cause really it comes from the left side of my neck down into my shoulderblade." Other days I can make myself sick with worry. I have had one online Physical Therpist tell me to get disc pathology done (MRI) because of the pain in the shoulder blade when swallowing. I think he believes it is my neck also and it's a nerve....whether being pinched or trapped. I know my posture is terrible. I am on the computer many hours on my days off and sometimes at work. If not on the computer then I am standing behind a chair all day with my arms in the air and my poor neck trying to maintain a decent posture, which is a joke....there is no decent posture for me or my neck.
So Mary8, if you are out there hon...I am right there with you. I really don't know what I am doing next. Just started the oral steroids, and see if this works. This is going into the 4th month for me and I am just tired of this. If anyone can relate, please reply. I have been sad and can cry at the drop of a hat. I keep thinking I am doomed and this is it for me.
Thanks for reading. Justine
My name is Justine and I live in the USA. I am 43 years old and a hairstylist. I have suffered with health anxiety for YEARS! It's always something. I can relate to tons of posts here, so I think I will sit down and make myself at home here. I have had SO many tests for different symptoms. Brain Scan, Sinus CT, Colonoscopy, Uterine Biopsy, Pelvic Ultrasound, countless bloodwork, Steroid shots, chest x-rays, skin cancer screens, x-rays of shoulder, forearm, spine, low back, back MRI and on and on. To this day, and I knock on wood, I HAVE NEVER had anything wrong. Every single test I have just named has come back normal.
So what brings me here today. Well it began like this........sitting at work one day in Sept. O8 on the computer no less, I was eating some food and as I swallowed that food....I felt a pain in my left, shoulder blade. Hmmm, that was weird. So I think nothing of it and keep computing, keep eating. With the next bite and swallow, as it passes by my shoulder blade (which food doesn't go through your shoulder blade, but that is where it hurt) I would feel the pain again. Again...I thought it that I had slept wrong, which since we bought our sleep #bed, I have felt like the Princess and the Pea (not comfortable). Anyway....so this went on for probably a week and I really tried to ignore it but it kept on. I remember going out to dinner on the 4th of September and by then could not keep my mind off of this pain in my shoulder blade.
So about 26 days into this...I decide to go to the doctor. Now it takes me awhile to get the courage up to even go, so that is why it's 26 days later. During this time, I am also getting this weird neck popping/spasm thing happening that jolts me pretty good. Doesn't happen everyday, but maybe twice a week. Never had that before. And...I go home from my hairdressing job everynight with my head feeling like it's too heavy for my neck to support. Throw in a bunch of STRESS, muscle tension in my shoulders and neck, and the need to throw myself down and cry....I think set me up for this.
Anyway...back to the day of the doctor. So I decide to go into Urgent Care which is kind of like Emergency but one level down, and usually easy to get into if it's not full on flu season. I walk in, I'm the only one there. WooHoo. As I tell this PA what my symptoms are.....and I'm pointing to neck, upper back area, down into left shoulder blade...the first thing she says is "we need to do a chest x-ray, and EKG"...so of course I am FREAKING out...thinking okay this is it, this is the one. I get those done, and as I'm waiting in the office I start to cry. Honestly I am SO stressed out with my job and now the pain. So she comes back in and says "oh they both came back normal." Of course they did. She then says "well maybe you should see a Gastroenterologist, because of the pain when swallowing in your back" Again I am FREAKING out cause prior to me going there, I looked up symptoms on the internet and sure enough found a baddie with that symptom. GREAT.
So I make the appt with the GI doctor tell him the symptoms again, and he doesn't seem concerned. Wants to know if I have trouble swallowing. I tell him NO, just that my shoulder blade hurts MORE when I swallow. It already hurts without swallowing, it intensifys with food going down. So he tells me to have a barium swallow test done. Went and had that done on Oct. 13th and it comes back normal.
Okay at this point, I'm still having pain. It's kind of getting worse in the shoulder blade, I am stressing out even more, my neck is killing me and I am working my tail off making it worse. So a friend of mine tells me about this Myopractor friend who is like a chiropractor but deals with myofacsial pain...so I saw her for awhile. She did adjustments like a chiro would do, but nothing really helped. She got to a point where she felt bad taking my money cause it wasn't helping me, and she was kind of frustrated that it didn't help some. I told her not to worry that I had pain in my low back once and the chiro I went to eventually had to send me to pain management. It did not help me, so that is nothing new.
I decide to go see my regular MD who I had not seen up until last week. So at this point, I have anti-inflammatories to take, and then a prescription to get Physical Therapy. Now here comes the hypochondria part. I am scared. I am scared that this is NOT going away on it's own. I keep thinking tumor on the spine, tumor somewhere around shoulderblade, but can't really put my finger on where. I keep thinking (and my mind will go in a zillion different directions) pancreatic cancer, esophagus cancer, lung cancer, shoulder cancer. The only one that hasn't crept up for me, is tumor of the neck. So then I go through all the re-affirmations of the different symptoms of the stuff I just listed....hmmm, not turning yellow, no pain in stomach, no problem swallowing food, no cough and breathing fine...okay good, no cancer. I go through waves of it's nothing...it's muscular, it has to do with your job (repetitive motion, cutting hair, holding blow dryer, foiling haircolor, arms always up, neck muscles not strong etc.)
It's driving me crazy, these thoughts of what it could be and what it probably is. Some days I go, "oh it's gotta be a herniated disc in the neck, cause really it comes from the left side of my neck down into my shoulderblade." Other days I can make myself sick with worry. I have had one online Physical Therpist tell me to get disc pathology done (MRI) because of the pain in the shoulder blade when swallowing. I think he believes it is my neck also and it's a nerve....whether being pinched or trapped. I know my posture is terrible. I am on the computer many hours on my days off and sometimes at work. If not on the computer then I am standing behind a chair all day with my arms in the air and my poor neck trying to maintain a decent posture, which is a joke....there is no decent posture for me or my neck.
So Mary8, if you are out there hon...I am right there with you. I really don't know what I am doing next. Just started the oral steroids, and see if this works. This is going into the 4th month for me and I am just tired of this. If anyone can relate, please reply. I have been sad and can cry at the drop of a hat. I keep thinking I am doomed and this is it for me.
Thanks for reading. Justine