If you get arm pain - this may be helpful

[Chrissie21]

Hi Everyone,

I am new on here, and I have read so many posts on this that I thought it may be helpful.

For around a year I was suffering from intense shooting pain down my left arm and into my fingers.. really horrible strong pain. ( I am 27)Went to docs loads of times and was told, anxiety blah blah blah..One day it was so bad I went to A&E for an ECG. They gave me one, said that there was nothing wrong with my heart and that I was suffering from carpal tunnel?!

One day I woke up and all my fingers on both hands were numb. I was experiencing excrutiating pain down my left arm, and decided to visit a chiropractor that is opposite my house and beg for advice ( i had noticed a that he had a sign up that said ( amongst other things 'shoulder pain' arm pain)

At last I got my diagnosis as a trapped nerve in my neck! Whoopee! I have now also had 3 visits with a physio and it is getting better. The pain has reduced significantly, and the numbness is going down. The causes were, TENSION, and poor posture over a long period of time. If the doc had taken me seriously on my first visit I could have got my life back months sooner.

So please, i hope this is of some help out there to people that just get sent home every time they go to the docs with arm pain. It is not imaginary and perhaps a visit to a physio could be the answer. the amount of hours that I spent worry about HEART ATTACK constantly over this.. it even spoilt my honeymoon...I had to sit by the pool holding my arm ( which felt like it was being crushed by a truck) pretending to have a nice time.. I hold the doc personally responsible!

[itoldyouiwasill]

So, your arm problem had been caused by tension and your GP diagnosed it as anxiety based....I have to say that I have heard of far worse diagnosis.

I have no doubt that sometimes GP's can get it wrong but the thing is many people with health anxiety see a number of doctors and for all of them to misdiagnose you it would be pretty bad luck.

I also would have to take issue with the idea that arm pain that does not have an organic causality is somehow 'imaginery'. Pain and discomfort that is caused by anxiety is real and totally physical and the only difference between it and other pain is the fact that the causality is emotional/mind based rather than organic. I have to say that the misguided belief that anxiety pain is somehow 'imaginery' is one of the key factors that keeps people in the worry loop for so long.

Glad the chiropractor worked out for you...I have to say that I think they are charlatans but what do I know..lol!

[Chrissie21]

I don't quite agree with your answer ItoldyouIwasill. I have been receiving exercises from the physio to do on a daily basis, which after 4 weeks has started to ease my suffering. It would not have resolved itself on its own. I was told that I had one of the stiffest and least mobile necks the physio had ever seen. It may have been started by tension but could not be made better by simply 'relaxing'.

The point of my post, which I suppose was not that clear was that i had not self refered myself to a physio, I would still be suffering, and using the only remedy ever suggested by doctors was nurofen. ( which I have used on their advice for everything under the sun and now suffer from GERD as a result.

even if this does get read by one person who finds it useful, then I will be grateful because pinched nerves seem to be little understood by doctors ( I saw 5 different GPs about it) but are really painful.

[Wee-Mee]

I hear you about the pinched nerves. And I have often wondered. I get ALOT of bad left arm pain,it comes ang goes and on it's worse days can extend to my shoulder,armpit and even under my left breast where it actually is heading just now,yay..

I have a fear that doctors just tell you it's anxiety just becuase they know you suffer anxiety and that they may be missing something..but then I think that is my paranoid self going mad because they would lose their jobs if they didn't check you out properly!

I am happy you have got yourself well :)