Anybody Ever Diagnosed w/a Pinched Nerve?

[SonofBone]

For two months now, I've had discomfort on one side of my neck. In the past, I would sometimes get it when I turned my head to the left or right, but now, it is when I lean my head back or lift my arms above my head. It isn't excruciating pain at all. It is a lot less severe than the side to side stuff, but it is impacting my strength where the other pain didn't do that.

While doing single arm overhead triceps extensions, pushups, bench presses, etc., my left arm just lags behind. I can't get it to fully contract, and I'm starting to see atrophy. Right arm is nice & full while the left is losing shape. Also, it isn't a pain that extends down my arms or tingles or anything. It feels like it is just more located right behind my clavicle.

I made a Bouncer mistake and searched the Internet. Man, there are tons of things it could be. I've got an appointment on 2/12 w/an Internist to rule out a lot of junk and see who I should visit next.

Anyway, anybody have a similar experience?

[GearTripper]

yup, same thing for me. sometime back in high-school football or some other damn thing fucked up my neck. ever since, every once in a while i can feel like i overtrain or strain something along the back of my trap on the right side from the base of my skull to the top of my shoulder... trap area. doctor's said it's a slightly pinched nerve that i can deal with using IB or surgery. i've since never been able to go extremely heavy with trap exercises and i just work around to the best of my abilities. no way in friggin hell am i going to let someone cut into my neck just yet. plus i can't afford it.

[SonofBone]

Sounds like you're doing the best you can with it. The chiropractor I've seen a couple of times told me mine may be my first rib that is causing me the issue. I asked my GF how that could be handled, and she had told me that you don't need your first rib and I could get it removed. Fuck that...I'm not a damn pig, and I refuse to be turned into some damn baby back ribs.

Based on what you've learned, it sounds like they may tell me to take some rest and let the inflamation subside. I'm hoping they can do muscle stim or something...we'll see.

I know it sounds a little strange, but the past couple of weeks I've started doing a yoga & stretching routine once a week in hopes of loosening things up and preventing future injuries.

[THE BOUNCER]

Originally Posted by SonofBone

I made a Bouncer mistake and searched the Internet. Man, there are tons of things it could be. I've got an appointment on 2/12 w/an Internist to rule out a lot of junk and see who I should visit next.

Ya dude, don't even look on the internet. Does nothing but give you symptoms of all kinds of serious diseases and then you get hypochondria thinking you have everything. lol

[trip]

I could write a book on this shit...........................

Go on line and check out, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and find an expert in the field, if you need a contact name pm me, i'm in Dalls, yet my surgeon is tops in the country and sure he knows someone in austin.

2% of population ends up with this, and it get's misdiagnosed, ohhhhhh, about almost every damned time

I saw 12 doctors before I found the right one.

And as I type, I fell asleep wrong ten days ago, and damned if i ain't got the same thing going on with my right side, tad bit of weakness, a dullness in the whole arm, and less feeling in the skin. The nerves are somewhat compressed.

Yeah, so now, I'm going to have spend 60% of my time over next few weeks in bed too let it heal. Bitch, yet, it will get better.

[THE BOUNCER]

here trip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_Outlet_Syndrome

[trip]

good post, bouncer,

that is a good description of it

[SonofBone]

trip, pm sent..thx

[GearTripper]

Originally Posted by SonofBone

...she had told me that you don't need your first rib and I could get it removed. Fuck that...I'm not a damn pig, and I refuse to be turned into some damn baby back ribs.

:laughnew:

i luv my baby back baby back baby back ribs... that was some funny shit when i read that. (no offense) hey doc, i got this rib here i don't need just taking up space and gettin' in the way. let's rip this fuker out! holy christ that's some crazy shit. i have a buttload of fingers too, i'm sure i don't NEED all of 'em, but fuk i want them. sorry dude, i'm laughing my ass off over here. extra ribs... what's next.

[SonofBone]

Haven't been around much lately. My work has blocked this site, so I can't post during the day.

Anyway, I wanted to update my situation. My pain in my neck is not present at this time. I believe stretching and yoga may be playing a role in that. My left triceps is still atrophied a bit, but it seems like it is firing better and hopefully, I can rebuild it.

As far as doctor visits go, I'm still holding my breath a bit, but last week I had 6 MRI's done...cervical spine, cervical spine soft tissue, & brain all w & w/out contrast.

I went the beginning of last week and saw a Shoulder guy who said I had a "Winging or Winged Scapula". That can be caused by the long thoracic outlet syndrome condition, a weakened serratus anterior or could be due to a protracted shoulder girdle, but with the atrophy in the triceps and family history of MS, he felt it warranted getting MRIs to rule stuff out.

The shoulder guy is out of town this week, so a spine guy called me yesterday after seeing part of the MRI's as 2 were done on Thursday and 4 on Friday. He says that I have a herniated disc & a normal variant syrinx was spotted around my C5-6 area that was 10 - 15 mm long. This may or may not be associated with MS, but I need to get it checked out, so I've made the appt. with a neurologist.

I tell my girlfriend, who is a medical doctor (OB/GYN), that I was told I have what appears to be a normal variant syrinx. Well, she told me she vaguely remembered studying those in her 2nd year of medical school, but looks it up for hours and can't find anything positive, so I deal with her crying all night at the likely hood of me having spinal surgery and telling me that I'll likely go to New York for that treatment as she'll not let just anyone do it.

Turns out a syrinx forms when spinal fluid can't leave your spinal cord, so it just fills up your spinal column and destroys your spinal cord. Typically, a syrinx forms and is discovered in the 30's and is usually due to a chiari malformation. A chiari malformation is when your brain (cerebral tonsils) extends down too far and messes shit up. A syrinx is treated by inserting a shunt in your spinal cord which is released into your body cavity, but they also do a laminectomy to relieve spinal cord pressure...serious shit.

So it has been a pretty stressful 24 hours until this afternoon when I was finally able to get my MRI results faxed to me. It turns out that the report said that the area that is noted looks like a myelomalacia and may indicate a progression of MS, but did not appear and is not believed to be a syrinx. Then they called later and said that my brain scan looks normal and the soft tissue scan of my neck looked normal. This is encouraging because one typically has lesions on their brain when they have MS & you have to have two lesions before you can actually be considered as having MS.

In my case, the herniated disc & lesion may have been caused by stupidity. When I was 17, I dove into an above ground pool and landed on the bridge of my nose. I heard & felt my neck pop and saw flashes of lightning, so I believe I could've done damage then and was lucky to not be paralyzed.

Well, just wanted to put this on here as I've not told my family as I don't want to scare them. I'm waiting till I have more definitive results, but I wanted to vent. My dad was here in the past, but I don't anticipate him seeing this...if so, I know he can handle it. I'll come back and update as I learn more.

[fog_hat1981]

Wow - best wishes bro - sounds like things will work out though - hang in there and keep us posted...

[THE BOUNCER]

best of luck bro and keep us updated.

[FitnessBrat]

I'm sorry to hear SOB - please keep us updated on how you're doing....

[trip]

son,

wow, glad it's looking up

just a note, in long discusions with my doc he said one of the main causes of thoracic is sudden shock to the neck, and what happens is the scalene muscle kind of tears and then over time it builds up scar tissue which then starts to rub the nerves

i had too, flat on my face at 25 at 40 mph water skiing trying to barefoot, and then a year later got hit in the rear at a red light by someone who didn't see it, they were doing like 30-35, fortunately i saw it in my rearview and took my foot off the brake yet it was still a shock

when my problems first started, ie, similar problems you mentioned, it took over five years before it became full blown, i'd hurt it, lay off lifting for six too nine months, do cardio, start back up light and as soon as i get too medium weights, kabloweee

then after 3 years of back and forth on that, went two years too what i thought fully healing myself, worked light medium, medium good, then started heavy, second weekend into heavy it was all she wrote

good luck


like i said man, you can call that doctor up no problem and he'll answer any questions, just saw him 45 minutes ago, i fell asleep wrong, and to be safe saw him, and then had a follow up, i'm doing fine no tingling, etc. he just said minor inflamation, etc.

[trip]

ps- it was ten years before problems started

[SonofBone]

Hope everyone is well and thank you for the kind wishes. I got some really good news today. My spinal tap, eye test & blood panels all came back normal meaning no MS, no cancer & no inflammation. I was starting to believe that I had ALS...partly because I couldn't get my results back too quickly and questions the eye guy was asking me during my exam.

Monday I'll have an EMG to measure the nerve response in my upper extremities to determine the extent of the radiculopathy (not exactly sure what that means). I'm thinking everything is mainly related to the prolapsed discs and spot on the spine. Spine may be getting a little arthritic.

I'm much more hopeful now. The past couple days I've been bothered a bit by periodic muscle twitching that occurs at various spots on my body. One day it was my foot, another time my shoulder, my lower lip, my nose, my back, etc., etc. I'm thinking stressed induced now.

Oh, I know people cringe when they hear spinal tap, but the procedure itself was a breeze. However, after 24 hours I tried to start moving around a bit, man, I had the worst damn headache & for two days I would break out in a sweat if I rode somewhere or was up too long. Each day the headache got better, but it took about 9 days for it to be completely gone.

I'll update this when I have more answers...tentatively, I'm hoping for a non-surgical solution, but I've promised by GF that I'll listen to any potential dangers of non-surgical treatment from a orthopaedic spine specialist.

[trip]

good for you

yeah, the spinal tap, that little hole leaks spinal fluid and thus the headaches etc.

emg is the wayyyyyyyy tooooooooo goooooooooo, it will specifiy where nerves are not firing properly, then at least you get a hand on the location

the neck and surrounding area is like the super highway mix master, everything is connected to everything else, 75% of nerves do one thing, yet, 25% of all nerves are interelated to every other nerve somehow, so not surprising your tingling is in different places

good luck

[FitnessBrat]

SOB - where have you been and how are you doing?

[SonofBone]

Originally Posted by FitnessBrat

SOB - where have you been and how are you doing?

Not sure if I ever answered this or not, but the Neurologist told me to forget the last 3 months (at that time) had happened and everything was unexplainable. I believe it was related to the pressing nerve. The neurologist told me that it was less than a 1% chance of cancer/MS, and I needed to get another MRI in 6-8 months. I'm actually a little overdue at this point, but everything "seems" to be functioning fine.

In other news, I no longer have a fiancee. We were married at the beginning of October in the Dominican Republic. I'm back in the gym, and I'm hoping to do another triathlon in the spring. This is a little tricky for me because I like to run 2x/day and lift during lunch. However, I've been told that if I train excessively on my knee I'm looking at a sure knee replacement, so I'm constantly torn as to whether as should go running today or not.

Hope all are doing well on the board.

[THE BOUNCER]

hey dude, good to see you around. how did you like the Dom Republic? me and sana went to Santo Damingo a few years back, it was alright. not sure i would go back though.

[SonofBone]

We went to Punta Cana. We read a lot on where to stay, and we decided on the Majestic Colonial. I think you really find out for yourself what a country is like when you actually get there versus what you read from someone else's view.

I was surprised that all of the resorts had armed guards at the front. We did a couple of excursions. One that we did we had to stop at like 5 other resorts and we got to our destination, about 10 miles away, 2 hours later. We wanted to walk back on the beach because we could see a shipwreck in front of our hotel from where we were at and thought we could get back faster. The guy who worked the place told us that it was very unsafe for us to do so. He said that 12 year old kids in the cities carry AK-47's and we'd get stopped by every person along the way trying to sell us stuff or just plain rob us.

I'm guessing a lot of foreign countries and places off the beaten path can be dangerous. The resorts and excursions are safe because that is their bread and butter, but if you stray from that, you put yourself in serious risk. Nonetheless, it was a much needed vacation and a very enjoyable trip.

[FitnessBrat]

Congrats! I just went to Punta Cana in August and absolutely LOVED it. There were a few guards out on the beach at night, but you barely noticed them. I didn't feel a bit unsafe, and actually slept most nights on the beach. I also did a few excursions and everyone I came across was nothing but friendly. My resort was amazing, and I definitely want to go back.

[THE BOUNCER]

sounds like punta cana is nicer then santo damingo..