chronic tingling/burning in middle/upper back

I have been struggling to find an answer to my chronic back issue for almost 7 years.  I am a 35 year old, healthy and active woman (former dancer and gymnast) and sometime in the year after I had my first child, I began experiencing a very intense, localized tingling in my left, middle back (about one half inch to the left of T12, very deep beneath the paraspinal muscle).  It felt like someone was shooting a laser beam into one tiny spot in my back.  This burning and tingling has increased dramatically over the past year, and now encompasses that same mid-back area straight up to my upper back (also left side, just below my neck, inside my shoulder blade).  It is constant and the tingling feels similar to being connected to electrical stimulation.  I had a cervical and thoracic MRI two weeks ago, and the results were negative - no bulging discs, no spinal stenosis, etc... just "mild degenerative disease in the middorsal region."  I have tried chiropractic care, massage and physical therapy all to no avail.  The physiatrist that ordered the MRI also seems to have no idea what else to do.  This feels very much nerve-related, and yet I have no idea what is causing it or how to treat it.  I did not experience any particular injury, and the tingling is at its worst when I am doing everyday tasks like laundry, dishes, cooking, brushing teeth etc... anything in which my focus is slightly down.  Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated as I am at my wits' end.

[J T Junig, MD PhD]

The location and nature of the pain sounds like a facet joint problem;  the facet is where one vertebrae articulates with another, and a relatively common source of pain from arthritis.  The pregnancy causes increased 'lordosis' to ones' posture, which puts more pressure on the posterior parts of the spinal column---i.e. the facets-- and you may adopt a similar postural change during the activities you described.

A pain clinic should be able to do a facet block;  if it is successful in relieving the pain, the next step is to permanently destroy the nerve to the facet joint, something done using a needle with a cryo-probe or heat at the tip.  The procedure is relatively straightforward, and not uncommon.  I suggest calling a few pain clinics and asking if they do ablations of facet nerves, and finding a place that does many of them.