Pain from neck to foot left side

[Ruthie123]

I am a 36 year old woman, healthy until recently.  I have never smoked, do drugs or drink alcohol.  I am 5'5" 128lbs eat healthy and exercised regularly.   I started with pain on my right hip in 2007 -pain was dull but worrisome. In July of 2009 I started to experience pain on the left side of my body.  Left shoulder/shoulder blade, upper back between the shoulders and neck.  The pain spread to my left foot (I cannot put pressure on it and it hurts to walk).  The pain on my left food sometimes radiates to my calf.  I also experience tingling sensation on my left arm and electricity-like discomfort on my tongue in addition to left eye twitching.  I've seen my general practitioner and a rheumatologist -they have order some lab test and everything looks normal. I am going back to my doctor to ask him for me to be referred to a neurologist and a podiatrist (I am keeping my fingers crossed for him to agree to this).   I have a feeling that the doctors think that everything is on my head.  They have prescribe me with a muscle relaxer before bed and anti-inflammatory for day time (for the last two years they keep changing medication same stuff, but different names without results).   Muscle relaxers put me to sleep and pain does not get better with the anti-inflammatory pills.   Pain is terrible, sometimes it feels as if my shoulder will fall off my body.  My sternum hurts even when I breath. Does anybody have an idea of what can be causing this pain and other symptoms?

[Red1968]

Hello Ruthie,

I am a 41 year old woman, who like you, has been extremely healthy until a couple years ago.  My problems began with pain in my left shoulder where I thought I had torn my rotater cuff.  The pain is very pinpoint and has moved into my left hip and left foot.  I can hardly walk some days too.  What made me write you was the fact that my sternum began hurting excruciatingly as times about three months ago.  It goes away all of a sudden like it had never hurt.  Very strange.  It was like I had been lifting heavy weights and the intercostal muscles were aching, but it was very much pain in the sternum bones, but no heart pain.  I have not been able to sleep on my right side since having children because I would have PVC's, so I always sleep on my left side.  It is all very left sided, which makes me think it might be heart related, but the pain is in the joints and bones.  I take great suppliments, drink tons of water and eat a healthy diet.  I am an active mother of two and this is definately making me feel like a ninety year old grannie.  It has been a slow progression, but is beginning to build in intensity so that I cannot ignore the problems any longer.  I cannot even sit on the floor to fold clothes!  I haven't gone to my primary care doctor because I know how modern medicine works and they would send me to a rheumatoligist and then onto nasty drugs that do more damage to your body and never FIX the problem.   I am considering a DO and will attack this thing from the homeopathic angle first.  It would be good to stay in touch as our problems do seem to be very similar. Take care and blessings to you as you search for answers too.

Leslie