Shoulder & Neck Pain Post surgery

[Goose01]

I'm new at this so bare with me.  I had anterior cervical fusion surgery on January 27th, 2012 where I had plate and graph put in that runs from my C4-C7.  I have servere DDD and bascially had no disc left.  I have experienced pain for 5 years thinking it was just migraines until I had the MRI and bascially the only option for me was surgery.  My neck was bone on bone.  The good thing is that my headaches are gone but I have pain and sometimes bad pain in my right shoulder that consists of burning and tightness (it feels like the muscle is in a knot).  I have very weak right arm and find it difficult to pull clothes over my head.  I went for my check up the beginning of March and had another XRay done and it shows that I have a 4mm of separation b/w the anterior edge of the C7 and the posterior edge of the skyline plate.  My neorusurgeon said we will keep an eye on it and I have another XRay coming up the end of April and an appointment with him on May 7th.  I am off all medications (they gradually stepped me down) but am experiencing pain.  It is typically worse in the morning and in the evening.  Should I be concerned with the separation and could that be causing the pain??  I feel like a pain calling the doctor and complaining but I am not comfortable.  Like others I have had people ask how the surgery went and I lie and say everything is great (I should say I have not had one headache since) when I am in pain and concerned.  Now I was aware that this surgery might not take care of everything but I am tired of hearing "the surgery went great and you shouldn't be experiencing any pain".  I use to get trigger point injections in my shoulders and that worked well.  I have no idea what to do and I dont want to wait until May.  Should I suggest that I see a pain specialist for trigger point injections and meds?

[Goose01]

Thank you for your input.  I spoke with my doctor's RN yesterday and she thinks it might be muscle spams.  Put me on Soma.  They plan on doing full Xrays on the 30th so until then I guess I will try Soma.  

[tschock]

I would seek other help for sure.

Ask for an MRI...surgery may not have gone as well as thought...something may be " pinched " or such.

If you're in pain, don't worry about what "they" may say or think....you need to free yourself of the pain.

Please post this in the Alternative Therapies forum as well. There are many knowledgeable people over there that can offer you some great ideas.