Upper Back pain

Hello, I stumbled onto this website today as i was looking for an answer for my chronic burning uper back pain. It started 3 weeks ago when I was at work and a 5ft. 4 drawer file cabinet fell on to my right side as I was in a squatted position and opened the 1 and third drawer and it fell onto my right side. I had to use my right arm and right side of my body to upright the file cabinet.
I have been to 2 different doctors and had an MRI and there seems to be no cause for my severe burning pain in my upper back in my scapula area. The pain meds do not even take all the pain away and the Dr. says I have a pulled muscle and wants me to do physical therapy. My MRI says I have C4-C5 Subtle disc bulge, C5-C6 Unicate hypertrophy and C6-C7 Disc bulge. The Dr. said my MRI was fine but my report says different. Why would he say I am fine when I am clearly in severe pain...I do not know what to do. Should I go to see a neurologist, go to physical therapy or get another opinion.
Hurting all the time is no fun, especially when the doctor seems to
dismiss my pain and symptoms so easily. My upper back pain is a constant burning all the time with tingling at times. One day I woke up with no pain at all, only to find it coming back as I do small chores around the house. Now it is constant...If there is someone with similar pain...please answer as I am desperate for an answer. Thank you for leting me post my symptoms.

[janedough]

i had mid back pain and burning which are not typical syptoms (symptoms) of bulging dics in the neck but turns out after a few years of pain i needed a neck fussion. get an mri of your neck if you havent.

[gdwork2001]

Thanks Jane for answering my question. My MRI showed that I had
a mild bulge in C-4/C/5 and Spondolysis. But the doctor did not seemed concerned with it at all. I went to another doctor yesterday and tomorrow I am going to hospital for a series of Thorasic spinal series and a sonogram of my liver and pancreas and X-rays of my upper right chest wall, the pain and burning are constant now and never go away. My life is truly miserable sith the pain all the time, I never realized that pain could be so debilitating and preventing me from doing normal thing around the house. I have not worked in 21 days and I am getting depressed. But it could be worse and I am trying to keep a positive attitude. Thanks again

[lossy4]

im 30 year old male. Id say  when i was bout 21 i started to get pains in my  upper back. Between the shoulder blades around the spine. I went to the doctor way  back then and they seem to be convinced that is was just weak muscles. Told me to work out strenthen those muscles. That helped a little bit. so over the the last 9 years. The pain has become more persitant. with little down time. Where as before i had good days and bad days with the pain. now im pertty much just liveing with it everyday. I also have chest pain with my back pain. Seems like the muscles in my chest are tight  and sharp pains go threw them when i move certain ways (but not all the time and not every day). Seems like the only thing that helps the pain is sitting on my recliner or keeping my arms supported, aleve also help somewhat for a couple of hours. The pain worsens when i stand for a period of a time (especially standing still)when i hold my 1 year old daughter for more than bout 5 mins.
      Basiclly im turning into a crippled at a very slow rate. This effects my job everyday, just seem to put up with it. But its getting harder and harder cause the pain seems to be worseing. Havent goen back to the doctors cause im affraid of just being brushed aside and not taken seriously. But in the same token im getting desperate. Not even shue what  kinda doctor could help me with my problem. Anyway if anyone have any info  to share with me it would be so gratefull and helpfull.......please help me ?

[Annie62]

You should just go back to your primary care physician and tell him exactly what you told this forum, that you are afraid you will not be taken seriously and brushed aside, but that the pain has became constant and it is hard for you to function at work, etc., and you need to find out what's causing it and get treatment for it.  I know how hard it is to communicate with doctors, they are always in a hurry and aren't always the best listeners, and sometimes patients (myself included) aren't as articulate once they get in that little examining room where you have to tell them what is going on (you minimize your symptoms, can't remember what you wanted to say, are intimidated and afraid they will think you are crazy, etc.).  What I finally did was make a list of all my symptoms (you should be very concrete and descriptive) listing when they started, what part of the body was involved, and what they felt like, and gave it to my doctor to read.  After years of symptoms that helped me to finally be taken seriously and now I have a referral for further work-up.  

Good luck to you.  Maybe someone on this board will have an idea what is going on with you, but I think you probably should just go back to your PCP to see what he/she thinks.

[dorbs]

please help!! i have had upper back pain for about 8months that is worse in the morning and in my side over the day i had no injury to cause the pain it started 1 morning i have tried everything i am going for a mri scan next week i am very worried about it...any ideas??

[bubby17]

I've been having a tremendous pain in the left side center of my back with associated pain in the left side of my rib cage.  My neck is stiff when I work on the computer (sometimes 6 hours a day).  The back pain is a burning sensation and if I bring my left elbow back behind me it feels as though the bones in my back are rubbing against each other.  The same sort of feeling you have when you feel you have to crack your knuckles.  If I extend my back and "crack" my spine it feels a bit better for just a few minutes.  The pain is somewhat relieved when I lay down but when I wake in the morning and sit up it feels as though my rib cage sinks and the burning in the upper portion of my back sets in for the day.  If I pull my shoulders back and bring my elbows back I can feel and hear my spine and neck cracking.  

Any ideas....it somewhat feels as though I've popped a disc somewhere in my middle back.  Have been having the pain on and off for several months and only in the past 3 weeks has it seemed to settle in one place in my back.

[Truckin]

My back pain is very , very similar....Always sharp pain in the upper center of my back , sharp pain when i move my head upwards or side to side, fatigued, bone popping , creeking in the back even got gout in my foot.I had these pains after waking up and feeling like a had a kink in my neck that lasted for weeks .I didn't seek treatment i just dealt with it and it seemed to decrease and went away for a few months,now after falling onto a concrete floor iam in pain all the time!! I have taken "methoprednisone-steroid","Indomethicin-antinflammatory","allapuranol-uric acid reducer","aleve-Ibuprofren 800mgs"       NONE OF THESE RELIEVE THE PAIN, so after having seen 1 doctor my new one immediately he puts me on "Vicodin-ES-Hydrocodone" for pain and "flexeril-cyclobenzoprine 10 mg" for muscle relaxation 3 times a day and lord behold the pain medicine is really for the pain after about 15mgs of the pain medicine my pain is relieved but far from gone the muscle relaxer works good when i go to sleep but leaves me very disoriented in the morning.What scares me the most about this pain is that before i went to the doctors the pain was so bad a family member had givin me a few morphine tablets 60 mg Ms-contin and it didn't work just mild relief.However i did function better and had energy.Since my fall in january' 07 I have been on the vicodin and flexeril and my doctoer has lowered the vicodin dosage to 5mgs and ordered a MRI after 6 months,and i just  had my MRI done lastnight and iam very uptight. The symptoms of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis do have very similarities to this pain.

[LLWB]

I have a different perspective than the above posters. I think you need to see a neurologist, and check for a thoracic herniated disc. A sharp blow like this can very easily cause this. Please let us know what dr's say. I do agree with writing out symptoms, and checking them off as you discuss them with the doctor. And even writing down what is said, so you can refer to it later. I hope you are on workman's comp, as you may need it. Be sure to document everything!!! Any witnesses, time of day, etc. Very important. Good luck.

[djf2005]

look into lyme disease. i have chronic lyme disease and it has caused extreme upper spine pain as well as burning shoulder blade pain. the tests are junk, so if you're serious about looking into it, read about it at lyme.net
good luck everyone

[nanabanana306]

hi i have been having back pain since a week ago it goes away and keep coming back sometimes it burn and sometimes it doesnt i when to the doctor but he say it is infection but it doenst seem to be going away so am going back to take and x-ray. so am looking forward for ur answer.thank u .

[Shmooty]

Just been looking for some help with burning scapulae pain that has gotten progressively worse over the past 6 years and now have been diagnosed with Lymes Disease....I know your post  was from 2006 but  was wondering what u have done to help alleviate this debilitating pain over the years,,,look forward to hearing from you,,,