Impingment & herniated disks

I have 2 herniated cervical disks, with severe neck and left shoulder pain.  My doctor did an arthrogram and an MRI of the shoulder.  He told me that he saw impingment of the tendon inside my rotator cuff and gave me a cortisone shot.  4 weeks later I went back for a recheck.  His nurse practitioner told me my neck is causing my shoulder pain and she was not going to examine my shoulder again because it would be a waste of time.  She would not give me a Rx to continue my pt for the shoulder, which has been helping me.  She told me it is virtually impossible to distinguish between neck and shoulder injuries.  Can anyone say if herniated neck disks can cause impingment in a shoulder?  I thought they were two totally different things.  Thanks in advance.  

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hi.

The shoulder pain is due to impingement of some nerves in the neck due to the herniation, and not due to the disc per se.

regards

DrAbhijeetMD