My primary physician told me to see a pain management doc. because I have been having chronic back and neck pain for a couple years now. I had surgery on my lower back twice L-4 and L-5. The most recent is my neck, I had an MRI 2 years ago and the ortho doc. told me I had a severe herniated disk and did not want to do surgery, a year later I had another MRI and he told me it was better and I just had a slight bulging disk. This is a year later and I have some pain in my neck but my real concern is the numbness in my right hand, its alway there and every morning I wake up with my whole arm and hand numb, and sometimes in my left arm also.
My question is, do you think I should see a pain doc or a neurologist?
I also want to mention that I just completed physical therapy and that helped loosen my neck a little but the numbness is still there. I seems to be getting worse, everytime I lift my arm up or lay on my side it bothers me.
I don't want to go back to the ortho doc. What do you think I should do?