Persistent soreness of neck, shoulder and arm muscles

[bob]

I've been experience persistent soreness of neck, shoulder and arm muscles for several years that's getting worse, lately, much worse.  Am in mid 40's.  Some history: minor whiplash car accident 4 years ago with neck muscles sore for about 1-2 days. About 2 months later started experiencing tremor in both calf muscles lasting several months but no longer experience this. Neck xray and MRI were taken, negative except some spasm of neck muscles.  EMG calf negative.  EEG negative.  Bloodwork negative. All 4 years ago. Mostly the Drs seemed to blame it all on stress,but, I don't buy this explanation. But now this is getting much worse.  About 3 months ago started getting severe pain across outer head muscles with sneezing, coughing and bowel movement.  The pain from sneezing is almost unbearable but usually relaxes in about 1-2 minutes. This started about 1 year ago also, but went away after about 3-4  weeks at that time.  But now I've had this for 3 months persistently.  And, my neck, shoulder and arm muscles are getting much more sore too, and perhaps somewhat weaker, though I was told that I do not have muscle disease.  Sometimes, my right jaw area seems in some pain (like a burning sensation) and swollen now, which did not happen before. Having more tests done, again, bloodwork negative, Lyme negative, thyroid negative, currently waiting results of brain MRI but since no call from neurologist office and wife working in hospital sees DR in hospital frequently, I'm assuming this is probably negative too.   Both sides of neck, shoulder, upper arms affected, but, right is worse, possibly aggravated by computer use and old shoulder muscle injury about 25 years ago.  Also, over 30 years ago, in approx 8th grade had gym accident resulting in slightly swollen vertabrae between shoulder blades which once in awhile bothers me somewhat (e.g. soreness in muscles around it, slight pulsating pain, but, sometimes these go away).  Also, less frequently, the muscles in my leg above my knee also get very sore to the touch. This was true before the whiplash described above. In general, the sore muscles are sometimes helped by hot showers, exercise,  aspirin, and relaxation, and sometimes, they seem to completely stop being sore, but, usually I get little relief.

My muscles get really sore to the touch, many of them in my upper arm, shoulder, and neck. I can feel that they are individually very tender if I use my fingers to dig in an touch them.   I can live with this, but, the sneezing/coughing pain is very difficult to live with though short term when it happens and has me worried.  Any ideas?  What to do?

[j210]

A related discussion, neck/upper arm pain was started.

[Amy]

Chris,

Try posting at 9 a.m. Eastern time.  That seems to be the best time to post a question.  Good Luck.

[Darcie to Renee]

Hi Bob,
your symptoms sound like mine and thousands of other people.  The only difference is I have diagnosis.....my MRI was not read right many years ago.....you need to get copies of your MRI and educate yourself in a condition called Arnold Chiari Malformation.  Please join our group and see for yourself that we all have had symptoms, sometimes for many, many years.....
go to: WACMA at
http://www.pressenter.com/~wacma
Just check it out please.......

[bob]

Dear CCF Neuro MD,

Thank you for very quick response to my problem summary above. Your thoughts on this are much like the others so far, "stumped", as am I too.  We'll see how the brain MRI actually turns out at early January neurology appt.   Thanks again.

Bob
PS.  looks like someone else's comments got mixed up with the above

[Question From Chris For A Neuro Doctor P]

Hello i was wondering if you can help me iam basically out of energy trying and getting knowhere, ok here are my problems:

27 year old american male symptoms onset october 98 i went to the doc for feeling really fatigue,weak,lightheaded,confused.
The doc did cbc,thryoid,liver tests,ebv tests,she called me and said i was at one time diagnosed with the epstine barr virus and i would be fine the other problem was she said iam hypothryoidism and need a small dosage of synthroid which iam on .88mcg all the other tests were within range she said so i gradually got a little better well 6 months went by and iam back to the dumps i go to the doc again she says we will take blood so she did, said eveything looked the same and to stay on the thryoid.She put me on lotensin for my blood pressure the bottom number she said has always been a little high.

Well iam here back at my stage again and this time it wont go away i have hot tingly prickly electric shock flashes that usually effect my back and arms alot sometimes my legs.
My legs are always feeling washy and shakey and nervous my feet always seem to feel cold.
I have ibs as for i always have loose bowels and sometimes alot of bile?
When i stand up i feel spacey and like it is just so hard and i feel heavy?
The worst thing is i have been getting alot of nervousness in my hands,head,feet and i will notice when i stand i stand to one side and my rt leg seems to shake alot my rt toes i notice like to curl and my heel likes to move up and down could this be something like MS?

Well basically my current symptoms for the last 2 months to current are:
Lightheaded,Dizzyness,Nervousness,Hot pin electricity tingle prickle flashes,Ibs,Fatigue,No energy,My eyes water alot and my left eyelid twitch sometimes,Ears crackle,To stare at something for a minute straight my eyes start to burn and they water it makes me feel really weird and like really spacey i mean should a person feel like they dont even want to get off the couch and when they sit up to feel like iam gonna fall over and die?I feel a rush sensation in my head when i stand up it is scary.

My current tests have been done:
Cbc,Ebv again and he said it is non-conclusive,Colesterol tests,Thryoid which is still a little elevated.
In oct 98 i had a mri/no contrast as in they did not use any die which came back good with no signs of any abnormalities but did say there was minimal mucusal build up?I went back to the neuro again recently due to same symptoms and he did a hands on exam and said he thought it was inner beningn vertigo of the ear?
And the chance of anything coming up in the brain such as brain tumors,etc within 2 yrs to date of prior mri would be a rare occurence?(Is this answer highly true and is it possible that the mri without contrast dye missed something compared to a mri with contrast dye?)

So i went to ENT and he did a ecog and a abk and he found nothing?(But he is gonna do a mri with contrast/die at my ears to look at the inner ears?(does this test tell alot and would'nt make sense if they just do the whole brain mri with dye and be done with head problems period it would make me feel better!
But i think i will have a hard time getting that done right?

Iam back at square one here and feel like i have been hit by a mac truck i notice too alot my lower back will tend to bother me off and on as well as my rt side of my back?
I went to the emergency room about a month ago and they did a catscan/no contrast said it looked good said he was looking for masses,lesions,etc.

Nobody has an answer at all there has to be more testes to do dont you think?
My doc just says you blood tells us alot and you dont have cancer or anything well thats a relief but iam tellin ya something is wrong and i dont want it to be too late?
Can you please give me some direction or some other testes i can reccomend to my pcp?(PLEEEASE)

All i get is iam sorry we just dont know whats wrong but he says it is not life threating so dont worry yourself well i wish i could pass this onto him i bet he would change his frame of thought!

Oh yeah i just went to the cardioligists and they made me wear a holter for 24 hrs just to see if anything changes with my heart since my blood pressure has always been a little high which iam on 10mg lotensin for but i guess that must be ok as for my doc has said nothing and he has not recieved the answer yet but he said if there was something wrong they would have called him?

Thanks You Doctors
Chris in Seattle,Wa

My biggest fear is dying of a brain tumor they have not found?
Please shed me some hope?

[Gloria]

Chris,
In order to get your questions answered, you must post under the "post a question" section.  You can place your question under the "post a reply" section, but will never get a response.  Med Help's forums are a lifesaver to many, but the funding is very limited.  There is a limit to the amount of questions that the physicians can answer in a timely fashion.  Many of us have had to wait for weeks, even months, to get our questions posted.  Another tidbit of advice--try to get your symptoms and questions as concise as possible.  What I have noticed is that the longer the post, the less likely that more than a couple of questions will be answered.  Best of luck to you and I hope that you are able to get your questions posted soon.

[Question From Chris For A Neuro Doctor P]

I have been trying to post for days but i always get the maximum questions have been asked and i tried posting with a comment post and i get no response and i need some help?

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Bob:

Sorry that your having so many problems.  I am not sure I can help much.  The good news it that your MRI is negative, EMG is also negative which rules out alot of worrisome things like MS, ALS, tumor, spinal cord degeneration, vertebrae problems, etc.  The normal labs are also very encouraging, which tell me that mitochondrial disease, metabolic disorders, etc are likely not invovled.  Some of your symptoms may be attributed to anxiety or stress, but not knowing the medical history I can say for sure.  If the painful symptoms are nerve in origin, usually there is a specific pattern that is evident on neurological exam that makes the etiological disease more pronounced to the physician.  There are times that we are stumped because the symptoms are not leading us in a particular direction, as evident by all the tests you have had.  Since I can't evaluate you better, I am in the same situation.  Let us know how the newest MRI looks.  

I wish I could tell you why these symptoms are happening.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD