Daily pain in my neck/shoulder...

[shannonwooten]

I had sternoclavicular surgery in March of 2007. My collarbone would dislocate at the breast bone... it would dislocated many times a day for 4 years. I started to have a lot of neck/back pain so had surgery on it. The doc took a thin neck muscle (muscle you can see on the front of your neck) and tied my collarbone to my rib to stabilize it. It has been stable since then.

I recently went back to the doc since I have been in even more pain than before my surgery. Diff surgeon (my old one moved) said my neck muscle felt a little tight but nothing wrong on the XRAY. His words were "Having surgery done on a joint is going to painful... you are just going to have to deal with the pain" funny thing is... I had surgery to get RID of the pain!!!

I have pain daily throughout my neck/shoulder/and sometimes where he tied my collarbone and rib together.

NO anti-inflammatory's seem to work. Once in a blue moon I will take one codeine (Tylenol 3) and it helps a little but not much if I am in a lot of pain. The pain affects my daily life... driving, sports, work (Army) and such... I can go on.


Anyone have any advice what I can try that is not an anti-inflammatory that I can talk to my doctor about? I have done physical theraphy and that didn't help at all.

[shannonwooten]

Thank you very much! I never thought about that! I will talk to my doctor to get a refferal to a PM doc!! Thank you!

[sandee1818]

In my opinion and I could be wrong, this is pain you will have to deal with for the rest of your life and so you need to get your PCP to refer you to a pain management Dr.
A PM will be able to offer you more options and will help you deal with your pain much better than your regular Dr. The PM will also help you by putting you on a pain medication regime that is right for you and that will help you deal with this pain. I would also recommend a pain psychologist as he/she can help you with deal with living with pain daily and you will also see how pain affects every aspect of your life.
The PM will most likely put you on a long acting medication, there are several to choose from so he/she will work with you to find the right one for you.
Good luck and keep us posted. We are always here for you so if you need information or just some support we are here :)