OK....I think I might be on to a new lead here with my shouder pain and I wanted to throw this out there to those of you who have had neck fusions/problems etc for opinions.....
Here is a little backround: I started having pain in my upper left quadrant in my late teens along with TMJ problems. I had Bi-lateral TMJ arthroplasties (damaged discs from mal-occlusion) at age 19, and a C6/7 fusion at age 20. At that time the Neuro-surgeon told me that the disc was torn when he removed it. I had not been in any sort of accident and there was no explanation for why this could have happened. When he did the surgery, he told me that there would be an extra load on the spine above and below the fusion that could cause me problems in the future.
I cannot say that the surgery really helped completely. I have continued to have problems with pain in my shoulder and neck along with headaches. I am a dental assistant and my job makes this worse due to the position that I sit in and the way I hold my arm and shoulder all day at work.
Fast forward. A couple of years ago, I went to a doctor in Denver who did a surgery called a pectoral tenotomy release....I also stopped dental assisting for a couple of years. My shoulder got better. I didn't know if it was the surgery or not assisting.
In the last year, I have started assisting again and my pain is worse than ever. I have also had issues all over, which they have diagnosed as Fibromyalgia. I went to an orthopedic doctor, who did an MRI on my shoulder and she said that there was some scar tissue in my shoulder that she could cut out and possibly reconstruct the whole shoulder, but since I have a 1 year old, I really don't want to go there right now....
FAST FAST forward (sorry so long)....in the last week, I have been feeling some "shocks" going down my shoulder from my neck. It feels like a TENS unit is connected to me. So I started researching this. I started stumbling upon information that all this pain could actually be coming from my spine. Huh...interesting. WHY wouldn't any of my doctors take a look at that...especially with my history of a fusion??? I have burning pain in my shoulder blade, pain in my armpit and in front of my shoulder, pain that radiates down my arm, arm weakness, and sometimes my fingers don't work very well. These things are ALL consistent with nerve issues from the spine, are they not? I hesitate to spend MORE money on an MRI on my spine, and my husband thinks I'm crazy and is quite irritated with me about this. But I think I may be on to something here. Do any of you with similar histories have any imput on this?