upper left back + neck pain

[Khalid_Alnaqbi]

when I was 7 years old, I did a tumor elimation surgery in my back head and neck (the tumor was in below my brain). any way I 23 years old now. I was doing MRI every year to check that I am still ok, but I stopped 6-7 years ago. right around that time, I started getting pain in my upper back lower neck. now I don't really know if it related to the surgery, but it is a strong pain in the muscle. it gets so hard and it starts to burn. I tried voltaren, muscadol, patches, creams, massages, and nothing at all worked. I recently did the cup suction treatment twice on the painful area, it didn't work even though i felt relief after the first time for a couple days. I started doing acupuncture a week ago, and i have been through 3 sessions so far, but it seems useless. I am really disparate. it is depriving me from sleep, from sports, from being productive @ work. Please help me.
Thank you

[Khalid_Alnaqbi]

well I thank you for all the info and the medicine prescription and your past experience. I am satellite ground station engineer (electrical engineer) I am responsible of the gateways (antennas) for a company named Yahsat in UAE.

I am in the maintenance team, but I only started work recently and this is my first career, even though I do some lifting but it hasn't been for long 6 months so far.

[hyenakiss]

if you dont mind me asking what work do you do?

[hyenakiss]

yah xrays usely show the disk problem as long as they are read by an othropedist a regular dr might miss it.. carrying heavy bags might cause some back strain and the gym can too if you were doing exercises incorrectly... if its nothing that shows up on the mri, (just get one since you have a history of a tumor) it most likely isnt serious i woulld think.. . arthritis can also cause pain. and it could be do to repetive strain on the bones combined with genetics... i have put a lot of wair and tear on my back and was diagnosised with arthritis when i was about 28, but again exrays would show that... pending the results of the mri its probaly soft tissue related and may require physical therapy to help loosen tight (possibley spazuming ) muscles.. i pend a lot of time on the computer and doing art work this is enough to cause those symptoms in me and they can be pretty severe at the time... a physical therapist showed me some stretches and exercises to do and that helped a lot... i wish i could should you but i think it would be too hard to safely explain them here. i dont want to make things worse.. definatly use a heating pad when you can, take an nsaid and if your doctor allows it robaxin helps a lot its a muscle relaxer.. once you get the muscles to finally relax... it starts healing, but the longer you are in pain, the more tight they get... once you break the cycle it goes away pretty quickly if its anything like what i get.. also think about your activities... especially ones that might have you leaning over from the waste up and with you head down, like the position you would most likely be at a comp.. try to keep your back a little streighter and you neck straiter and look down instead of tilting your head down.. thats what my ortho dr said to do, but i find it akward s honestly i dont do it... if its really bad the dr might be able to give you a shot of cortisone to bring down the inflamation and allow that part of your back/ neck to heal. but first rule out the bad stuff with an mri... if thats clean its probaly an anoying problem but not a serious one.... one other thing if you do spend a lot of time hunched over you can get lesions in your back, they arent really serious but can cause pain, treatment is the same though, heat, streches and somekind of anti inflamatory with or without a muscle relaxent

[Khalid_Alnaqbi]

I didn't herniate my desk, does xray show that??? because my xrays were good.

[Khalid_Alnaqbi]

well when I was in the dorms, I used to carry my heavy bags up stairs often & i used to go to the gym a lot. I guess this what i'll do. i'll go do another MRI, but how serious do you think this is???

[hyenakiss]

usualy a surgey that happened when you are so young doesnt cause many complications when you are older.. it may be related to an activity you are doing.. anything that causes you to lean forward past your midline... reading writing drawing computer stuff like that... have you had any more recent injuries? a herniated disk can cause problems like that....you may have put something out and require stretches and heat, along with an antiinflamitory.. a chiroprator may help but before seeing one you should see a dr and get another mri to make sure nothing has changed structurly