Question
About 3 months ago I sustained a lifting injury with shooting pains from my buttocks and down my legs. After days of med's and exercise this ceased, but leaving a numb area only on the right side of my right leg. Then one morning 10 days ago I woke with severe pain down both shoulders to the top of both arms with more isolated spots of numbness with major pain in each numbed area. Pain in every numb spot was sharp and only when limbs and buttocks were streched or twisted. These very sensative numb areas have increased in size now, even with anti-inflamitories and are still presisting to date. If this goes away will it come back or can I get this cured?    Thanks, Jim  

Answer
Sounds like nerve impingements with possible disc problems, provoked by your lifting action.  Muscle spasms are probably present.

If it goes away, it is likely that the involved muscles (low back and neck -- actually, the entire spinal musculature) will remain at an unduly high level of contraction making you susceptible to a recurrence.

The severity of your symptoms leads me to recommend that you seek medical attention to rule out a more serious disc injury, first.  

If no disc injury is present, your best action is to retrain your muscular control of those muscles to the degree of being able to relax them.

The method of retraining is called "somatic education," and you can read more about back injuries at somatics.com/page4.htm.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold