Question
About 3 wks ago I started having severe pain in my left side of neck,arm and tingling and numbness in my fingers. I have been taking lots of pain killers which is invain. I have pack injury and had surgery.Could you please advise me what to do. as i am desperate.

Answer
Dear Khateejah,

The first thing I would recommend is that you need to address this with a functional orthopedic examination to determine if the the problem is in the neck or shoulder.  The pain you have described can originate in either area and determining the cause will offer you the best resolution of pain and symptoms.

The fact that you have had a previous surgery complicates the issue..again that areas needs to be assessed.  The pack injury you had I am assuming was a nerve compression injury, which also complicates the issue.  If you had an initial nerve injury that was surgically repaired, scar tissue around the surgery can accumulate and this may have the effect of re-compression on the localized tissue.

Now if the problem is from the neck, then you really only have few main common areas of concern.  Depending on your age, degeneration of the joints can cause bone spurs that place pressure on the nerve roots which result in the symptoms you have described.  A disk bulge can do the same thing by pressing on the nerve roots.  Additionally a stretch injury of the nerve root can cause the pain and numbness you have described.  Either way, this all needs to be determined.

I would recommend that you find a good local chiropractic physician and have them perform a neck and shoulder examination.  They should also take x-rays of the neck to look at the disk and bone structure.  Depending on what the clinical examination indicates, they may want to get an MRI of the neck as well to determine is the disk is bulged or herniated.  Chiropractors have great results in eliminating radiating pain and numbness down the arm, however if you need a surgical consult the chiropractor can refer you directly to the neurosurgeon and usually get the appointment quickly.  Bottom Line:  schedule an examination.

Hope this helps Khateejah.

Respectfully,
Dr. J. Shawn Leatherman
www.suncoasthealthcare.net