Sharp Nerve Pains in Left Shoulder and Neck

Lately, I've been working on improving my diet and doing regular exercise.  I've been pretty good about attending yoga and getting out for walks, and have also been good about eating fresh, healthy salads for lunch, and getting nutrients into my diet.  Last Friday, I tried a couple of veggie juice drinks instead of salad, to see if I would notice any difference.  Since watching Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead a few days ago, I gained more hopes that eating nutritious foods could be key to healing the body, or at least give it a fighting chance against the destructive forces challenging it.  There's a lot of crap in our processed foods, and avoiding it should help me.

Anyway, I tried a "Columbia Gorge: Just Greens" drink first. It was green juice made just from organic vegetables and nothing else.  Two pounds of veggies went into the bottle, so I figured it would have lots of nutrients.  It wasn't as tasty as I'd hoped.  Part of it had to do with celery being the first ingredient.  I'm not a fan of celery.  The drink was 50 calories per serving, with 2 servings in the bottle. 

I also tried this "Naked: Green Machine" one, which was the same size bottle as the other one, also contained lots of veggies, but also plenty of fruit.  I figured this one would taste better, so I saved it for relieving my taste buds after the other drink.  I also worried I'd get hungry, so I had both as a single meal.  The flavor of the Naked juice was great. It tastes like it's just fruit juice.  More fruit means more calories and natural sugars though, so I won't be having these regularly.  I believe this one was 140 calories per serving, with 2 servings in the bottle.  However, it's good to know that the option is there if I need some healthy stuff on the go.

There's also a troubling symptom affecting more often lately.  I am noticing a new location of searing, lightning-like, nerve pain on top of my left shoulder, going from my neck out toward the shoulder.  This is the third location of this type of pain that I've had to deal with.  The back of my right thigh is the first and oldest trouble-spot, and the pain jolts I still get in that area (affecting the sciatic nerve) has made me jump and shriek from sheer surprise and the sudden, severe pain level achieved.  When it hits, it usually keeps firing, rather quickly, for several minutes.

When I was first injured in that rear-end collision in 2006, there was about a week or so of the nerve firing almost constantly, and it even affected the left leg in the same area.  It was maddening to try to get through the day feeling like someone was chasing me with a hot brand, poking constantly into the backs of my legs.  I even decided that if it didn't subside, or if it was found to be untreatable and would affect me for life, I would probably have to think about killing myself.  It's not the kind of pain you can ignore.  I was being forced to constantly pay attention to the pain.  There are some dull pains you can ignore or get used to, so you can move on with your life, but this one is not like that at all.  It's a pain that startles you into acknowledgment over and over again, with only the rare second of relief in between jolts. This sicatic pain jolt thing affected me even before the car accident, but only very rarely.  I used to get these jolts maybe one day in a year and then forget all about it. 

Anyway, since the accident, the left sciatic nerve has been much more active, though I have had months without much of a flare-up there.  However, I'd begun to feel a similar jolt of pain in my right forearm.  It would just fire, unexpectedly, at random moments, on the underside of my forearm, right into my wrist.  And it's only been the right arm thus far.  This is the second location.  Here, the attacks would occur only occasionally - much less frequently than the leg thing, anyway.

But now, I've got this kind of pain occurring in my left shoulder-neck area, and it's been firing at least a few times every hour today.  It was doing it pretty frequently yesterday, too.  I also recall having to deal with it during the work week for the past week or two.

I'm confused about what this pain pattern means.  Naturally, I'm worried about some sort of nerve problem or damage, or impingement, and the fact that it seems to be spreading is no comfort at all.  I suppose my frequently spastic muscles could be squeezing these nerves, but with Chronic Myofascial Pain, I've been having problems with a lot or all of my muscles, not just certain ones.  I have considered the possibility that posture and habits could be causing these areas to be susceptible to either muscle spasms, which may be squeezing my nerves.  What I don't have is a treatment or prevention plan, other than to keep moving and stretching as much as I can.  I'm sticking to doing yoga at least weekly, and being sure to move around, even on bad days when I may not feel up to it.

If you recognize these nerve pain symptoms, or have any helpful information for me, please share in the comments.  Thank you.

ow oW OW!

I just got through telling my fibro doctor last week that I don't want to treat my sciatic pain with medication because it's so unpredictable and quick, that I am just trying to cope with the pain as it occurs as best as I can and wait until the lightning pains subside. I never know if it's going to last for seconds, minutes, or hours, but most often it's seconds. Most frequently, the sciatic pain is in the back of my right thigh and buttock, no lower than my knee and usually no higher than my butt. I take enough pills and meds for the fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, sleep problems, asthma, and all that stuff. I figured one more pill might not be a big deal, but it's money I likely won't be able to judge as well spent if I can't tell whether it's preventing or reducing these quick pains. Not worth it unless it starts firing constantly again, like it did right after the car accident that seems to have started all these ills.

My sacroiliitis, however, is more on my left side, and in my hip, around to my lower back on the left side. Well, right this second, my left hip and lower back are firing lightning-style pains into me and making me jerk in surprise, much like the sciatica usually does. This is not good. The left hip usually aches in a dull, inflammatory kind of way, sometimes more than others. What is this new, intensely painful shock-like pain now? Is this sacroiliitis or is this some variation of sciatica on the other side? Can sciatica fire upwards from the buttocks, rather than just down into the leg? I've had my left leg feel the same kind of lightning pains as the right, but much less often than the right. And right now, the leg is not being affected. It's very much nerve-like pain and I feel it deep in the pelvic bone and up a bit in the back.

When my doctor and I discussed both of these problems a week ago, he poked and prodded me a lot to see how my nerves, reflexes, strength, and tenderness are in the piriformis and sacroiliac areas, down through my legs and feet. The tenderness testing supported his left-side sacroiliitis diagnosis and the sciatic nerve impingement on the right by the piriformis muscle (a thin muscle that stretches diagonally across each buttock). (Wow, I've never the word "buttock" so many times in one post before.) Anyway, he also made a passing suggestion, before all the poking around, that I may want to get (another) MRI or scan of my sciatic nerve areas, in case there is something really wrong.

Since this isn't really a new symptom, and since tests are a pain in the buttocks (hee) for chronically ill people like myself, I declined. Now I'm not sure I should have declined so quickly. I guess I'm tired of having to go through all the trouble of making the test appointment, scheduling my work around it, enduring the IV poking (which almost always takes multiple tries) and waiting around for the results, which usually find nothing of any interest. You other fibro people reading this, I know you know where I'm coming from. You want to hear something other than "everything looks fine" after being tested. I don't think they have the right tests out there for us yet. Until then, it feels like a bunch of trouble for nothing.

Anyway, if you can relate to these new, shock-like pains that are firing from the hip up into the lower back, toward one side, let me know about it. If I have a hint of what it's called or how to sit or what to do to ease or prevent it, I'll be happy.

Sciatica and Sinus/Face Issues Continue

Just hoping to leave a quick update here. I'm continuing to experience at least daily episodes of sciatic nerve pain in the back of my right upper leg. It feels like sudden lightning bolts of intense pain that strikes, usually without warning, and fires at will for however long it wants - sometimes it's one or five quick strikes, sometimes it goes all day. I frequently jump from the startling pain. It's very bizarre.

One of my past doctors suspected my Piriformis muscle was impinging upon this sciatic nerve because it was so tense after I was rear-ended a few years ago. I don't know if I'm asymmetrical or what, but the right nerve acts up significantly more frequently than the left, though I have had it occur on the left, occasionally.

When it happens, if possible, I try to put pressure on the painful area behind my thigh, sitting on a tennis ball if available, or/and bring my foot up to my other knee and lean forward to stretch and loosen the Piriformis muscle in my butt, which is supposed to help. With Myofascial Pain Syndrome tensing up most of my muscles all of the time, I am likely going to have to live with these intrusive little surprises for the rest of my life, so I'm trying to deal with it as best as I can when it happens, then just go one with whatever it interrupted (work, walking, dinner, sleep, etc.).

There's also been an odd facial heat thing going on with me and that is continuing and possibly worsening. Two nights ago, I felt significant sinus pressure and discomfort in my face. I had developed a painful sinus headache that prevented me from sleeping most of the night. The pillow would not feel comfortable to my aching head! I had that headache most of the day yesterday, and it settled in the sinuses just above the bridge of my nose and above the eyebrows. In addition, starting last night in the evening, my nose heated up and turned really red for several hours. All this for no apparent reason. I didn't hit it or blow my nose or have congestion or get sick or anything. It just turned red, like Rudolph. It was blazing hot to the touch - even hotter than my cheeks. I'm noticing that it's happening most of the day today. :(

Googling and suspicions have gotten me as far as suspecting sinusitis, a respiratory infection, allergies, or rosacea. This is all new to me, so I'm not sure what's going on with my sinuses. I just hope it's temporary and not serious.

Switching to Savella - Day 7

Despite more violent thunderstorms last night and remaining awake since the 3am tornado siren, I felt like this morning was much better, symptom-wise, than yesterday. I was able to sleep some of the night without covers or without having to completely burrito myself in all three layers of blankets, which was a great improvement for me with the temperature stuff. Then I also felt less dizzy and brain zappy, too, even after being up for hours and moving around a bit.

I did some of my Baby Steps exercises and when Don got up, we walked around the block in our rain jackets and had a little banana bread for breakfast. I went back to bed and napped for several hours and felt I was able to have beer again! That's a big improvement! We went to one of our favorite places - Bavarian Lodge in Lisle, IL - and enjoyed a couple of interesting new Belgians on tap there. I was also very good about ordering a salad, though most of the food is deliciously fried and German, because I'm still working on getting some of this weight off.

I'm looking forward to taking my first top dose pill of Savella tomorrow morning, and then heading off to meet up with a fellow fibromite friend of mine for brunch.

I don't want to jinx anything right now, but I had a good day today and felt almost human again. After several days of being way off that mark, this is a huge relief for me. I'm hoping the withdrawal symptoms from Pristiq are behind me and that Savella will improve my Fibromyalgia symptoms, as my doctor and I are hoping.

Oh, something I'd forgotten to mention in yesterday's post was that I was dealing with a little sciatica attack when I went to bed early on Thursday night. It was in my worse leg -the right - and always feels like sudden lightning strikes inside the back of my leg. Not fun, but at least it only lasted a few minutes.

Also, no word, of course, from my doctor. He's definitely going to get an earful at my next appointment about all of this.

Weird Timing for Pain

Did you ever get sudden jolts of pain during odd times - usually with people around who wouldn't understand?

Today, my first day back at work after a week off, I was in a meeting with my boss and two coworkers. While discussing upcoming projects, my sciatica started acting up out of nowhere. I was probably making faces because it comes on so suddenly and fires those lightning bolt pains in the back of my right leg in rapid succession for several minutes.

I said nothing about it, of course, because we were involved in the discussion of the topic, but, needless to say, I was having a hard time focusing on the meeting. I grabbed my leg and wondered if I could voluntarily NOT wince so I wouldn't have to explain or be asked what's wrong. Well, nobody asked anything, but I'll never be certain that they didn't wonder if I was judging the discussion with my odd facial expressions or something.

Ugh. What a pain!