If it isn't one thing...

My shoulders have been hurting since yesterday and seem to be a little worse today. This is not like the numbness in the leg but rather like arthritis and burning. It can't be from sleeping on them wrong as I slept in the recliner just to avoid that this afternoon and when I woke it was worse then before.

I am sure it is not much but any time there is new pain I end up scouring the web looking for more information. Of course I found plenty of reading to do and none of it was what I wanted to hear.

When I had surgery for the spondylolisthesis they put an arterial line in the left arm to monitor something or other, I believe it was blood gas they were monitoring. Anyway, when they put the line in they either nicked or came close to the left radial nerve. I remember waking up in recovery and telling the nurse that my left arm was numb. Her reply was that it was very normal after surgery, which I could not help but think was odd.

Through my whole stay in the hospital and then next few weeks at home it got worse. I saw the neuro who put me on a larger dose of neurontin thinking that would help settle it down and then on some stronger meds to ease the pain. In the end none of that worked and I wound up having 5 stellate ganglion blocks done at the C-6 to relieve the pain. Now if you read the article on the blocks you will see that they are to be done under flouroscopy, which mine were not done so there is no telling if they hit their mark.

That by itself is not a big deal until you find out that the vertebrae that corresponds with the left radial nerve is the C-6. You would then read that the C-5 is what runs to the shoulders, and can easily fall in to believing that if they did not accomplish the blocks properly they could have easily caused some problems down the road.

I know, it is a far fetched idea but after going through all the other crap I have with the back it does not seem so impossible. If it keeps up for a few more days I will let the pain doc know when I see him, but I would bet it clears up by then.