Upper Spine Arthritis.
Hello all, I am a new member who suffers from neck, shoulder pain and headaches, recently diagnosed by a consultant after an Mri scan as severe arthritis of upper spine.
I am 80 years old and male, and was told just to take paracetamol 4 x 2 tablets per day but I am still in permanent pain in my neck and shoulders.
I am also suffering from hip pain on standing, together with tingling painful legs and feet, but the consultant said this was outside his remit, as he was only a neck and shoulder man.
Not sure if there could be a connection between upper spinal arthritis and leg pain, or if I could have lower spine problem. I have to start again when I can get a GP appointment, but I am extremely anxious and have lost any interest in life.
I would appreciate any advice or comments, just to know there may be hope.
Comments
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Hello @meldrew Welcome to the online Community.
I understand from your post that you have been diagnosed with severe Arthritis of the upper spine. You sound to be in a lot of pain and have been advised to take only paracetamol for it which isn't helping enough. In addition you have some other pains which the consultant said are not in his remit so you are back to square one having to get a GP appointment. I can only imagine how frustrating this is for you.
I can give you a link to managing pain which might help a little - there is information about medication which can help as well as home remedies like warm microwavable wheatbags:
Someone else was struggling with their neck earlier today he is considering an injection into his:
Finally you may need to take the bull by the horns and make another appointment to see your GP if possible taking someone with you who can support you. If it would help to talk it over with someone before making that call please do think about ringing our helpline:
Best wishes
Ellen.
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Hi @meldrew (Victor???)
Nice to meet you, but I am so sorry you are having such an awful time. It's really hard to keep on at the Drs, but in your shoes l would be paracetamol is clearly just not cutting it! It really sounds like you have more than one thing going on and you just have to ring your Dr gain.
I agree with Ellen take someone with you if they'll let you because they find it harder to fob us off when we aren't alone. They have the power remember so we have to be assertive.
There is definitely hope, but you need to know what is going on.
There are options; physio, pain clinic and more, but for now I think you need to know what is going on with your hips and legs possibly lower back.
You are not alone you have us and we have so much experience between us.
Take care
Toni x
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Great advice to have an advocate as pain can be upsetting and you might not get the point across. You are also from a fairly stoic /stiff upper lip generation ( a good thing in my view) but that means often underplaying the impact.
you should certainly be offered codeine or tramadol if required and maybe naproxen if inflamation is an issue.
i have been researching and seeing consultants for 5 years now and the spine is the motorway for you nerves and problems anywhere in the spine can causes issue in the legs
the spinal cord is the motorway and at each branch there are nerves that travel off to limbs and organs in the body
if you have a disc that is pushing on the cord( the motorway) it can affect your legs even if the impingement is in the neck
if only certain parts are affected like left or right it could be the branches through foramans that are being squeezed
an MRI should show where impingement is most likely occurring
I would suggest asking the doctor to get a referral for orthopaedics as it’s possible you also have arthritis in other joints such as knees and hips
take care
1
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