I had my neck xrayed due to numbness/tingling in my left arm on Friday.
There is a problem...and I have to have a MRI. Does anyone have cervical
neck problems from their RA? Just wanting feedback. Yes Lorster I do, I am sorry to hear that you have. Mine is a lttle RA and osteoarthritis combined. All of the facet joints in my neck are inflamed due to RA, and then the osteoarthritis has caused bone spurs on all the neck discs and degenerative disc disease has caused disc bulges and nerve root compression there too. This all equals pain and antiinflammatories would help but I cannot take them anymore so I have endone and tramal and endep, for pain relief, it also causes pain in my shoulders, do you get that? Hope there is light at the end of the tunnel for you, hugs Janie.
Sorry, to hear of it Lorster. I hope the MRI does not show things are really bad, and hope they can fix ya up.
Keep us posted I am mostly having numbness/tingling to my left hand and fingers. Did
yours start out as pain? Have you had numbness/tingling? I'm concerned
about it but not sure about this all. I have not had any problems until
recently.
I have recently wondered if some numbness, tingling and pain in hand/wrist would do with RA. I have that and shoulder pain. I had my NCV today. Might find out the results on mon.
I hope your MRI shows some answers. I hear MRI can really show lots of things. Keep us posted. I would like to hear. I hope the numbness subsides for you.
HI again Lorster, yes the tingling is still happening in the thumb, forefinger and middle finger, my GP reckons it is carpal tunnel due to the swollen wrist that I have but I am sure the shoulder pain is coming from the neck problems. Are u on any antiinflammatories? Regards Jane.bump
lorster, I have had all those things before RA, from my degenerative disc disease. I have several disc compressions in the neck, along with stenosis, which have pressed on the nerves and caused those symptoms. I don't know about RA causing that, but it could just be a separate thing as well. With RA, it's so hard to tell because everything seems to be related to it! Good luck with getting some answers and hopefully some relief.oh yes I feel for u lorster, I have been diagnosed with Cervical Spondylitis by xrays, started after having a fall (face flat)...not much to do for it...take Aleve, and topical rubs seem to help a little. I pray each day I don't have to go back on pred. I have had acupuncture, massage therapy, etc. some relief but keeps coming back.Lori, I am so sorry for you. It is very painful to have a neck that will not move and when it does it causes a lot of problems.
I am in the same shape as Janie....we are trying to wait and see. I am hoping that they find the problems in the MRI and they can treat you for it. Yes, I do have numbness in both of my hands, and it is due to the neck. My neck also hurts, but I think the numbness came first. Take care and keep us posted.
Yes. My very top joint of my c spine i have RA there very badly. Actually all of the arthritis is around it on mri rather than in it. I guess that is a good thing, but does not make it feel any better. My neck has a buldged disk as well as i have two buldged disks in my lower spine. I do not know if the buldged disk are RA related only that i was sent to a ruemotologist once because of the arthritis around my c spine. Let us know how it turns out. I do know i can feel the swelling around the top of my c spine as well as others can see it when i am flaring. I can not of course get a good look at it myself.Can I just say “ditto” to InnerGlow’s post?
I remember when I went to my GP because my shoulder hurt and my fingers on my left hand were numb, he said, “I’m going to x-ray your neck.” I said, “Huh? Doc, my shoulder hurts, not my neck!” I also had an MRI that resulted in 2 pages of problems. Stenosis, lardosis, ddd, spurs, etc. etc. etc.
Has anyone here considered surgery for any of the problems? I honestly doI eventually had neck pain with mine. It wasn't anything compared to the RA pain. I would classify it more as an bad ache right around the C5-C6 area.
I tried PT which made me worse. Then I went through three epidurals, which helped some. I then went to a chiropractor - one who didn't do manual manipulation. He had this hand-held instrument he used to manipulate the vertebrae. He also used e-stim. It was awesome. It's the only thing that worked my neck. If hadn't worked, I probably would have considered surgery because the nerve pain in the shoulder was pretty unbearable.
I consulted a specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY about 3 years ago. He said there was nothing they could do for my L-spine (I think it was because of the multiple levels). They could do surgery for my C-spine (C3-C4 is the worst), but because my pain is primarily on my right side and my herniations are centered, they are not sure it would help my pain. If I were considering the surgery, they would do an EMG first.
He also told me that the surgery could make things worse and it was about 50-50 that I might get improvement, but not necessarily huge improvement. Overall, I decided to wait until things get significantly worse, or they have big improvements in the surgical procedures. The Lyrica has helped a lot with the nerve pain I was experiencing, so in fact things have gotten more bearable since I saw that doctor.
Keep us posted. I doubt they would want to do surgery. Probably they are just trying to get an idea as to what is going on. I have swelling in my c spine, but i also have some swelling in my shoulder. Just to say you have to start some where when looking for the cause of the problem. I hope it is nothing serious. I agree with innerglow. They would do more test and probably try to treat with medicine or injections first i would think. Good luck!
hello kweenb......interested in e-stem,,,,never heard of this before, but willing to do anything for neck pain relief,,,,,,dxd with cervical spondilitis......in so much pain tksI have had neck problems for many years. Long before DX of RA. I also have stenosis, kyphosis, many spurs, buldging discs spondololysthesis. My discs throughout my spine are badly degenerated. My damaged spine is a result of severe OA, which is also called degenerative disc disease. In addition, I have DJD. My RD has never said that I have RA in my C-spine.
I think I've mentioned before that I was 5'6" all my life. About 2 years ago I was measured at 5'4" and was horrified by the loss of height. But then a couple of months ago I was feeling like I couldn't reach some of the cupboard shelves that I always could reach easily before. I had the nurse measure me at my PCP appt. and I was 5'2"! I nearly passed out from shock! I asked her to do it again, with the same results.
I have had fusion surgery in my l-spine, L4-S1. I have been evaluated my a number of spine specialists for the problems in my c-spine. They all agree that it would be far too dangerous to even try to operate on my c-spine. It is just too unstable.
Like Rose, and many of the others I have terrible pain in my c-apine and L-spine. I recently had radiofrequency ablation in my C-spine. It jpretty much cauterizes the nerves that cause the pain, keeping them from transmitting pain signals. It has helped quite a bit. These treatments can last 9-18 months before the nerves regenerate.
I sincerely hope that your c-spine problems don't get too serious or painful. An MRI is a wonderful tool to help diagnose these problems. Hopefully they will show less extensive disease. I really don't know how the c-spine is effected by RA, but hopefully the RA drugs that are available now, will slow the progress of it.
Please let me know what the outcome of your MRI is.
Gentle hugs, Nini
Rose, e-stim, or electrical stimulation, is when they put sticky pads directly on your skin which are attached to electrodes that transmit a low level electrical current in a pulsing pattern. It is typically done with a TENS unit (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator). This is often done by a chiropractor or a physical therapist, but they do make units you can use at home. It is especially good for breaking up muscle spasms.
I got those treatments for many years, but now my sensitivity is too much and I find it irritates my nerve pain (although it is suppose to help nerve pain).
Never tryed e stem on c spine? The gadget you use at home helped me with my L spine and then the insurance company would not pay and had to send it back. Out patient never helped alot. I think they would set it to high when i did it out patient and it would make me have muscle spasms. The one i had at home i could set my self. C spine pain i some times put capsaicin cream on. I get rubber nurse gloves, have even been known to use sandwhich bags as gloves in a pinch, because the cream can soak in your skin. Once i put my make up on and did not think of the cream being in my fingers. Anyway it was a before work ritual for years other wise i was miserable. I think i did get ultra sound treatments on c spine years ago at physical therapy. Anyway let me know if they find a cure i have C/5-6 and c/6-7 buldging disk, T6/t7 t7/t8 T spine is my actual worst , L4/L5 and L5/s1. I think my lower back started having problems of swelling 28 years ago but no damage till 6 years ago, T spine 16 years ago they say old damage, and the c spine buldges 5 years ago. Just to say it took me alot of time to go from pain to damage even if it did happen while i was young as i am 44. So if you are being treated with the newer meds I say early detection is your best bet. They won't even put an epadural in my T spine, They just give me the shots in c spine and say it will flow down.Lori I've been having trouble with my C-spine for the last 3 months. When I turn my head I can hear and feel clunk,clunk,cllunk. I've been having rapidly worsening pins and needles/numbness and pain over the last couple of months. If I bend down I instantly get pins and needles down my right neck,shoulder and upper arm. I also get pain up the back of my scalp. I saw a neurosurgeon a couple of weeks ago and I'm having an MRI on Wednesday. The x-rays I had about 6 weeks ago showed moderately sever loss of disc space between c/4-5 and narrowing of the right c/4-5 neural foramen on the right. This has obviously been happening over a fairly long period of time but has recently decided to speed up its deterioration. I'm hoping that the MRI shows something that can be fixed. It's starting to affect me being able to turn my head while driving. My other worry is that if I have something done and it makes it worse, I might lose my driving ability. That would suck big time!!!
Hope you get some satisfaction Lori.
Oh Pammy I think clunk, clunk , clunk is my new name. I have been hearing that all day.thanks so much for your prompt info re "pain in the neck".I got some topical rub (Orthogel) from my FOOT DOCTOR, imagine.....it helps for awhile but not a miracle cure for sure....