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Thank you for your earlier response to my post. Went to neurologist appt. and an EMG and NCS have been ordered for left arm. My questions are 1) since my right arm is unaffected, should I inquire about doing them on right arm and left arm to have a comparison? and 2) Will the fact that I have had steroid injections affect the results of the study or “mask” any nerve issue or possible nerve damage? I had an EMG/NCS in 2011 that showed some items that were prolonged under FINDINGS and gave an IMPRESSION of “there is a mild predominately sensory median mononeuropathy at the wrist consistent with a predominately sensory carpal tunnel syndrome.” I personally did not feel carpal tunnel was a possibility as I know how all of this started and I did not have any of the signs and symptoms associated with carpal tunnel tunnel (from reading info. from reputable medical sites on internet) and I still do not. The EMG/NCS done in 2011 was not ordered by the neurosurgeon I am under the care of, a Physicians Assistant in the office where I was seen at ordered it at my request.

Thank you for any comments that you can offer.

Thank you Dr. Corenman. I have neck pain/tenderness in my “left trap near the left scapula border” (from dr. note) and left upper arm weakness. I also turn my upper body to the left to look left as my range of motion is “restricted” or less. I am left handed. To raise my left arm straight out in front of me (from hip to shoulder), my arm is weak, slow to respond, feels heavy. If I try to shrug my left shoulder, my muscles that pull the top of my shoulder up feel very weak and it does not feel good in my lower to mid neck, to the left of my cervical spine. If I try to “make a muscle” with my left arm, I feel like I don’t have the strength and I can touch that bicep, feel and see that it’s size is less than what it used to be–I can see and feel that it is smaller and spongy, not near as solid as it used to be. I presently have pain to touch/tenderness in my neck to the left of the mid to lower cervical spine (if one is look at the back, it is located mostly in the backward “L” shaped area). The pain had been shooting, burning a lot (just at anytime at all but not constant) and would shoot out across the top back of my left shoulder. If I would reach a certain way with my left arm, I would get hit with an incredible burning that would drop me to my knees. My upper left arm would go weak. The shooting, burning is not as frequent but I did have 3 ESI’s, one @ C7-T1 in 2/12, 1 at C5-6 in 3/12 and 1 at C5-6 at the beginning of this month. I feel that they helped to reduce the frequency of the shooting, burning; however, I do still have shooting burning in the same areas, just not as frequent and my left arm remains weak. The arm weakness is 70%, neck 30%.

Since this all did not just happen recently, let me give you the history as to the evolution of the symptoms. I was lifting a lot of weight a couple of years ago, 2010. Saw stars (white light) when I was lifting, but nothing popped, cracked, etc., didn’t think much of it, finished was I was doing and I went to lay down. I could not get comfortable due to discomfort. Took ibuprofen, eventually went to sleep. Got up, felt “crooked,” went to work out, got on treadmill, felt like a “bobblehead,” couldn’t stand discomfort, had gotten worse, got off treadmill. More ibuprofen that night. Got up next day, had terrible burning pain when I turned my head to right, my left upper arm was weak and I could barely turn my head to the left. Burning got worse. Family dr. gave me steroids, muscle relaxers, which helped but I continued with pain/discomfort. Couple weeks later, when lifting an object, got burning & arm weakness again. Got MRI, edema @ C5-6 with some degeneration there. Went to PT which helped but still felt arm was a little weak and continued with intermittent shooting burning to left of mid to low cervical spine and across top of back left shoulder. Would take Alleve and/or Ibuprofen. In 2011, got an INCAPACITATING flare in burning when I went to plug in a machine with my left arm (was reaching to the right, across my face). This flare had me on ice for a couple of days with steroids, muscle relaxers. Went back to Physical Therapy. Symptoms were reduced but never left. Out of physical therapy for less than 1 month, incapacitating burning flare again. Incapacitating burning flares got more frequent (mostly with moving my arms, neck–I went to the ER one time it was so bad), arm got weaker and stayed real weak, so I went to pain mgmt. Got medicine for nerve pain, take anti-inflammatories. More recently, got injections (didn’t want to do those at first because I don’t like needles). Left arm still weak maybe a TINY bit of improvement. Go to see my neuro next month. Any insight you could offer would be appreciated. I know this is very long but I wanted to give you the history of how it started, its evolution and where I presently am. Overall, the MAJOR flares in burning pain increased, particularly in the last 8 – 10 months, and my arm is more consistently, profoundly weaker than my other arm. This whole issue has become very stressful, painful and I have great concern about my arm. Any information you could offer would be greatly appreciated.