During the past five months I've been averaging five medical appointments per week to treat both my rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, but specifically targeting my neck and shoulder. At first it was a debate of which was the source and which cam first, the neck or shoulder issue. Kind of like the chicken and egg debate!
My doctors and I learned two years ago, in 2012, that my arthritis had begun to affect my cervical and lumbar spine. At the time I learned some better habits for sitting, sleeping and standing. I started physical therapy. As my RA did slightly better, my neck pain followed.
In January of 2014, my neck started flaring, with terrible pain and inflammation. As with the chicken and the egg debate, quite often their is a debate as to which condition each symptom is currently coming from. You'd think it'd be simple, when in reality it is quite complicated.
I've tried chiropractic care, soft tissue work, acupuncture, massage, trigger point injections and physical therapy. A few treatments gave me short lived relief - a day max . Nothing took the pain away completely.
Today, I had a Medial Branch 'test' Block procedure on C3, C4, C7 and T1 at Sioux Falls Specialty Hospital. This test is used as a diagnostic test to determine specifically which facet joints the pain is coming from. I now have to keep tract of my pain level for the next twelve hours, as to see how well and how long the block successfully treats my pain. So far, it's doing quite well! It's amazing to not feel the constant sharp and throbbing pain throughout my neck. I am very grateful for that tonight. I still have very sore muscles in my neck - but that is easier to treat then the pain from joint destruction. I can live with that;)
If the next test block proves to be a success, then I will have Radiofrequency Ablation of the nerves at the above facet joints (C3, C4, C7, and T1).
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