Sounds a lot like my neck, but not the same course of events.

I had symptoms in both arms as well as the neck pain. My pain doc went right to ESI - epidural steroid injections.

I had first consulted a neuro surgeon and he wanted to do ACDF. I said no. I knew there had to be less invasive things I could try first.

So then,, 2 ESIs in '04. I was fine (well, I had neck pain, but the arm sx were fine) until Jan 07.

Last Nov/Dec, I had 2 more ESIs. I am still having the sx - weakness pain, loss of use of both arms. The steroids helped with the inflamation, but I think I let it go on for too long this time for it to really help as much.

I'm going to try facet joint diagnostic, and if that is positive, I'll do the FJ injection.

Ask your pain clinic (I'm guessing that's where you had your treatments) about these options and if they might help in your case. They may come up with things I don't know about, too.

OTC meds, IMHO, are not enough to deal with this kind of pain situation. And a pain clinic may RX something for you, but generally after thay have tried a few other things. I'd exhaust every trick in their bag before surgery unless you start losing function. But that's how I play, you know?



Good luck.