Welcome 2ManyProblems.

Natalie,

Hello and welcome, happy to see you have come to be with us, it a great place to be. As you can see we have a great number and caring fellow members here, where you have find a supportive and relaxing place. Have fun looking into the different forums. Our shoulders are here for support in many ways.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene

Thank you so much - to all of you! I can see already that this is a great place to be for support and fellowship Happy Thanksgiving!

[At first it started with me sleeping on my hand under my pillow and waking up with complete numbness from ring and pink up to my elbow. I was diagnosed with Cubital Tunnel Syndrome. Some odd things started happening though - the pain was excruciating and then my left arm started to mimic the problem in my right arm and hand and so I was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome]
and
[P.S. The numbness, claw fingers, pins and needles, numbness, weakness, cold skin and paresthesia has cleared up in my right hand (the Cubital Tunnel issue), and I can finally hand write again for the first time in six months!!]

You might want to visit our thoracic outlet syndrome forum (TOS ) for short..

useful sticky threads for TOS- good place to start post #1 has tons of info links.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

What you describe above is often some of the symptoms for TOS, also the cubital tunnel - could be a "double crush" or the actual cause is coming from the TOS area- roughly the neck/shoulder junction.
The nerves and blood flow for arms go thru the small space and if it gets pinched can cause all sorts of pain and issues.
Also the holding arms up to wash hair problem.. another TOS sx..

[ shooting pain from my neck down my shoulder - just had an MRI on Saturday..]

Can you get a copy of the MRI written report?
Share it if you like, we might be able to help understand it.

The results of my MRI were, "No significant pathologies but we'll discuss the specifics at your next pain management appointment on the 26th." So I don't really know what that means, but I guess I'll find out. I have to bring in a CD to get a copy of the MRI and I don't have any blank ones and I'm running low on money, but I'll post about what ends up happening when it's interpreted for me on the 26th :-/ Thanks for the link! <3 ...Raising my hands up to wash my hair isn't a pain thing though - it's that it tires me out so much that I have to nap afterward and sometimes take more than 24 hours to recover. I'm so exhausted all the time. A ten minute chore will have me laid up for the rest of the day and night at least.