My boyfriend had a C5/C6 fusion in May 2009 after a car accident. He was on the road to recovery, but always had chronic pain in his neck.

His doctor recommended a cervical epidural - that happened ~Jan 10, 2011. The next day or two, he said he felt tingling in his shoulder blade.

After 10-14 days later, he was shoveling snow. As we drove an hour later, he pulled the car over saying that it felt like a screwdriver was stabbing him in his left shoulder blade. In the days\weeks since, he began having tingling down his left arm. His neck continues to hurt. In the past 3 months, his pain has gotten so severe and has started with the same issues in his right shoulder blade and tingling in right arm, but less severe. He has had several “spasms” during the day\evening – he said it doesn’t feel like it’s his muscles, but his nerves.

He is in constant pain! Since the pain got so severe, he had trigger point injections in his neck, shoulder blade and underarm (near rib cage). He also had facet injections. He is on Gabapentin, Vicodin, Ibuprofen and Amitriptiline.

Last week, his severe pain got even worse and his spasms were not several times a day, but constant, throughout the day\evening. He said it’s much more comfortable to have his head a bit forward and to the right, which is why one doctor said possible dystonia. When I look at the websites for dystonia, he looks nothing like this. If you looked at him, you may not even notice his head tilting forward – it just looks like he’s stretching his neck.
I called a friend who is a Neurologist, and he said to look into RSD\CRSP. I haven’t read that this occurs in your beck\shoulder blades, but moreso a limb. He has the extreme tenderness where his pain is out of proportion with the touch of his muscles. He doesn’t have any of the temperature changes.

While I want to get his pain under control, I want to understand if this is RSD/CRSP, possibly dystonia or something else?? We will work with his doctor on other pain meds for comfort, but I’m seeking advice on possible disorders\causes\treatments for this. We see a new neurologist this week and I want to bring up ALL possible causes so we can look at everything, not go down one path then find it isn’t working.

Thanks for any advice, help, thoughts….