Hello everyone, need some advise please. Does anyone suffer with neck arthritis? ive been doing really well on humira, celebrex and methotrexate. My rheumey is very happy with everything however I have been suffering with major shoulder pain extending down my arm. I went to an orthopedic surgeon who told me based on my condition he says it is neck arthritis. I have to wear a neck collar and go for physio. The collar caused more discomfort than anything else and I was not able to cope at work. I work in an office. My work station has not yet been ergonomically adapted which may have contributed to my condition. Right now I just feel nobody takes me seriously. Any advise how to handle this situation? thankyou
I have restricted and painful movement with my neck and shoulders. You never mentioned if you are on meds. My meds help but It is far from being the complete solution, but it does help somewhat.
Massage and an Osteopath helps loosen up the stiffness but can also be painful when those areas are already tender, sore and stiff. It is a matter of finding someone who will do a massage to the strength you can cope with. I find I am often worse after a massage and then a few days later I will then feel the benefit.
As far as being taken more seriously, this is not easy and my only suggestion is to educate family and friends about PSA. I found printing out information for them to read helped. Not all information on the net is very informative so be very selective and find some that gives a more in depth explanation.
You can always suggest they read this site!
I never mention the word arthritis as no one seems to take that seriously and even Osteo Arthritis can do serious damage and be very painful.
I say I have a auto-immune disease called Psoriatics or PSA which gives me pain and stiffness and attacks many of my joints and inflames my tendons and causes fatigue. There is no known cure only treatments which I am hoping will slow down the progression of the damage to my bones. Then if given a chance I will say so many other things depending on the situation and who it is. I try and get in the fact that the weird thing is that people with this disease don't look sick. There are so many other bits of information you can educate others who don't understand. Especially that PSA can come and go and flare and be so debilitating for days or weeks or it can change around during the same day.
Can you get a physical therapy appointment?
For my neck I got a tempurpedic-like pillow from Bed Bath and Beyond. Oh. My. Goodness. It is a great pillow. It is an off brand and was on sale for 50.00 and I had a coupon, so I got 20% off on it. I also got some lidoderm patches from my doc and I use them on my neck during the daytime. I got PT too and that helped more than anything. I didn’t have any nerve impingement so the PT helped a lot. If the collar is bothering you, don’t wear it. what works for some doesn’t always work for everyone. I also got a moist head pad that is specially shaped for my neck. It is from Thermalon. You can order them directly from their website. They aren’t very expensive and they hold up for years with heavy use. I have had my back one for at least three years and its still in great shape. They are microwaveable and have their own beads that produce the moist heat so you don’t need to add anything or wet the pad. Just pop it in the microwave for a minute or so.
If you sit and type or talk on the phone a lot at work, make sure that you are using good body mechanics. I recommend that anybody who has and office job go see an OT to have them help you set your work area up in a way that causes less strain on your upper body. Use a telephone head set if you talk on the phone a lot. Invest in an ergonomic keyboard and make sure that you are seated at the correct height at your desk. An OT can better help you with all of that.
Maybe some of these things will help you out until you can get in to the PT.
Thanks for the input
I have had the same thing, mine was so bad at one point I couldn’t even drive since I couldn’t turn my head. It was in my neck and down my shoulder, putting on clothes even was a battle.i couldn’t sleep, bought a new therapeutic pillow. After I went to the Rheumy, he sent me to a neurologist and found that I have some nerve damage in both arms also this comes from my neck having bone spurs (PSA) and compressing on a nerve. My Dr tried muscle relaxers, they helped but didn’t fix it. Then physical therapy where she massaged the area and used a cortisone patch twice a week. That really helped, almost fixed it. But I noticed that any time I became stressed it would come right back to some degree. I finally quit going for pt due to the cost, but it does help. And, I took huge strides to eliminate stress from my life as much as possible. Don’t give up and try the PT if its an option.
I have PsA in my neck (and everywhere else! LOL). The most helpful thing for me for my neck has been acupuncture. It's amazing the relief I get from one acupuncture treatment. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it!