Pinched nerve in neck, now what...? (long)?

Pinched nerve in neck, now what...? (long)?

Pinched nerve in neck, now what...? (long)?

Posted: 03 Feb 2012 01:23 AM PST

Please take the time to read this and reply appropriately. I've seen an orthopedic doctor for these symptoms: - Sudden onset of a stiff and painful neck, worse in the mornings. It's been this way for 3 weeks now. I did nothing hoping it would go away or I'd slept in a wrong posture. Couldn't turn my head left or right, had to ease myself out of bed very carefully. Neck would be 'frozen' when I woke up every morning. I applied heat packs and joint pain balms to ease it but found it difficult to move my head downwards... Left and right with some effort and only after some massaging with a balm. Now with a strong muscle relaxant the movement is getting better, but it still gets sore at night and I have to move with care in the morning. The neck stiffness and pain would gradually wind down during the day and be almost gone by evening but flare up again the moment it gets colder in the night. This was not an everyday symptom, it would come and go. And its onset was sudden. - Pain in the base of my neck that started out as a knot of pain and then spread to the shoulders (both sides) and down the arms and even into the chest. Some days are worse than others. Sometimes I don't feel any pain apart from the stiff neck but on other days the arm gets numb, the back of the ear and the head starts hurting (a burning sensation), and I need to constantly be massaging the area to find relief. Lying down/getting up is a tough procedure. - A small feverish feeling that I barely noticed but definitely running a temperature every morning when I wake up. - Drowsiness. The orthopedic doctor said that there were terrible muscle spasms in the neck. He heard for sounds in the lungs and asked if I had had any recent infections (within the past 3 months I've had 2 infections, one was vague and undiagnosed in the right lung and immediately after that cleared I had a bout of dry pleurisy in the right side). He said this could be radiculopathy from the pleurisy. He said the pinched nerve could have been irritated by a mild inflammation of fluid between the discs. He wants me to get a lumbar puncture to rule out viral meningitis. He also suspects a herniated disc and wants me to get an MRI done. Questions- MRIs are pretty expensive and is it okay to wait a bit before getting one done? And meningitis - wouldn't that be accompanied by worse symptoms than just a mild fever (no cough, no vomiting, no nausea, nothing else)? How could a respiratory infection from a month before affect he nerves in the neck? I am very confused, please help.

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