Neck, shoulder arm pain

[RestlessTraveller]

So about two weeks ago I woke up with a stiff feeling in my neck and put it down to just sleeping in an awkward position. Two weeks later I'm popping pain killers ever four hours. It's travelled down my arm and shoulder and it's keeping me awake at night. I have a doctors appointment this afternoon but I think they're just going to give me more painkillers and send me on my way. I literally can't stand the pain when I'm coming to the end of my four hours since the last painkillers and I'm a zombie from not sleeping. Any ideas?

You should try and get a physio referral because painkillers and anti-inflammatories will do nothing for the cause of the pain just take the edge off the symptoms.

I struggled with the same symptoms for a year before seeing a dr, who gave me naproxen which really did horrible things to my stomach. Eventually I had 4 sessions of physio therapy which sorted it.

So I've been given naproxen and opremazole (for the inevitable side effects apparently). Give it two weeks and if it hasn't improved I need to back.

If you can tolerate the naproxen then it might work but my dr wasn't at all surprised that I only lasted 3 days on it. The physiotherapist was great, she worked out exactly where the pain was coming from and sorted it out.