For the past 8 months I have had a slew of unexplained things happen to me.
First my right arm hurts, then the shoulder and upper back then the left arm and under the left jawl. I have a tight feeling on my left face, my tongue started to burn and tingle and sometimes my top lip. My eye would randomly twitch.
Been through a rhemu, nuero, g.p. and infectious disease. I even had a lumbar puncture that was horrid! I had to have a blood patch to stop the headache after two weeks!
I do have 3/4 disc will mild to moderate spinal stenosis and 5/6 with moderate stenosis 6/7 with forminal stenosis and arther.
No one that I have been to will admit these symptoms are stemming from my neck. My life has come to a screeching halt. Once an avid horse back rider and out door person I have been left with this torment! The worse part is not knowing what is wrong. Is it from my neck? Do i need to consult with a nuero surgeon to get answeres? all the nuerologist want to do is see how you walk and send you off for a spinal tap if they can't find anything. I did have white matter lesions on the brain but the spinal tap came back clear of anything haunting.
Please respond and give me some peace of mind.
Why in the world did they do a lumbar puncture if you have disc issues in the neck?
The jaw/face/neck issues sounds nutritional, but could be partly from nerve compression in the cervical spine. Look up 'bell's palsy' ans see if that seems relative.
I would absolutely consider supplementing with Magnesium (See: www.TendonitisExpert.com/magnesium-for-tendonitis.html) for all the reason that page describes. And either B6 or B12 (or both) for nerve function. And get your Vitamin D level taken and then get it up to between 50-80ng/ml.
I would also take a look at working with the ARPwave system. Having had a significant L5-S1 ruptured disc and all the joy that comes from that, it's definitely worth trying. Discs problems don't necessarily cause pain...the forces that cause the disc problems are what cause pain. Remove/reduce those factors and you may be surprised how fast symptoms decrease. (See: http://www.fix-back-pain.com/back-pain-machine.html)
So google 'magnesium for tendonitis'
Google 'fix back pain machine'
So I'm guessing they were testing your cerebrospinal fluid for disease.
Your doctors are incorrect (mostly, at least) re: the nerves and the neck. Pinching nerves in the tissue in the tops of the shoulder can cause bells palsy (one side of the face goes numb). So nerve issue in the face does not just come from the brain.
FYI, when doctors don't know what's wrong they blame it on you and, as you say, make you feel like you're the one that is nuts, as opposed to that they don't know what they're doing.
They gave up on you, it sounds like, AND left you with a low Vit D level. How low, what's your level? Guess what some of the possible side effects of Vitamin D deficiency are? Muscle pain, muscle dysfunction, nerve pain, nerve dysfunction, etc.
A bottle of liquid vitamin D3 that comes in 2,000i.u.'s per drop is like $14. Go get a bottle. Get some magnesium too. And some B6, as that's required to uptake Magnesium, like Magnesium is required to utilize Vit D.
Then give some time to see how the body responds.
Well, cortisone shots have their own potential downsides, side effects, and dangers.
Depending on where you're at, you may want to look for a Functional Medicine Practitioner., or a good Naturopath. You have a big inflammation process in place, it's safe to say you have some significant nutritional insufficiency and/or your body would greatly be helped by intelligent therapeutic supplementation to help your body be able to operate better.
Tight muscles in the neck compress and further compress the cervical discs, so those need to get relaxed, and they can't without proper nutrition. And the more pain and problem your body experience, the more nutrition it needs. It's kind of like a downward spiral, the worse it gets, the worse it gets.
So yes, the tightness is absolutely related to muscle (and nutrition).
I have almost word-for-word the same symptoms. I'm 12 months into it and seen lots of docs and had lots of tests. An MRI shows a slight disc bulge at C5-C6 but neuro said it wouldn't cause my tongue to tingle. Checking in to see if you have an update all this time later?
I too have had the same long running problem and same MRI result and same response from Neuro. Did you ever get any answers?