Question: I am 51 years old male, nonsmoker. I work on computer 10 hours a day for many years. I have some history of left and right shoulder pain and neck pain that comes and goes. This time I got worse neck pain about 5 weeks ago. My neck hurst and radiates to the shoulder, the most painfull point is somewhere near neck to the left kind of top. I get it every time I look down and right, this hurts the most. Pain varies with days, some days the pain is so severe I have back head headacke, I think it is radiating from the neck. My neck just feels stiff and hard to look left or right or up or down. I also have right shoulder pain when I put hand above the shoulder line, this pain is 6 months but seems it is not connected to my recent neck pain. The worst is at night because it hurst to sleep on either side and when I turn around it hurts. Worse is if I lie on the bed and try to lift the head. It is not sharp pain mostly but kind of it gets worse the more I move my head. At morning it gets a little better after stretching the neck, when I wake up I am all like tied up up there and shoulders hurt also. It doesn't go away and now I am kind of worried about the worst possible prognosis (like cancer). I do not have any neurological symptoms in my hands.

I am 51 years old male, nonsmoker. I work on computer 10 hours a day for many years. I have some history of left and right shoulder pain and neck pain that comes and goes. This time I got worse neck pain about 5 weeks ago. My neck hurst and radiates to the shoulder, the most painfull point is somewhere near neck to the left kind of top. I get it every time I look down and right, this hurts the most. Pain varies with days, some days the pain is so severe I have back head headacke, I think it is radiating from the neck. My neck just feels stiff and hard to look left or right or up or down. I also have right shoulder pain when I put hand above the shoulder line, this pain is 6 months but seems it is not connected to my recent neck pain. The worst is at night because it hurst to sleep on either side and when I turn around it hurts. Worse is if I lie on the bed and try to lift the head. It is not sharp pain mostly but kind of it gets worse the more I move my head. At morning it gets a little better after stretching the neck, when I wake up I am all like tied up up there and shoulders hurt also. It doesn't go away and now I am kind of worried about the worst possible prognosis (like cancer). I do not have any neurological symptoms in my hands.

Hi there again

Thank you very much for your answer. I couldn't get to MRI so fast due to corona crises in my country, but I got my x-ray of the neck and shoulder today.

I will try not to scare myself with all the dark and light asymetrical patches on the image as I am no doctor and I can not read x-ray images. Hope you can help, to me every shadow looks like cancer :-(

The pain is worse at night when I sleep. When I wake up I have all the area from left shoulder to neck and right shoulder in pain and stiff. If I don't move there is usually no pain, pain come with movement, sometimes only slight one.

Some days are better and some days are worse, but there is always some pain and stiffness at least in the middle upper back from my neck to left shoulder, I can always provoke serious pain when I tilt my head to the right and look down, then somewhere between my left shoulder and neck hurts.

Also doing isometrics excercises hurt in the middle low of my neck. Dull, gnawing pain, the more I press to the forehead or backhead the more the pain.

Also if I lie down and want to stand up by lifting my head first I get terrible pain at the back of my neck in the middle. I know this is not the proper way to stand up, I am just telling you to understand when the pain is worst.

For now it is not worse nor better the last 4 weeks, some days are better, some are terrible when the back neck headacke also joins but the headache is not every day, maybe once a week.

I also feel my voice is a little hoarse for a few days now and I have managed to scare myself this can be throat cancer with metahstasis to the neck, neck is just behind the throat after all, but for my sanity I didn't find a link of throat cancer to neck pain. And yes, I have stress problem, this corona crysis is terrible for health anxiety people like myself. I don't move a lot and I managed to gain 2 kilos.

Right shoulder pain is there for 6 months and doesn't seem connected to the left shoulder and neck problem, it happens when I lift my left arm, I've had this before 10 years and it went away after 1 year. The pain is much worse if I somehow sleep with my arm abouve the head, then my left shoulder is stiff no matter how I move it, not only above the head. I also send my right shoulder x-rays.

I don't have any neurological symptoms except some sporadic muscle twitching but that is my another story, they happen for 10 years now, some come and go quickly and some can be on one spot for days. Last one was on the back below left shoulder for 14 days, every few minutes. It is gone now, I still have some in legs, abdomen... It got the most of me 10 years ago when I feared they are ALS. They were now. Seems stress also agrevates them. I don't have any other neurological symptom from the neck.

Hope my story with x-rays can make things clearer and if it could relieve me the cancer fear, it would be healing. I am not even sure what can be seen on X-Ray. The machine they told me, was new and excellent.

If you need I have also some neck image from 18 years ago, I would have to photo it it is not on CD.

I was also on neck x-ray in 2017 and they found some spondiloarthrosis, lordosis, nothing major. Unfortunately I don't have the image with me. They x-rayed my neck because I had a wierd feeling in my left thumb, didn't feel touch, just pain. It was terrible experience and it faded after 8 months.

Thank you a lot for your time to answer and keep healthy!

Yours
XXXXXXX

Hi there again

Thank you very much for your answer. I couldn't get to MRI so fast due to corona crises in my country, but I got my x-ray of the neck and shoulder today.

I will try not to scare myself with all the dark and light asymetrical patches on the image as I am no doctor and I can not read x-ray images. Hope you can help, to me every shadow looks like cancer :-(

The pain is worse at night when I sleep. When I wake up I have all the area from left shoulder to neck and right shoulder in pain and stiff. If I don't move there is usually no pain, pain come with movement, sometimes only slight one.

Some days are better and some days are worse, but there is always some pain and stiffness at least in the middle upper back from my neck to left shoulder, I can always provoke serious pain when I tilt my head to the right and look down, then somewhere between my left shoulder and neck hurts.

Also doing isometrics excercises hurt in the middle low of my neck. Dull, gnawing pain, the more I press to the forehead or backhead the more the pain.

Also if I lie down and want to stand up by lifting my head first I get terrible pain at the back of my neck in the middle. I know this is not the proper way to stand up, I am just telling you to understand when the pain is worst.

For now it is not worse nor better the last 4 weeks, some days are better, some are terrible when the back neck headacke also joins but the headache is not every day, maybe once a week.

I also feel my voice is a little hoarse for a few days now and I have managed to scare myself this can be throat cancer with metahstasis to the neck, neck is just behind the throat after all, but for my sanity I didn't find a link of throat cancer to neck pain. And yes, I have stress problem, this corona crysis is terrible for health anxiety people like myself. I don't move a lot and I managed to gain 2 kilos.

Right shoulder pain is there for 6 months and doesn't seem connected to the left shoulder and neck problem, it happens when I lift my left arm, I've had this before 10 years and it went away after 1 year. The pain is much worse if I somehow sleep with my arm abouve the head, then my left shoulder is stiff no matter how I move it, not only above the head. I also send my right shoulder x-rays.

I don't have any neurological symptoms except some sporadic muscle twitching but that is my another story, they happen for 10 years now, some come and go quickly and some can be on one spot for days. Last one was on the back below left shoulder for 14 days, every few minutes. It is gone now, I still have some in legs, abdomen... It got the most of me 10 years ago when I feared they are ALS. They were now. Seems stress also agrevates them. I don't have any other neurological symptom from the neck.

Hope my story with x-rays can make things clearer and if it could relieve me the cancer fear, it would be healing. I am not even sure what can be seen on X-Ray. The machine they told me, was new and excellent.

If you need I have also some neck image from 18 years ago, I would have to photo it it is not on CD.

I was also on neck x-ray in 2017 and they found some spondiloarthrosis, lordosis, nothing major. Unfortunately I don't have the image with me. They x-rayed my neck because I had a wierd feeling in my left thumb, didn't feel touch, just pain. It was terrible experience and it faded after 8 months.

Thank you a lot for your time to answer and keep healthy!

Yours
XXXXXXX

Thank you. Would the x-ray show cancer if it were big enough to make such pain in the neck? I am also worried because I have a little hoarse voice for a week (no cold) and few times my food got stuck when eating like peanuts and coconut flour, which has tiny particles. The peanut problem that feel like stuck a little I have since 2 years ago. And the more I think about how I swallowing the more I think this is not normal. Throat cancer would not have such painful neck pain I guess? I do however have post nasal drip with mucus from throat and chronic sore throat because of that I was diagnosed my reflux few years back. And I did have a little hoarse voice some years ago I guess from the stomach acid, but didn't relate it to cancer, the neck pain got me worried that it could be throat cancer that metasthased to the neck. But I hope in such case something would be visible on x-ray? Because it would need to be quite advanced I would guess.

Can the anxiety cause and worsen my symptoms? As I am anxiety wreck since this coronavirus stared.

I am consuming 1000ie of vitamin D every day.

Thank you for all your help.

Thank you. Would the x-ray show cancer if it were big enough to make such pain in the neck? I am also worried because I have a little hoarse voice for a week (no cold) and few times my food got stuck when eating like peanuts and coconut flour, which has tiny particles. The peanut problem that feel like stuck a little I have since 2 years ago. And the more I think about how I swallowing the more I think this is not normal. Throat cancer would not have such painful neck pain I guess? I do however have post nasal drip with mucus from throat and chronic sore throat because of that I was diagnosed my reflux few years back. And I did have a little hoarse voice some years ago I guess from the stomach acid, but didn't relate it to cancer, the neck pain got me worried that it could be throat cancer that metasthased to the neck. But I hope in such case something would be visible on x-ray? Because it would need to be quite advanced I would guess.

Can the anxiety cause and worsen my symptoms? As I am anxiety wreck since this coronavirus stared.

I am consuming 1000ie of vitamin D every day.

Thank you for all your help.

Thank you. So my final question I guess is what do you think is wrong with my neck? From your answer I gather that x-ray shows only slight abnormalities that would not indicate such severe pain in the neck radiating to shoulder. What can I do to help myself out of this? Excersises, good posture and it may subside in a few weeks?

As there is no neck cancer and probably not throat cancer with such big neck pain and mild other throat problems, wht can be causing this pretty severe symptoms all of a sudden?

Thank you. So my final question I guess is what do you think is wrong with my neck? From your answer I gather that x-ray shows only slight abnormalities that would not indicate such severe pain in the neck radiating to shoulder. What can I do to help myself out of this? Excersises, good posture and it may subside in a few weeks?

As there is no neck cancer and probably not throat cancer with such big neck pain and mild other throat problems, wht can be causing this pretty severe symptoms all of a sudden?