Hello I injured my back many years ago(approx 16). I saw a specialist many years ago who told me he could find nothing wrong but advised I gave up my job horse riding as the discomfort when doing so was very bad . I continued life for the next ten years, constantly taking painkillers that did very little to help me. When i decided enough was enough and demanded an mri scan the first came back with an abnormality (sorry unsure what it was) the second more detailed said there was an issue with my neck but nothing to worry about. other than the fact that where i had been inactive(because of the pain) for so many years the damaged muscles and ligaments where still in bad shape and unlikely to repair themselves. I need not have given up my love of horses. 5 years later I m still in the same boat with symptons appearing to be worsening in pain. I have pain between my shoulder blades which spreads round to the left to my lower xiphoid? on my sternum. The pain also goes from between my shoulder blades and over my left shoulder(it feels as though it is being pulled downwards) and also into my left armpit. With these symptons I can become dizzy find it hard to breath, my left arm goes numb and me heart can race although i believe that to be part of the stress of the whole thing( i have been e.c.g traced on numerous occasions but all is good there) I sweat profusely it feels like I have been punched in the back and then someone is twisting a band inside of me i have very little pain on the right hand side except for between my shoulder blades. sometimes this can last a day or so to 8 weeks at a time yet my doctor insists there is nothing wrong and to do more excercise. i have tried swimming which i thought would be reasonably gentle excercise and had to be pulled from the pool when it went on me one day. i m currently on 10mg diazepam3x perday and 2* 50mg tramadol 3*pd although these seem to make me hiccup and obviously that makes things worse. Please help me thanks for your time