Hi, Thank you for providing the brief history of you. A thorough neuromuscular assessment is advised along with MRI of cervical spine. Most times, this symptoms occurs due to pinching of nerve in the cervical spine due to any of the cervical disc prolapse, herniation, protrusion, etc. Understanding at which level this has occurred is more important. Also, the prednisone and the soma muscle relaxer are the symptomatic treatment plans which helps to reduce the pain. On a longer run, physical therapy is the choice as with therapeutic ultrasound therapy and TENS therapy the pain can be controlled, also, these are non-invasive techniques without any long term or short term side effects. In my clinical practice, we have never used steroids or pain killers for patients, and majority have responded well to physical therapy. Also, by strengthening the muscles of the spine, the patients long term recovery is maintained. Regards Jay Indravadan Patel