Back and neck pain symptoms and conditions

80 mg prescribed over 18mth period - shoulder pain began after one year - acute pain at night', diminishing rotational capability during the day. Second shoulder pain followed soon after with same symptoms. Feels as if the joint is becoming unstable and the moving skeletal components rubbing together and jarring.(clicks,clonks felt & heard) GP immediately took me off them and arranged physio. After two weeks without simvastatin there is no change/ relief in symptoms

I was involved in a MVA about 4 years ago. I was prescribed oral prednisone for my back and neck pain. I took the recommended pack but about 3 days into the regimen I began having EXTREME pain in my joints- especially knees, hips, and ankles. I was not even able to walk by myself. My doctor never even suggested that it could be a side effect of the prednisone and told me that I had to finish the rx or it would be possible for me to have major reactions such as heart failure, etc. I was so scared that I finished the rx. My side effects included weight gain, mood swings, increased appetite, etc. but the worst was the joint pain. I survived the treatment and swore that I would never take the drug again. Well, never say never. My back pain continued and I went to a pain management doctor who recommended spinal injections. He said that the prednisone injections should not have the same side effects as the oral med so I received the injections. He said that he used a reduced amount of the prednisone during the procedure. I had great results with a reduction in my back pain for several months. I just this week had another injection and now I am in experiencing the same horrible pain in my joints as I had the first time with my oral rx. Is this normal? I have contacted my dr for pain med but I know that I am just covering up the side effects. Any one else have similar situation? What do you do when the treatment is worse than the ailment?

After an ER trip where I discovered I was a hypo, I've been on Levoxyl 50 mcg for just under a month. I recently informed my doctor on the phone I was experiencing swelling directly under my chin after I took the medicine in the morning and it lasted all day. He told me to stop and come in and see him immediately. It's the weekend and I can't get in until Monday. It's the 2nd day I've been off the hormone and today I have numbness in my cheeks, they are swollen, I can't eat much and feel really depressed. I've been in pain for so long and now it's just getting worse. I don't know if I should take the hormone tomorrow morning to see if I feel better or stay off as advised by my doctor. Reading everyone's comments is helpful, as it's very difficult for my family and friends to relate to me during this time and seem to think I'm over-reacting all the time as the pain never goes away. Levoyxyl seems to make me feel better, but I still have a lot of back and neck pain, as well as sensitivity to light, headaches and jaw pain. I'm 215 on a 5'5 frame, I eat quite healthy, avoid all the trigger foods for the thyroid and try to be active, but I can't seem to loose weight. I'm really not sure what to do with myself and am loosing hope.. I'm 24 and feel like I'm 84.

I was prescribed Ultram for chronic back and neck pain because I had been on Vicodin for a long time but did not want to be on a strong narcotic long-term. Ultram is effective, but i have been on it almost a year and if I run out and don't happen to have any more, after about 12-24 hours I start sweating and I feel weak and can't sleep, plus legs twitch uncontrollably. I guess all pain meds have their problems.

Hello I'm a 41 year old female, and I took Lipitor 20 mgs for 6 months about two years ago. When I called my doctor's office to complain about side effects they told me it couldn't be the Lipitor because I had been taking it for a month already, and would have had problems before that. I eventually took myself off of the drug 5 months later. Here are some of the side effects I experienced:
Itchy fingertips, increased blood pressure, 30lb weight gain, shaky hand writing, acne, poor driving skills, poor memory, hair loss, "frozen joints", IBS, incontinence, low grade fever, itchy feet, numb toes, numb hands, foggy brain, joint pain, muscle pain, foot pain, plantar pain, dizzy, jaw pain, back and neck pain, week ankles and wrists, nasal allergies, skin rashes, migraines, heartburn, Increase in Astham, heart palpitations, knee pain, difficulty standing up from sitting position, difficulty climbing stairs, water retention alternating in feet, hands, arms and legs, almost constant taste of bile in my mouth.
These are only the ones I can remember. Two years down the road everything but the muscle and joint pain and weakness is gone. even those have improved a lot. I stopped taking the Lipitor and lost all 30lbs I had gained on it, without dieting, in a months time. I still have two toes on each foot that are partially numb. I have trouble climbing stairs, and getting up from a sitting position. I can do both, but I move slowly while doing them. The pain in my muscles and joints drives me crazy, but I'm grateful that the rest of the symptoms have cleared up. My doctor never believed me about my symptoms, and neither does my new doctor really. Went to the emergency room for asthma that was not responding to my inhaler, and they were about to let me go home when I mentioned to the doctor that I had been on Lipitor. Suddenly a huge battery of tests were ordered including a CT scan and a stress test. When I asked the doctor why he said that they just wanted to be sure that it wasn't something other than asthma. Why did they do that after hearing about the Lipitor? Do they know something? Are there doctors who believe that statins are killing and seriously injuring people? I'm so angry. Even as I sit here typing I know when I stand up I will have massive amounts of pain that I will have to "walk off". My quadriceps have not recovered, and remain ridiculously weak.
If I can stop one other person from going through this I will be happy. Thanks everyone for taking the time to list your symptoms. It makes me feel better to know that someone believes me, and knows what I am going through.

Prescribed Flexeril 10 mg/3 times a day for back and neck pain and stiffness. I had no relief with one tablet, so yesterday I took 2 tablets at noon, then another tablet before bed. Today my muscles are looser, but I have a strange tingling and numbness sensation on my left side. It's affecting the left side of my upper and lower lip and face, left shoulder, left arm and fingers and left leg. It's not painful but I am a bit scared. The pill should only last 4-5 hours and it's now been 10 hours since that last bedtime dose. So why am I still feeling this effect and when will it go away? And I am supposed to take 3 a day for a month?! I am not sure if I will be taking anymore.

sever back and neck pain

I have been on Singular for about 2 weeks now to help with my allergies. I was fine the first week, but now this week I have had constent back and neck pain and headaches that simply will not go away. I have also had pains in my legs. Simply said I can not get comfortable at night. I have not experienced and nightmares or and problems sleeping, but I am a very heavy sleeper. My allergy symptoms have pertty much gone away though. I shoudl have known something was up when I had to get special approval from my health insurance in order for them to cover it. I am going to take myself off it and see if the body aches go away. Good luck to all of you.

I have been on 100 mg of topamax twice a day now for over three years. Most of the early side effects have worn off like soda tasting bad and the memory loss. I never had any hair loss. Also the weight loss has stopped and I did gain it back which really stinks. Anyway, the reason I was looking, was that in the last several weeks, I have been suffering horrible body aches and joint pain. My hands and knees hurt very badly. I am 39 years old and hate to think that arthritis has set in so quickly. And I know that I can't have the flu with no other symptoms and so often. Does anyone else have these symptoms? Also I wonder why these could have started after so many years of taking it.I have tried to wean myself off in the past and the migrains came back full force.

I am just now discovering that my problems may be linked to fluroquinolone. Where do I start? I have been prescribed Levaquin on and off for years for UTIs. I have insomnia, headaches, severe back and neck pain, tingling/numbness and shooting pains in my hands and feet, dizziness, heart palpitations, difficulty walking, depression, disorientation, pain when lifting my arms, unexplained pain in my legs and arms, mystery bruising, listlessness, overwhelming tiredness, achiness in bones of upper arms and upper legs and a general sense of "I don't want to be here anymore." No one has ever mentioned that any of my symptoms could be caused by the medication.

I have only been on Lipitor a few short months and have been suffering pain and weakness in my feet and legs. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, itis so bad I can barely walk. I did not realize what the problem was until I started readingup on the side effects. I thought maybe I was developing arthritis. Additioanlly, I have suffered back and neck pain. As of today, I intend to discontinue using Lipitor and hopefully, get back to a pain free life.

I have been taking topamax for about 5 years. I was off for about 18 mos. to have a child and nurse, and have been back on for 3 years now. I have been prescribed for bipolar II disorder. My main symptom has always been irritability, they say it is mixed episodes. I have no mania, really. My doctor believes that topamax is most effective at high doses, so I had been taking 1200 mg/day, and he only took me down when I complained about the confusion, word-finding, (general abscence of a brain), so now I am at 600 mg/day and have been for some time.

The tingling hands/feet does go away. The diarrhea does go away. Even the weight loss will stabilize. However, I have been in a severe depression for at least a year. I have incredible fatigue (I sleep 15 hours a day), I am very moody, and I have aggressive irritability. I am incredibly ditzy, and numbers confound me (can't add 2+2). I have chronic back and neck pain and have now developed chronic headaches. I sit and think, something is majorly wrong with me, I'm dying. I even have constantly plugged ears, ringing in the ears, excessive sweating (I never used to sweat and now no anti-persperant works) and body odor.

I have felt like a hypocondriac going back to my Dr. reporting these things to have him go hmmmm, I have no idea. Until I started to research Topamax and saw all of these things listed on the side effects, and realized exactly how high my dose was. Looks like I need to find a new Dr.

This is a followup to my post made on Sep 6 2004 (see #7024). Since then my upper back pain has finally gone away. I read about a study where it was found that taking lipitor everyother day was just as effective as taking it everyday. So figuring maybe the side-effects was from the dosage just being too high I decided last week to give it another try and to be even more conservative and just take it twice a week. I took 10 mg. on Monday and another 10 mg. on Thursday and now my upper back and neck pain is back again! That's it for me. NO MORE LIPITOR! This drug is just too dangerous!!! The doctors are really out of touch with the reality of the situation. I reported it to my doctor and he says I'm imagining things and it's all in my head and says lipitor is so safe it should be in the drinking water supply and demanded that I just keep taking it. I think it's time to find a new doctor. This drug will make you feel old very quickly.

I started taking Welchol about 45 days ago because my PPO would not approve ZETIA (Ezetimibe). From the samples of ZETIA my overall, high, and low levels improved.
Before ZETIA I was on lipitor. I stopped lipitor because of upper back and neck pain. I did not have these symptoms with ZETIA.
Unfortunately Welchol gives me the same symptoms as lipitor.
I guess I will have to demand that my PPO allow me get a prescription to ZETIA.
ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS!!!????

I took only 1 dose of Levaquin, 500mg, at 7pm. Within 3 hrs I noticed tingling in my arms and hands and increased urination. Was wide awake all night, developed rash on abdomin, very red neck and face, ringing in my ears, dry mouth, back and neck pain, clenching of jaw and unable to relax it, and a disjointed/out of body feeling. I called my Dr. the next morning and quit taking the Levaquin. Day 2 and still having insomnia, twitching of muscles at corner of mouth, itchiness on palms and soles of feet, anxiety, abdominal pain and joint pain.

I have had Kenalog shots for about two years now. I started having the shots for plantar facitis(foot pain). I realized the shot also cleared all my hayfever and sinuitis. Then I realized the 80 mg. shot was also stopping all the pain over my entire body. I have arthritis and severe back and neck pain. My orthopedic Dr. says my back is shot! I have been in so much pain that I could not stand it anymore. Most of the shots have been in my hip or buttock. The only side effects I have had is a rise in my blood pressure and increase in appetite. But I have never had any pitting or discoloration. I have had a shot every 6 to 9 weeks over the past two years. Needless to say, I know these shots aren't healthy to my bones, but I couldn't function without the shot. I'm sure everyone has different reactions and some have to be more severe than others. Believe me I have read these side effects and I have looked for the spots, pits, and discoloration. I have none to this date. Nor have I had any bleeding.

I, too, have the dizziness. I was given a higher dosage of Neurontin-I'm up to 600mg over a one year period and she's talking about taking me to the max. I have a two hour commute to be an Executive Secretary where I am supposed to be able to remember things for an entire group, be well organized, be able to multi-task and be the "energy" for my group. When I started this job 4 years ago, I could do everything and was considered a type of wonder woman. Now I do good to type a basic memo after about an hour of rewrites because my concentration is so poor, my desk looks like a tornado, I am two months behind on getting some financial reports in that should be done monthly, etc. I am a wreck at work, just getting by.

I was in physical therapy and on skelaxin a month for the back and neck pain, I did notice some relief when I was doing the exercises and getting the e-stem, but my muscles are still tender and now my lower back is hurting. I also feel like I constantly have sinus pressure in my face although I breath fine and take allergy meds during the bad seasons.

Hope my comments help someone here.

I have chronic back aches and headaches. My doctor prescribed Ultracet and I began taking it today. It hasn't TOUCHED my back and neck pain. I'm also worried about insomnia, after reading other people's posts. I don't think this medicine is working for me. Codeine is the only effective pain reliever, for me, with this kind of pain.