Shoulder blade symptoms and conditions

I'm on Welchol for the second time. I've been having a pain in my left shoulder blade and in the left side of my neck, that seems to be related. I took it for a week, had the pain, then stopped it for two days and the pain went away. I'm trying it again (2nd day) and the pain is back in my shoulder blade. I'm still having the vivid dreams I had the last time I took the drug about a year ago, which cause me to sleep so deeply, it's hard to wake up. It also causes me to grind my teeth harder (sleeping so deep) that causes more jaw pain, and pain in the neck. The first time I took this drug was last year, along with Crestor. Talk about vivid dreaming! With the two drugs together I thought I was hallucinating. The first time I also had horrible headaches and sore throat. I just can't understand why they continue to tell us there are no side effects, when clearly there are. We have all experienced them. I wish there was an easy answer.

Hi I am 31, have been put on prednisone for a pinched nerve in my shoulder blade. Iv taken two pills of 10 mil. For two days. one pill a day for two days. I'm stopping now. I feel so tired weak and unable to exercise. My chest is so heavy and heart flutters. I'm a smoker so it seems worse after a cigarette. I also have a few glasses of wine a day. I'm so frightened at these feelings. My tummy is now bigger in just that short of time. I really wish I knew all this first. Can any one tell me how long before I'm normal from the short usage. Please this really sucks and very scary. Also the smoking and alcohol how does it effect this? Please

I took a 8 day regiment of 750 mg for pneumonia. I started developing joint pain in my right thumb on day 5 and then my left shoulder on day 6 by day 9 I was unable to raise my left arm over my head. It is now in both hands. I am so stiff in morning I cant turn a door knob with out lots of pain and forget trying to open the dishwasher where you have to squeeze the lever to open the door. In the shower I use my right hand to raise my left arm ober head so the warm water can run on my shoulder blade. warm water also helps relieve the pain. I am hoping this is just a temporary setback cause I never had symptoms like this before. 57 yo male

I have had a total of 5 kenalog injections in my back for no disk left between two vertebrae, doc says fused naturally and no movement. I still have pain. I am scheduled to have yet another shot in the neck area, 5 bulging disks causing pain around the shoulder blade. I have less sciatic pain, but I have HEADACHES for the 3 months since the first shot, they don't go away. No OTC pain relief works for these headaches. The doc says the kenalog does NOT cause headaches, I know these guys lie or don't care about the FDA list of side effects. I am hesitant about getting another shot. He wanted me to have this one done under sedation, I declined, since I had the others without. He said more sensitive area and don't want you to flinch. I also get, I assume kenalog injections in both feet for morton's neuroma. Left foot shot worked. Right foot 3 shots and still hurts and numb, they can't seem to get it right. I am tired of getting the shots, and today I went to that pain management doctor and forgot to ask him how long can I expect the shots to help the pain, years? months? or weeks. I barely do anything anymore, afraid to bend, or even move. I had to go to ER first time for my back on 2/14/09 and sent to different docs and finally pain management. For those of you whose docs don't order an MRI for you, I wouldn't have the shot. I had and MRI of the back and neck and this doctor gives the shots while I lay on a fluoroscope table, I can see on the screen in front of me where the doctor is injecting. Hit and miss without an MRI is just not medically correct. Good luck to all and gonna think about whether to get another shot next Thurs.

I was first prescribed Neurontin in November of 2008 for cervical disc bulge touching my spinal cord causing severe nerve pain in my left extremities. I was prescribed narcotics and eventually prescribed Neurontin. The side effects from Neurontin, at that time, were seemingly intolerable, but as the narcotics were decreased several months later, I found the Neurontin was actually effective and did its purpose. The side effects from the Neurontin were not that great to outway the pain factor I had. I believe this drug does its job!!!!

I am 72 years old and in 1995 I had an artery blockage and had angioplasty.Upon my release from the hospital I was put on several prescriptions, beta blockers, cholesterol, Aspirin, Vitamins, etc. which I had been taking regularly for 13 years without any problems. In 2008 after having chest pain and going to the hospital my heart doctor advised me I had Atrial Defibrillation and put me on Warfarin and also told me to stop taking all the vitamins I was using along with my daily aspirin dose and one of my prescriptions. Since then I have had constant shoulder and muscle pain in my arm and leg. I have had several treatments by a chiropractor and several physical therapy treatments and the pain has not subsided. My memory has gotten worse also however I thought that was due to my age until I read some of the above side effects of Warfarin. I definitely have a lack of energy and also changed my diet due to the Warfarin. I have informed my heart doctor about the problems and he advised it is not due to the Warfarin. I don't agree with him after reading all the posts, but I am not a doctor. I will continue my prescribed dosage and Pt/Inr tests as schedule for a while, but if my pain etc doesn't get better I will probably do like the lady's posting and stop the warfarin on my own.

since starting topamax in may 08, 50mg twice daily, i have had constant pain under my right rib, feels like something is eating a hole straight through to my back where the pain wraps around. also have some trouble breathing, constipation. have had gallbladder ultrasound, hida-scan of gallbladder, endoscopy, cat scan of chest and abdomen and chest x-ray, along with a zillion blood tests all showing normal. no one can find the source of my pain, the only thing is how the time corresponds with my pain and when i started the topamax. can anyone tell me of any similar side effects they have had, is it the topamax causing this? and should i stop. i'm feeling as if i'm poisoning myself. i need help. thank you for anything you can tell me.

My doctor prescribed me Neurontin today, and I heard that you can become addicted to it. I am scared to start taking it due that fact. I also read on the internet that it produce psychoactive effects, and I do not want any affects like that because I have a small child to care for. Has anyone experienced any effects like that? I like to feel sober and not drugged up. I have only taken 100 mg so far, but I am supposed to gradually up the dose.

I had two Kenalog injections the 5th of Dec. '08, one into my right shoulder joint, the other into a tendon anterior to my right shoulder, - oh, and another one in a trigger point at my right shoulder blade. I have been in agony since 2-3 days after the injections. The night of the injections I had severe tachycardia, my heart rate was around 120-140 for three days. I was also flushed and so hot that several people asked if I was ill. The worst part of these injections started, as I said earlier, 2-3 days later. I have horrible pain in my shoulder blade and throughout my ribcage. I have muscle spasms and such burning that it actual causes me to bend to the right, and I could scream with the pain!! Nothing helps other than to put a hand towel behind my neck and pull each end so hard that it takes the pressure somehow off the muscles. I can hardly hold my head up most of the time due to muscle weakness. The Dr. says nothing other than take Advil. My internist, who did not do the injections, thinks I have what is called RSD from the needle sticks.
I don't see that this is easing at all, and I'm really concerned that I'm going to live like this the rest of my life!

I have been taking Avelox for 6 days after being diagnosed with pneumonia. I have been feeling weak, fatigue and out of breath, also having occasional stomach pains and feeling drowsiness. Then on the 5th day of the medication, I've noticed red bumps were breaking out on my fingers, starting from my right thumbs, they are painful to touch. I have one more pill left and decide not to take it anymore. I should have researched more on this before taking.

I started taking Lisinopril last March, and my monthly cycle went from a normal cycle to a debilitating three day pain fest.
The first month I had a uterine cramp like comparable to labor that lasts for three straight days. The second month I added a sharp pain in my stomach that compared to a severe food poisoning episode but the only symptom was the pain.

This continued through June, when I asked my physician to switch me to a different medication although he did not think the side effects I was describing was related to the Lisinopril. The next month the uterine cramp was less severe but I also was treating with Midol which may have been the reason.

Last month, at my six month check my blood pressure was still not where my doctor want to see it, so he put me back on Lisinopril and kept me on the Hydrochlorothiazide, now I am on two medications!

After reading this site, it occurs to me that my shoulder where I had surgery two years has also been acting up the last six months as well. I have been doing PT again after the pain increased and I asked my surgeon what to do. He made not connection to the medication I am taking as a possible source.

The only other thing is I have lost some weight, with relative easy (not usual for me). Which I had attributed to a change of eating pattern due to my new work schedule.

All things to consider now that I have read this website.

Thanks to all who share, this is the best way to understand that everyone does react differently and you have really pay attention to what is going on with your own body when you are taking any medication.

I have been on Loesterin 24 since Dec 2007 so far it has given me slight discoloration spots two under the breast, two on the shoulder blade and two on my arm, Mild to extreme moods swing, depression, nausea, headache, acne and speratic periods, ranging from a week before the period is suppose to start to two days after the period stops just to start all over again. Night mares and restless sleep patterns have been a usual.
I really do not recommend this birth control to any one but can’t stop taking it for fear of getting pregnant again.

38 Y/O male with severe back pain on the upper left side just between the shoulder blade and spine. I was taking lipitor over 2 years ago and experienced the same problem. I never figured it was the lipitor and took several trips to the dr and chiropractor. When my cholesterol dropped below 150 I stopped taking the 40mg of lipitor but never told my doctor. All pain in my back stopped. Back in June of this year he insisted I go back on the lipitor and less than 1 month later the pain returned. My entire summer was a waste. I couldn't sit for long periods of time and driving in the car was a nightmare with the throbbing back. Just this past Friday I was out shopping with a friend and ended up taking several aleve for my back, right then I had an epiphany and said that I was gonna stop taking the lipitor for 1 week and see if my back improved. That was Friday, its now Monday and the pain is only 1/2 what it was....I suspect by the coming Friday I will be pain free.

I am a 42 male, I have always been healthy and felt healthy as long I can remember, I never went to the doctor. So this year, 3 months ago to be exact, I decided to do “the right thing”, start taking a physical at least once every years, who know something might be wrong with me and I don’t know it.

Anyway, after I took the physical and some blood tests, my doctors office calls me and they told me that the sugar was a little high (124) and that I am at risk for Diabetes, so they started me on a diabetes medication. Although my Cholesterol wasn’t high, they suggested starting Lipitor (20 ML) just in case because I am at risk and I don’t want to take chances.

A month into it, I started having some back pain, but never suspected medication. I was exercising at least 4 times a week, some cardio and free weights, so I thought, I might have made the wrong move while exercising or maybe sleeping without knowing it ( although I never recall such a thing). Usually it takes a few days for the pain to go away when I did the wrong move, but this pain wouldn’t go away. A month after that (last month), a sharp pain started on my right wrist (shooting pain), that goes up my right arm until my shoulder blade and upper right back. The pain was so sharp and wouldn’t let go, all day, all night and every minute in between. Also, I experienced some numbness on some of my right fingers (especially the thumb and index). I never suspected the medication. Of course the doctors wanted me to take all sorts of tests and MRIs etc..you name it. They also wanted me to go on pain pills (strong ones), I never did, and I used Advil instead, which did not help much. This pain ruined my two week vacations to France (I didn’t not want to forgo the airplane ticket and the hotel, they were already paid for).
I started “googling” the web for “sharp back pain”, just to get some clues, which led me to side effect sites, which led me to this site. I decided to stop all medications immediately 3 days ago, the pain went away, I still have s slight numbness on my thumb, although it is much better, I will keep you posted. Thanks to all the people who shared their story with us, I know that everyone of us could be a different case, what worked for me doesn’t necessarily work for someone else, I know that many here are frustrated about these side effects and whether they are permanent or not, I wish I have the answers. One thing is sure, Lipitor could be poison for some people, I felt going down fast for the last 3 months with no way to stop it, glad I found this site.

I started taking Zocor 6 months ago, switched from Crestor because of muscle weakness. About a month and a half ago started to get fuzzy head and could not sleep thru the night. I awoke up to five times a night and could not go back to sleep. I had tingle feeling on my head above the ears. Sometimes I had to get up from whatever I was doing and walk around and it felt like an “anxiety attack” with a feeling of tightness on the back of the neck. My knees are weak and I can feel them whenever I get up from a chair or getting out of the shower. A few times, I felt sharp pain on my right shoulder blade and my head hurts a lot. Cold and hot flashes mostly at night and sometimes in the morning after the shower and during the day together with the “anxiety attack”. Once in a while I would have warm flush feeling on my face. I also have a few pimples like tiny bumps on my head. I could not carry on my normal daily life for the last month and a half. I could not concentrate on anything except constantly feeling the fuzzy head/head heavy/pressure on my head. I also had a MRI on my head and brain to make sure there are no tumors inside and it came back negative. I just found this website a few days ago and I told my doctor that I am taking myself off of the Zocor for a while. I am feeling at least 50% better already after a few days. I am hoping the rest of the side effects would go away eventually. I feel for you all who have been taking this drug for many years.

I was prescribed lipitor, took ONE pill before I went to bed and woke up in the morning with severe pain in my right shoulder. I searched for lipitor and found so many side effects I have not taken another lipitor and will not. The pain moved to my left shoulder quite soon. Now it doesn't really hurt but there is a lump above my left shoulder blade, I was pushing on it and lifting my arm up and down hoping it might losen it up but the lump grew bigger. I quite often feel numb and week on my left side, kinda scary like I'm having a stroke. This has been going on for awhile so I don't think I'm stroking out or I would be gone by now. I do have high blood pressure, I think this ONE little lipitor pill made it worse as it's higher than it used to be. Maybe from stress as this shoulder problem and numbness upsets me from time to time. I also developed arthritis in two of my fingers, I have been taking FLAMMAGEN 1500 from the health food store and it has helped my fingers considerably, thank goodness. I'm not mentioning it to my M.D. as he was so excited about putting me on this stuff, poor guy is brainwashed. It really is a sin that our M.D.s are used in this way by big money pharmaceutical companies.

I am a 34 y/o male who started taking 10mg/day of lisinopril on May 15th. My blood pressure at the time was 140/118, pretty high I guess! I was feeling it too in the form of headaches. The doc wrote the script for me and I filled it that night. I should also mention that this is not the first time I have taken Lisinopril. I stopped taking it back in March because the script ran out. I don't seem to recall any kind of side-effects the first time, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I also take Levoxyl for my hypothyroidism, and it is a pretty hefty dose, 225mcg a day.

So, for the first week, I was doing pretty good on it. No coughing, or any of the listed side effects listed for the med. Then, about a week into it, I started having numbness in the right three toes on my right foot. When I say numb, I don't mean I could not feel anything, it was like touching your skin with a t-shirt over it. I could feel it, just kind of topically numb. I had a 'patch' of this numb skin right behind those same three toes and several other areas up the front and back of my right calve. I delt with this for a few days, thinking it was my shoes I was wearing at work. They were pretty worn out on the outer edges. I got new shoes on Monday, June 2nd. I wore them to work on the next day. At the end of the day, my calves felt kind of tired. The next day, they felt kind of tired still. I found this sort of weird. From that point on, my high anxiety really kicked in. I don't want to mention the thoughts I am having about what it could be that is causing this. I forgot to mention that I have not been sleeping well lately either since I started taking the Lisinppril again. I guess overall, I feel exhausted and weak. More so in my legs. To add to it, my lower back hurts like mad. I have two herniated discs and mild arthritis in it from damage from years ago. Also, for the past week, a pain has been developing in my left shoulder blade in my back. It is worse in the morning, and had gradually been getting worse for about a week. Today, it was awful.

I have ready a lot of the messages about the side effects different people are having. My question is, has anyone ever been on the lisinopril, gone off of it for whatever reason, having had no bad side effects, then gone back on it only to start having these bad side effects that you did not have before?

I have stopped taking the lisinopril on the 5th and have a doctor's appointment on the 9th to find out what is going on. I don't feel good at all. Can anyone relate?

I had a Kenalog injection in two trigger points (one on the right side of my spine in the shoulder blade area and one on the right side of my spine in the lower neck) on March 27, 2008. Prior to the shot, I was suffering from numbness in my right arm and leg, shooting pains and loss of motor skills in my right arm, severe muscle spasms in my back and neck, tightening in my chest and back, severe migraines, night sweats and hot flashes, vertigo/dizziness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and chest pains to name a few. Since the injection, I have noticed an increase of heart palpitations, dizziness, severe migraines, blurry vision, excessive weight gain, severe hot flashes, tiredness, and have had trouble sleeping. In the last two weeks, I have noticed a quarter sized indentation where I received the shot in my shoulder blade area and a baseball sized indentation where I received the shot in my lower neck area. I was not made aware of ANY side effects to this shot and will DEFINITELY not get another one. It is only a month later and I have not felt any improvement in my symptoms that I had before or after the shot. I received the shot, as my doctor felt it would help with what they think is a spazzed muscle in my back shoulder blade area near the spine. The doctor who gave me the shot stated if it didn't help, they would try giving me a cervical epidural, which has its own set of scary risks! I am beginning to think I will have to live with my symptoms for the rest of my life!

Hello: Posting about simvastatin. I have been off of the medication for about six weeks. Initially the symptoms led me to hop on an ambulance gurney and visit my local ER due to dizziness, lots of palpitations, and the feeling that I was going to drop on the sidewalk. I followed the ER with two days on the heart unit, and have pretty much have had just about every test but a brain scan (or at least it has seemed that way).

My symptoms progressed to intense burning in my torso, pronounced in the shoulder blade areas, upper chest, and into my forearms. A week after stopping the statin much of the intense burning was gone.

I still have pain and discomfort, but I have not been "white knuckling" to get through the nights like I had been, which is a relief. I read somewhere that someone described the muscle pain as feeling like he had been repeatedly punched with a bag of oranges. I can relate to that feeling, and recently I have felt the symptoms in my thighs as well.

Pain management takes up my days (although I have continued to work). I have begun massage therapy, and I am going to attempt acupuncture next week. I am trying to sort out what supplements may be the best and which ones won't interact with each other or other medications that I take. I am taking CoQ10, Omega 3 capsules, a multivitamin, and a B complex.

Anyone with similar symptoms or comments, please jump in. We are in similar boats, as they say. I have gotten the impression that some people out there (not on this site) don't see this as real. For those people, unless someone is bleeding profusely from an artery, they remain non-supportive or non-believers....

I am 28 and just suffered a pulmonary embolism (P.E.), very unusual for someone my age. I went into the hospital three times before they found it. I had severe pain in my upper left back, shoulder blade and neck when I first went in and the doc told me I was just having muscle spasms...I played Division I basketball for 4 years and am now a coach...I told him it wasn't a muscle spasm, but he sent me home with Ibuprofin....The second time I went in, I had worse pain two days later and told him it wasn't going away that something was really wrong. They did lung ex-rays, MRI and didn't find anything. They did no ultrasound or CT...hmmm. The third time I went in, I had terrible pain in my right side as though someone was stabbing me in the side. Couldn't catch my breath and was in absolute agony.
Finally they did a CT and ultrasound and found it at 6:30am on a Monday evening. I am very lucky that the third time I was admitted into the ER after a week, that they did a CT that found the P.E. I very easily could have died.

I was on Yasmin birth control for a year, unusual for a clot to occur after taking birth control for that amount of time, so they are not sure if that caused it and are still uncertain of the cause for my P.E. Maybe a blood disorder that I have not yet been tested for.

At the beginning of my warfarin treatment, I didn't experience headaches. Now though, after about 3-4 weeks...I am experiencing headaches in the middle of my forehead that are driving me crazy. I'm wondering if it is stress from all that I have gone through...an extremely painful experience...or a side effect of the drug.

Also, pain in my legs have been a problem. They feel heavy, like carrying around lead and I don't feel like I have much energy. I don't have much of an appetite anymore either. I have always been extremely active, stay at a healthy weight and have wanted to eat meals! Not so much anymore.

I'm not a smoker, and eat healthy foods...This is all very uncharacteristic for me and I'm extremely frustrated. I understand that it will take a while for me to recover from all of this, and inpatience with the matter could be a problem causing stress.

If you have any feedback, please let me know.

Hello: Posting about simvastatin. I have been off of the medication for about six weeks. Initially the symptoms led me to hop on an ambulance gurney and visit my local ER due to dizziness, lots of palpitations, and the feeling that I was going to drop on the sidewalk. I followed the ER with two days on the heart unit, and have pretty much have had just about every test but a brain scan (or at least it has seemed that way). My symptoms progressed to intense burning in my torso, pronounced in the shoulder blade areas, upper chest, and into my forearms. A week after stopping the statin much of the intense burning was gone. I still have pain and discomfort, but I have not been "white knuckling" to get through the nights like I had been, which is a relief. I read somewhere that someone described the muscle pain as feeling like he had been repeatedly punched with a bag of oranges. I can relate to that feeling, and recently I have felt the symptoms in my thighs as well.

Pain management takes up my days (although I have continued to work). I have begun massage therapy, and I am going to attempt acupuncture next week. I am trying to sort out what supplements may be the best and which ones won't interact with each other or other medications that I take. I am taking CoQ10, Omega 3 capsules, a multivitamin, and a B complex.

Anyone with similar symptoms or comments, please jump in. We are in similar boats, as they say. I have gotten the impression that some people out there (not on this site) don't see this as real. For those people, unless someone is bleeding profusely from an artery, they remain non-supportive or non-believers....

My 31 year old son has been on Lisinopril for a year. He now has frozen shoulder. Has anyone else had this happen, can it be a side effect of the Lisinopril?

I too have a huge indentation in my back for about six months, and I've been worried that it was cancer or something. I have no insurance so never went to the doctor, but did call a nurse at the time, who said she had never heard of it and it didn't sound like anything to worry about. If she had actually seen it, she might have thought differently. I had an injection in the same spot last August, and never even correlated the two. After my son gasped in horror today when he saw it and insisted that I go to the doctor, I decided to Google "indentation by shoulder blade" and ran across this website. I immediately called a nurse and asked what injection I had received, and it was Kenalog and two other drugs. I asked if she had heard of this before and she said no, but that she would have the P.A. who administered it call me tomorrow. I'm so mad about this. I will not be able to wear the same clothes or dresses that I normally wear in the summer, because it is hideous and disgusting and huge. If anyone has spoken to a lawyer or if there is a lawsuit pending, please count me in! There must be something we can do, because this has obviously affected many people.

I was on the way to work about 5 months ago and i was rear ended at a stop light. I was a little sore but since I work at a doctors office I signed in as soon as i got to work just to get an x ray of my chest from the seat belt. Thank Jesus I was fine but a a month later I was still having pain in my left shoulder blade. One day at work a provider there saw me rolling my shoulder around as if I was in pain, he offered me an injection repeatedly stating that it would sting for a few seconds and then I'd feel like a new woman. I put aside my EXTREME fear of needles to get the injection because I knew I still had several hours to work. After the injection my back never stopped hurting that night i just tossed and turned. People at work make fun of me because my chair sits almost completely forward but i try to tell them it is my back. well it is now 3 months later and 2 days ago i saw a different provider at my work for depression and anxiety problems. during the end of the visit i made a comment about my back after looking at it one time she had 3 other doctors in there with us all gasping at what they saw. My office manager promised to take care of all of my copays and deductible for plastic surgery and physical therapy to repair the crater in my shoulder blade. But is that enough? I mean to my knowledge they can make it LOOK better but I will always have pain and i can never regain that muscle back...its scary. I mean I'm only 21 years old! Any to all of you I have my "consultation" with my plastic surgeon on the 31st so i will keep you updated and let the ones of you that are curious if it is worth it or not. Thanks for listened.....

Hey guys....I'm 27 and have been on this for about 2 years and everything was ok, until a month ago. First... abdomen uncomfortableness, not really pain. Then, I was driving and it seemed like I just couldn't hold my neck up and it was so tired. I just wanted to lay my head down. Weird random muscle pains in my legs like the calfs and thighs. Then one night a pain in my left shoulder blade.....more muscle pain. Oh...and really crazy sweaty feet and sweaty joints like in the back of the legs and in the arms. This went on for about a month. I am posting this because I want to get the word out that it doesn't matter what age and totally normal healthy people can get this. The side effects were not Terrible but weird and not fun. You don't have to have the whole gam-met of anxiety attacks and insomnia. I have been off for 2 weeks and it got a little better...we'll see. Time to take fish oil instead. I will post later. Cya