Hi Lynaria....Here is a bit more to the story. In late February of this year I was sitting on the couch watching the evening news on TV when out of nowhere I felt like someone had stuck a knife in my right tricep and started twisting it. It was a solid 9 on the 1-10 pain scale. I went to the VA the following morning (the pain was down to about a 5 by then) and the GP there, without examining me, said he thought it was probably a torn muscle or, maybe, a torn rotator cuff. Regardless, he said it might correct itself, but, if it didn't do so within 2 months to come back and see him again. He sent me home with 60 hydrocodone and told me to take 2 of them/day. The pain went completely away within a couple of days and I stopped taking the hydrocodone.
Almost exactly 2 months later I was, again, sitting on the couch watching the evening news when the same knife as before stabbed me under my right shoulder, and, like before felt like it was being twisted. The pain was so severe it levitated me up off of the couch and threw me down on the floor where I was literally unable to get back up for about 30 minutes. Again, went to the VA the following day...by then the pain was down to about a 6 or 7. At that point the GP said he thought I had a pinched nerve in my neck and put me on the gabapentin and methadone. Additionally, I had to sign a contract attesting that I promised to take the drugs as prescribed, and, that I would consent to a drug test at any time. The GP told me that in reality I would be drug tested once a year at the same time I have my annual physical exam. Additionally, he explained the VA policy of doing this was to assure that I was actually taking the drugs and not selling them (I assume that primarily pertains to the methadone since I don't believe gabapentin has any street value). Also, he said this was to make sure that I wasn't taking any street drugs. He said if I failed to take the drugs properly, or if the blood/urine tests showed that I was using street drugs, I would be taken off of everything and not be given any further pain medication. Over the next few days the pain moved from under my shoulder blade to my arm to my shoulder back to under my shoulder blade.
About 1 week later I suddenly lost virtually all strength in my right hand; can't make a fist; and, my right index finger doesn't move at all with zero strength. The underside of my right forearm became numb and my forearm started to atrophy noticibly.
VA did an xray of my neck. Negative. Took them another month to schedule an MRI of my neck. Negative. Still convinced that this was being caused by a pinched nerve in my neck, after yet another month I was sent to a neurosurgeon. EMG confirmed that there is no pinched nerve in my neck, so the next guess was a tumor in my left lung or in my brachial plexus. Chest xray and CT scan of my chest was negative.
After another month I was sent to a neurologist. He screened me for ALS and seemed genuinely disappointed that I passed the tests. I told him that I had been doing some reading and asked if he thought it might be Thorasic Outlet Syndrome....seemed to me that it fit the description. He scoffed at me and told me that was highly unlikely because of my age; I'm 67. He said he thought it was somehow connected to my brachial plexus and wanted to do an MRI and another EMG.
Now that even more time has passed I was notified earlier today that someone will be contacting me to schedule an MRI of my brachial plexus within the week.
In the meantime, my right hand and forearm continue to atrophy. The pain, for the most part has stopped. At first I felt it was reasonable to believe that the pain had stopped because I was taking the gabapentin and methadone 3x daily. The more I thought about it, and remembered how the initial pain in my tricep had gone away after a few days, I made the command decision to cease the drugs cold turkery.
Now, I guess I'll have another MRI, EMG and some blood work to see if "they" can figure out how to get my hand and forearm to start working once again.
I apologize for being so long winded, but that's about the full story up to this point.