QuestionI have been having this dull, achy pain in both of my arms on and off for about a year now. The pain is sometimes in one arm only or in both arms and I can feel the pain in only my upper arm or sometimes it goes all the way down my arm(s) and into my shoulders and neck. For the most part, however, I mostly feel the pain in my upper arms. I am fairly healthy and constantly on the go with both my kids (6 months and 4 years) and I am a full time nursing student. I have been told that it could be stress related, but not quite sure what to think at this point and time. Any ideas?
Thank you for your time,
Courtni
Answeranything can be "stress related" however, you want to exclude physical, metabolic and neurologic causes before we write it off as "stress."
A dull ache in 1 or both arms makes me think of some cervical neuropathy, maybe from a disc in the neck pressing on one of the nerves. I would doubt if this is the primary presentation of some bad neurologic disease like multiple sclerosis or ALS (If that is what you were a little worried about)
Now, how to proceed... a 2 week course of NSAID's like high dose motrin... if no help, maybe a trial of 10 days of prednisone. I try to be more practical before spending a lot of money on tests.
If no results... then either nerve conduction studies of the upper extremities or an MRI of the neck. I favor the first one, as that will give more information, especially if the problem is not in the neck nerve outlet area...... hope this helps
