What's wrong with my neck?

[fortitudine]

After mainly lurking on this forum, mostly because I had no pain or symptoms from c3/4/5 cord compression, I seem to be suddenly in need of answers.

I had a total knee replacemnt 8 weeks ago, and was on morphine for pain management. Of course I was in bed for the better part of 3 weeks, lying with my head propped on pillows or leaning against the headboard. No pain in my neck. Duh. The morphine, which I'm now off, hid the onset of what has turned out to be a nasty surprise - neck/shoulder area that starts burning/aching in the late afternoon. I probably did it to myself with my position in bed.

Anybody know if that signifies anything in particular, like the facet joints are toast, or might it just be achy muscles from bad positioning? I'll know more next week after a new MRI, but not sure it will indicate anything different than all the others.

One more complicating factor - I went off the morphine way too fast 2 weeks ago and went into nightmare withdrawal. It sometimes feels as if I am still in withdrawal as far as body aches and pains and other symptoms go, so I'm wondering if the neck thing is just part of that?

[Maria]

I spent a few weeks with down time after my left foot surgery (3 hammertoes corrected) and it really did a number on my low back and my neck. Both were out due to positioning (awkwardness) and I ended up with severe migraines related to my neck pain (I guess or vice versa) so I was loaded up on Fioricet for a while besides the Methadone which at the time did nothing for the torked back pain I was feeling... Ok, it did it's regular thing but not anything for muscle spasms..

Intially w/PM I took MS Contin 15mg bid and I went off this med I got a wicked headache!! One thing the Morphine had done to me that I didn't realize was that my knees and shoulders would ache and burn so badly the last 2 months I was taking it but I thought I had
arthritis symptoms acting up terribly (have osteoarthritis in knees and had 2 right knee surgeries). When I quit the Morphine I stopped having the symptoms!

Feeling crappy might still be part of withdrawl (?) but also might be part of your body being torked into positions that it's in need of untorking over time or at least that's what happened with my low back and neck. I do have to say that I've not had a recent MRI on my cervical spine and it is bothering me more than I care to feel.. especially when I lie sort of propped up to watch TV (or just watching TV bothers me it seems).

Hopefully someone here with some real answers can address your issues such as Mark and Paindoc~ I'm just going on my recent recovery but then again, I wasn't withdrawing from anything as I've been on the same meds for 6 years now. Low back is doing much much much better since I can walk again (distances)!

Hope you're doing well with your knee and that your cervical spine will feel some relief soon no matter what you choose to do~