Please Keep Me In Your Prayers For Stabbing Shoulder Blade Pain

Philippians 3:20-21, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

My Recent Cervical MRI From July 21, 2023

Please keep me in your prayers. About 10 days ago I started having horrible stabbing pain in my left shoulder blade (at the bottom toward the center of my back), and also in the right flank area (by the kidney). On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst, both areas are about a 6-7 during the day, but a 9-10 at night. For the past several days I haven't been able to stay in bed to sleep, because the stabbing pain is constant and is torture. Last night I got up at 2 am to go sleep in my office chair, but it didn't help so I just started trying to search the internet for answers.

On Tuesday I tried all day to make an appointment with a primary doctor, since I don't have one. The earliest appointment I could find is at Baptist Medical Group on September 19th (two month from now). So I had no choice than to go to the emergency room at Baptist Hospital Tuesday night in horrible pain. They used red dye and did a CT scan, but couldn't find anything wrong. The doctor said she thinks the two pain areas are not connected. She thinks my shoulder blade pain is muscular in nature. They did blood and urine tests and said everything looks good except for my high sugar, which is in the 200-300 range from Type II diabetes. So they gave me 4 mg of morphine, 1 mg of diluadid, and then discharged me to go home at 4 am, not having any definitive answers why I'm in pain.

So on Wednesday, still suffering in agonizing stabbing pain, I found a chiropractor who could see me yesterday. They took x-rays of my pelvic and upper body areas. No major issues were found. My kidney is okay and I don't have kidney stones. The chiropractor wouldn't adjust my neck without permission from the pain clinic that handles my old neck injury. The chiropractor put a TENS unit on both pain areas, and did 3 adjustments.

Although the TENS unit felt good during use, an hour after leaving the clinic I was still in excruciating pain. I actually went last night with the First Baptist Church of Pensacola to watch the Wahoo's baseball team play against the Pandas at Maritime Community Park. The Pensacola Wahoos won! Yea! I had a nice time at the game, with food, drinks and fireworks after, despite my horrible pain (and yes, I did go to church Sunday with the same horrible pain). Last night I was hurting so bad that I ordered a TENS unit for $143 from Amazon, which is supposed to arrive on July 25th.

I went to my regular pain clinic on Tuesday. They moved up my normal monthly appointment to fit me in. They gave me a prescription for 500 mg Nubametone 2x daily and Lidocaine patches (which had to be special ordered and should come in tonight at CVS). But they gave me some sample patches at the clinic and so far nothing is helping to alleviate the stabbing shoulder blade pain. So far neither the hospital, pain clinic or chiropractor have been able to diagnose why I am in horrible pain in both my right flank area and my left shoulder blade area. The pain started about 10 days ago and hasn't become better or worse, it's the same. At night it is torture, especially in the shoulder blade area, which feels like a knitting needle stabbed in my back.

I found this article while searching for answers online, which says that the C5-C6 area of the neck can cause stabbing pain in the shoulder blade. I had surgery at C5-C6-C7 in 2009 and 2010. I have sharp radiating pain down both arms and legs, but the pain has always been intermittent. This pain is constant. Sometimes I can feel the shoulder blade pain extend down the back of my left arm, but stops at the elbow. The radiating pain from my neck always shoots down into my two middle fingers on the left arm, and thumb with forefinger on my right arm. Usually the radiating pain happens 80% on my right side from the stenosis and radiculitis. So the pain clinic has me scheduled next month for a new MRI. So I guess I have to just wait and suffer in pain for now. I don't know where else to turn.

The very first thing I did, and have been doing since, is to pray for the Lord's help. I am often reminded of the Old Testament story of King Asa, who had problems with his feet, but he didn't pray. The Bible says that Asa sought relief from the local doctors instead of God, and the next verse says that Asa slept with his fathers (i.e., he died). So I always go to God first.

It is now 3 am Sunday morning and my shoulder pain is so excruciating that I cannot sleep. It feels like a knitting needle shoved in my back, stabbing constant pain. The pain was bad last night radiating down the back of my left arm to the elbow, but now is mostly hurting under my left shoulder blade.

I have already used the Patient Portal to contact my pain clinic, requesting if I can bring in my MRI test scan images on Monday for them to diagnose, to see what might be wrong. So far everything seems to be pointing to a problem in my neck. I took a look a quick at the MRI images on my computer, and it seems something may be going on at C5-C6, but I am not an expert on reading MRI images, so I am not sure what to look for. I saved a picture of my MRI for you to see for yourself, even before my doctor has seen it. What do you think? It sure looks like something is pressing against my spinal cord at C5-C6. Ouch! The human spinal cord is as frail as tissue paper, so it doesn't take much to cause pain and problems. The area that you see in the MRI is C5-C6, exactly where I've already had two major surgeries in 2009 and 2010.

Also, if you look to the left of the suspect area at C5-C6-C7, you can see my two bone grafts and missing disks. Please keep me in your prayers. I dread getting another surgery, but I do need to get rid of this intolerable shoulder blade pain. Thank you. Jesus is precious!!!

Anyway, I am hurting in much intolerable pain. Kindly said, please don't message to ask me a bunch of questions about my health. I simply cannot reply to dozens of people all asking who, what, where, when, how and why. Literally, I have some Facebook friends who message me every 3 or 4 days to ask me how I am doing, which is not necessary. But THANK YOU for caring!!! You are all so sweet to care about how I am doing. Everybody likes to be cared about, me too, but I simply cannot reply to everybody. I have several facebook friends, as well as ministry web visitors, who like to send me things to watch and read, asking for my opinion. I just cannot watch hour long sermons to analyze them for people. Sometimes I can.

All I am saying is please be patient and understanding if I fall behind in replying to messages, because I don't ignore anyone on purpose. I am in pain all the time in my neck from stenosis and radiculitis at C5-C6-C7. The pain radiates. Lord willing, hopefully the doctors will learn something from my MRI. I dread getting MRI's, because I am claustrophobic big time. Even with the open bore, I have panic attacks.

Years ago in 2006 I hit the panic button and was crying when they pulled me out of the MRI machine. I told the MRI technician that my legal bills from my wife filing for divorce were already over $10,000 and she was boasting of going to fiesta parties during the divorce, while I was suffering in excruciating pain in my neck and ready to go for surgery. Great wife, huh? 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗯 𝟭𝟮:𝟰, "𝗔 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝘂𝘀𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗱: 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀." I have forgiven her long ago, because she must answer to God for abandoning me when I needed her the most. I have suffered alone now for 17 years, laboring in my ministry with no earthly companion. The famous preacher, Charles Weigle (1871-1966), often told the sad story about his disloyal wife who abandoned him too. Charles went into a deep depression, as I have also been depressed oftentimes since 2006, being alone and in pain with no one to share my life with. Life is not fair, but our great God is faithful and good. It is not God's fault what we sinners do.

Tomorrow on Tuesday morning I have an appointment to meet with a doctor at the pain clinic, who will hopefully read my MRI test image results. I hope they can determine why I have stabbing pain under my left shoulder blade. The sharp pain in my right flank is still there, but has subsided much compared to earlier this week. A CT scan and x-rays showed that my kidney is okay and there are not kidney stones. Someone suggested that I might have gallstones, but that is impossible, because I had my infected gallbladder removed in 2015. I had my infected appendix removed in 1999. I'm leaving this world piece by piece...lol. I had the neck (cervical) disks between C5-C6-C7 bones removed in 2009.

Anyway, God is so good, always! I'd appreciate if you'd just remember me when you talk to God. I'm trying by God's grace to make the best of my troubled life. God is so good and everything that God does is right. I have no complaints. Every day above ground is a good day. Jesus is precious!!!