hi ian,

You are right - it is life changing. I am also glad you have taken the encouragement the way i intended it to be...i am not making light of the situation but it isn't life threatening, just life changing as you say.

It is hard to say what is going on from here. You may have a "pinched nerve" in the neck which needs to be shaved back. It might be chemical in nature (and not seen on any scans BTW). It might be permanent. No one is sure yet.

But to give you hope...

...I had a girl who had terrible pain for at least6-9 months with no end in sight. She was a railway conductor and had to have her hand above her head to work the controls. Anyway, something happened to her and she couldn't lift her arm above 45 degrees to the vertical...that is, she could only move her hand about a foot and a half away from the side of her body. With some treatment, we were able to get her back to full movement of the arm in about 12 sessions (3 months). Lots of nerve "flossing" and things like that.

Some authors you may want to keep an eye out for are David Butler, Lorimer Mosely and Michael Shacklock. All 3 are pain specialists/researchers in physio type stuff. They have books etc you can buy but they tend to be textbooks...

THere is a book by butler and mosely called "Explain Pain" which is pretty cool. Worth buying. Explain Pain: Amazon.co.uk: David S. Butler, G. Lorimer Moseley: Books

Michael's "Clinical Neurodynamics" is another one you can buy.

The NOI Group are pretty good to be associated with... NOI | Neuro Orthopaedic Institute and https://www.facebook.com/noigroup?ref=ts

All the resources above have a positive approach.

What are some of the things that you want to be able to do that you cannot currently do? And why can't you do them?

Thanks Ian