Ear,neck, arm pain

[Maeve]

I was recently diagnosed with a large schwannoma in my neck the size of a golf ball. I am told it is not an acoustic neuroma but I can't find much information on tumors in the neck. While my hearing is not affected I have constant ear and jaw pain as well as arm and wrist numbness and pain. I am confused because while the neurosurgeon says it is not in the ear, my ear is constantly bothering me. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks,
Mary

[Palace]

Hello Maeve,


I'm sorry to hear of your situation.

What is the process (journey) that got you to this diagnosis?  (process of doctors and whom did you see?) 

Could you give more details and what does the ENT doctor tell you, exactly?

You may be experiencing TMJ problems as well.  What does the dentist say?

How long have you been experiencing each of these symptoms?

My best of luck to you from the Acoustic Neuroma people.





Palace

[tony]

OK, hard to comment without a bit more detail
Basically any neck tumour can compress either or both
the blood supply or nerve /reception transmissions
to various parts of the body
So general pain is rare (but not headaches)
 - but lack of feeling or strength in certain limbs
is actually quite common
It is worth getting a med/pro to check you out
(they do a sort of full body strength/feeling test)
- you may find you already have un-noticed changes
Finally in regard to any pain you may have
- one, it is quite hard to determin the where and the why
when nerves are compressed in this way
- two, it maybe poor blood supply which is causing pain
Last thought - have they actually conducted a head MRI scan on you ?
I think its worth to check here just in case
Hope this helps
Best Regards
Tony

[pearchica]

Maeve! So Sorry to hear of your tumor- pubmed.org is a good website to research stuff. I would research and get as many opinions as you can... I'm sorry about the lack of information on your situation.  And I'm really sorry about the ear pain.  Take care of yourself- Annie

[Windsong]

Hi Maeve,

Your thread, here, now has me remembering about my artery in my neck on one side. (also on same side as my AN which is in my head)... and I had forgotten about this bit  what with other things going on in me . The artery has less flow/ movement than the other one and maybe this would tie in with what Tony said about blood supply in his post here.  Interesting that i get the pains in the same place as you do but mine are not constant fortunately. Hard to know if my own pain is from the blood vessel or from a nerve.

All the best,
Windsong

[Maeve]

I had been having jaw and ear pain for at least 10 years, but since I have TMJ figured that is what it was. I also have a slipped disc in my neck that sometimes causes my fingers to feel asleep so I figured that was what was wrong with my arm.  The dentist thought the tooth pain could be a bad filling, but replacing the filling didn't help.  So, last summer it seemed that everything thing was hurting more, I noticed a fullness in my neck and my arm was offended by everything from gardening to working on the computer. So I went to my PC Dr and stated that since I was turning 61 I needed a 60,000 mile check up and needed all these things re-evaluated starting with my neck and arm. Since my arm has all the symptoms of carpal tunnel I was referred to a neurologist. An MRI showed a large tumor in my neck. The doctor figures it has been there at least 10yrs. It is now thought that the tumor is the cause of a lot of the ear, arm, and neck pain. I have had an MRI of the neck, a neck x-ray, and a mylogram all since last October.

If it is in my neck should I see an ENT? I am really not sure what or who I need to see besides a neurosurgeon. The more I read the more I realize how involved this is going to be. If it is in my neck but my ear and arm are affected will I loose some use of my arm after surgery? If it is not in my ear but affecting it will it affect my hearing after surgery?  It is my understanding that it is a schwannoma neurileomma on the 8th cranial nerve but it is not in my ear. I hope this makes sense.

Mary