Bad chronic pain

[danzooo]

For the past year and a bit I've had a major problem with some chronic pain.

It originates in the top of the left-hand side of my neck, goes down through my shoulder and shoots down my left arm, sometimes going into my left hand on particularly bad occasions.

At first I thought it was muscular but it would've gone away by now if so. I've had about 6 doctor's appointments, 2 physio appointments, a blood test, an x-ray and a MRI scan on that area over the past year or so. I'm also prescribed to diclofenac (and cocodamol aswell, but I haven't felt the need to take any yet), but nothing seems to get rid of it and nobody seems to know what's wrong with it. At present I am awaiting the results of my MRI and have another appointment with orthopaedics next week.

On top of the voltarol tablets I find I'm having to take a silly amount of paracetamol every day to keep the pain at bay. The diclofenac does help, but it doesn't keep it away all day. It's almost as if the pain is constantly there, but the painkillers are just hiding it until they wear off.

Has anyone else had anything like this before? Plus what sort of dangers can I expect from taking so many pills every day? A typical day consists of 2 doses of diclofenac (one at roughly 12pm and 12am respectively) plus about 4-5 doses of paracetamol a day, depending on how bad it is that day.

Sorry for the longish post and thanks in advance