Has anyone experienced the pain quite superficially or has your pain ever changed to feel very superficial? My pain has changed and is deep in the back of my throat/neck. It feels like a burning ice pick being shoved deeply into my throat/neck. Eating and speaking are extremely painful! My pain takes on a different face with each bout I have after a period of remission.
Not sure in what sense you are using the term "superficial". This pain doesn't sound superficial in its impact on you.
Pain in the upper neck and throat below the jaw would mostly be characterized as glosso-pharyngeal neuralgia. Pain in the back of the neck (behind the mid-line of the skull just behind the ear) might be lesser occipital neuralgia. Basically, you might be dealing with nerve compression or lesion processes very similar to those which create trigeminal neuralgia, but involving other cranial and upper-cervical nerves. Also an issue to be examined would be the possibility of a nerve pinch due to scoliosis of the cervical spine, or (low likelihood) referred pain from TMJ Disorder. If you haven't had a high resolution skull and upper cervical MRI series, you should get one done soon, to shed some light on structural issues and eliminate various tumors or cysts or calcium deposits as possible causes.
Regards and best
Red
Thank you for the insight and suggestions, Red. I have indeed been diagnosed with Glosso-pharengial Neuralgia. The pain I am experiencing at the present is very strange in comparison to past events. This episode is almost in such a place deep in my throat that I feel like I could touch the tissue surface (if it could be reached) in precisely the place the pain has “landed” this bout. I continue to experience the “electric” pain taking me to my knees. I have had MRI’s etc, scoliosis examinations and the like. None of those seem to be the culprit. I do however experience Fibromyalgia and experience many of the same symptoms one with MS experiences. A spinal tap in the last several months were non-conclusive.
Stacy, confirmation of a diagnosis of MS very frequently requires repetition of tests and careful monitoring of changed baseline results over time. It's not an easy disorder to confirm conclusively. Where are your fibromyalgia symptoms distributed, and how are they distinguished from the glosso-pharyngeal pain you report?
Good evening,
Red