Why Do I Have Left Shoulder Pain and Neck Pain?

It’s pretty common to get radiating pain from a herniated disc in your neck down through the shoulder.

You feel pain in the shoulder, but if it’s purely your neck, it doesn’t hurt to move your shoulder. If you can do whatever you want with that shoulder, lift, move, do anything with your right, it doesn’t exacerbate or make the pain worse down here. Then it’s very likely your neck.

Also, the other thing we see with neck pain, and then it’s pure neck and not shoulder is just when you’re driving. People who are driving are sitting at the computer for a long time because they get their neck in kind of a funny position and they’ll feel that pain. You’re not using your shoulder at that point.

Now, if it hurts to use your shoulder, you have a shoulder problem. If it doesn’t hurt to use your shoulder and you have pain going down and around through the shoulder, that is likely associated with your neck.