Sore muscles and stabbing pains

My arm started hurting, but it is like a stabbing pain that radiates from my elbow to my shoulder. I don’t know what is wrong and I don’t want to go to a Dr. if it is just a sore muscle. I don’t know if it is my muscle and I can only lift my arm less then shoulder height, if raise it higher and flex it hurts. When I relax my whole arm is sore down into my forearm. Please, tell me what you think.

From your description it seems to me that is a neuropathic pain. Radiation and stabbing characters are more likely to be neural in origin. But since the pain in the muscle occur while flexing or abducting your arms, the pain could very well be muscular. In that case drugs like NSAIDs or muscle relaxants should help. Hot packs work for some and cold packs for others.