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  1. #1

    Mah Neck done gave out.....

    So last night I went rock climbing, per my after-work routine, and all of the sudden my neck started hurting a bit. I don't remember falling awkwardly or anything, but it started small then just started hurting a bit more and more, and I wasn't able to turn my head left without a lot of pain. So I cut my session short and went home, and throughout the night it just got worse and worse. By bedtime I was really in excruciating pain. If I move my head close to my right shoulder it doesn't hurt very much, but if I try to straighten my head or do anything that comes close to maybe using my neck muscles on the left side it basically puts me down for the count. Trying to walk up the stairs last night I accidentally moved my head left a bit, and it hurt so bad that I couldn't even correct it, I had to fall on the floor and basically writhe in pain until I could get my head back to where it needed to be.

    Couldn't sleep at all last night, had to call into work today since I can't really...move my head. I'm not sure what to do? Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I'm taking Ibuprofen right now and it's helping a little, but my manager from work recommended a chiropractor and I'm wondering if I should be going to urgent care for stronger pain meds or something..... any advice would be helpful.....

  2. #2
    Caesar Salad
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    Charlie horse in your neck? I got one of those when I was a kid, sounds exactly like what you have.

  3. #3

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001757/

    This happened to me in my mid teens. There's almost nothing you can do but gradually try and stretch out the muscles. Massage therapy also helped out a lot, but I was lucky that one was renting out space in my mother's office, so I got multiple daily massages. I've tried to block that memory out, but I think it took 5-7 days to completely go away, and the major pain lasted for a good 3 days before it finally started to go down. It took another 2 weeks for me to get use to carrying my head up straight again -.-

    The main thing is DON'T FIGHT IT. YOU CAN'T. All you can do is stretch your muscles VERY gently.

  4. #4
    United States of Smash!
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    Not a doctor (you should go see one) but that sounds like a stiff neck which is really just a really bad muscle cramp in your shoulder/upper back area that keeps you from having full motion in your neck. I get those from sleeping funny or sometimes just a simple bad movement of my head. Heat can really help loosen up the muscle and reduce pain, take a hot shower or put a hot pack on the muscle that feels tight. For me I can feel the muscle on my back/shoulders that is tight and knotted and preventing my neck from moving and concentrate the heat there. Other than that I try to exercise that muscle even though it really hurts I stretch it out and push how far I can move my head.

    And time, it will go away with time too.

  5. #5
    alsohawks

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    Sorry you're going through this and I don't have much in the way of advice, but I'd expect to hear a lot of people telling you not to let a chiropractor touch your neck.

  6. #6
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    I've had something similar happen before, I went to the doc and then gave me some muscle relaxers. So maybe you should go see one if you are in so much pain? Either way hope you feel better soon.

  7. #7

    Cool, thanks for the advice guys.....I'll probably hold off on the chiropractor then. Those muscles relaxers do sound nice.....

    Just sucks, GF's big birthday party tomorrow and now I have this shit :-/ so is life.

  8. #8

    Same has happened to me.

    Not likely a cause of the working out/physical activity as much as it's just from having a very stiff neck, particularly from spending a good chunk of time on a computer (assuming you do?).

    I started losing quite a lot of the range of motion in my neck as I spent more and more time on the PC. Very common problem.

    It's not as bad now as I stretch it almost daily, but the muscles are still rather easy to strain/pull and my range of motion still isn't quite at its best. Definitely get in the habit of doing some static/dynamic neck stretches in free time through the day, and as Pirian said do not try to fight the pain or man through it (or it gets WAY worse).

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Denchi View Post
    Cool, thanks for the advice guys.....I'll probably hold off on the chiropractor then. Those muscles relaxers do sound nice.....

    Just sucks, GF's big birthday party tomorrow and now I have this shit :-/ so is life.
    Instead of the chiropractor go get a massage (bonus points for the happy ending) and that will really help loosen up and relax the muscles. It will be more controlled than if you try to stretch them out yourself.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Denchi View Post
    Cool, thanks for the advice guys.....I'll probably hold off on the chiropractor then. Those muscles relaxers do sound nice.....

    Just sucks, GF's big birthday party tomorrow and now I have this shit :-/ so is life.
    You should be able to get some Valium from an Urgent Care.

    Don't go to a chiropractor... maybe if nothing else works but... see a doctor first.

  11. #11

    Quote Originally Posted by Denchi View Post
    Cool, thanks for the advice guys.....I'll probably hold off on the chiropractor then. Those muscles relaxers do sound nice.....

    Just sucks, GF's big birthday party tomorrow and now I have this shit :-/ so is life.

    The only difference between what I had and what you're describing is that I was stretching before my morning jog and I did that arm-over-the-head-and-stretch-to-one-side stretch and suddenly BAM I was down for the count in writing pain. I didn't know what happened so it took a while before I figured out that the searing pain would stop if I leaned my head to the right.

    There isn't much a chiropractor can do because this is purely a muscle problem. Also, any respectable chiropractor will recognize this at once and tell you that there isn't much they can do. I'm honestly not sure how much pain killers are going to help if you have the same pain I did (and it sounds like you do). I didn't take any muscle relaxers so I can't comment on whether that would help or not.

    Also, alternate hot and cold compresses.

  12. #12
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    Try icyhot? Was a Godsend when i threw my back out. Never heard of the shit before, couldn't live w/o it after.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Denchi View Post
    Cool, thanks for the advice guys.....I'll probably hold off on the chiropractor then. Those muscles relaxers do sound nice.....

    Just sucks, GF's big birthday party tomorrow and now I have this shit :-/ so is life.
    It was nice, cept the shot in the butt lol

  14. #14
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    If you do go see a doctor, make sure you're going to a real doctor, not a chiropractor.

  15. #15
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    Go to the doctor. I had a muscle spasm about 8 months ago...I was camping on a trip to go white water rafting, I laid down to go to sleep and my neck just felt like I broke it. I ended up sitting outside the tent stretching for 6 hours instead of sleeping and loosened it up. Turns out, that was a bad idea...that pain was a virus attacking my nerve causing the muscles to contract. The virus "stunned" the nerve because I was trying so hard to push through the pain. With the nerve stunned, the muscle holding my shoulder blade in quickly lost size which caused my shoulder blade to push out backwards anytime I moved my arm above eye level. By the time I got to a doctor and got an mri, I had a torn rotator cuff along with the "stunned" nerve and a muscle that had shrunk to about 1/4 normal size. I am still doing physical therapy and still don't have full use of my arm now after surgery.

    Moral of the story...go to a doctor.

  16. #16

    Quote Originally Posted by noblemountain View Post
    Go to the doctor. I had a muscle spasm about 8 months ago...I was camping on a trip to go white water rafting, I laid down to go to sleep and my neck just felt like I broke it. I ended up sitting outside the tent stretching for 6 hours instead of sleeping and loosened it up. Turns out, that was a bad idea...that pain was a virus attacking my nerve causing the muscles to contract. The virus "stunned" the nerve because I was trying so hard to push through the pain. With the nerve stunned, the muscle holding my shoulder blade in quickly lost size which caused my shoulder blade to push out backwards anytime I moved my arm above eye level. By the time I got to a doctor and got an mri, I had a torn rotator cuff along with the "stunned" nerve and a muscle that had shrunk to about 1/4 normal size. I am still doing physical therapy and still don't have full use of my arm now after surgery.

    Moral of the story...go to a doctor.
    ...ow. And scary.


    I've had two instances of particular muscle distress. The first was freshman year, like the first week of summer football practice. Was mid-drill when it kinda felt like I pulled something in my knee, only it got progressively worse to the point where, while I could walk on my leg, bending my knee just wasn't happening. Went to my doctor's and a guy they brought in suggested Osgood Schlatter's, which is basically your muscles not keeping up growth of bones. Not terribly uncommon for a kid of that age. Our team doctor disagreed with the diagnosis, but I never actually did get an x-ray, MRI, or whatever. Probably took me about 8 weeks to recover enough to play again, and even then prolonged stress for like the next year would bring back hints of the pain.

    Fast forward a couple years later, second week of football at our school camp. I go to hit a guy in a drill and get a sting in my lower back, presumably the result of overextending myself and hitting him at a bad upward angle. I do the usual guy thing and try to suck it up. Rest of the day sucked, fortunately it was last practice, and the next I was pretty tender. Fast forward two or three weeks later a JV game. Our kick off at the beginning of the second half, I'm running down field and a blocker comes at me. I lower my shoulder to meet him and BAM, I double over feeling like I just got stabbed in the lower back, exactly where I'd hurt myself earlier. Soon after I had some golf ball sized knots down there and it took about five weeks before I could say I had my full range of motion back. After that injury, I opted to not play my senior year since a luck of 2/3 seeing muscle problems wasn't particularly inspiring me.

    Still, they sucked. ;_;

  17. #17
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    Eat a banana. Potassium supposedly will help with the muscle repair and will work the cramp out faster. I usually Icy-Hot the area and sit in a chair for a while. I had shoulder surgery that never completely fixed my shoulder and the muscles go all the way up the side of my neck. Hurts like a bitch every few weeks and then i'm ok for a few months. Thought I had slipped a disk in my neck at first but the doctor said it the muscle locked up. Not really much they can do unfortunately.

  18. #18
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    What Noble said. Don't go to a chiropractor. I've got multiple herniated disks and arthritis is starting to creep into my neck. It's all about stretching, muscle relaxers, and pain medicine. Just don't let some wanna-be doctor try to align your "chi" and make things even worse.

  19. #19

    I know a guy who fixes stuff like this for me. He calls himself a 'total therapist' who is able to spot tense connections between your body parts just by looking at how you stand. I've had your problem a few times before, and usually the cause of this problem is an imbalance in your muscles. Some muscles are tense, forcing others to work harder to keep your body in balance.

    One time when I couldn't turn my head left, the problem came from 2 things. 1) a few of my back vertebrae were stuck (but that's always the case) and 2) food was stuck in my small intestine, forcing my already-hurt neck muscles to work harder to keep the body in balance. By massaging my abdomen, the stuck food slowly started moving and I immediately felt less tension. Waking up the next morning the pain was fully gone.

    The guy knows chiropractic techniques, but he only uses those as a last resort. He mostly relies on pressure points by using pressure points therapy. This isn't acupuncture, where they rely on needles. The guy puts pressure on certain points on the body and then starts massaging those points. It hurts like HELL because the points are where there a lot of nerves.

    TL;DR Pressure points therapy.

    Here is some more info about pressure points therapy.

  20. #20

    Careful, thems fightin' words 'round these parts