Neck pain, constipation, weirdness

[trenton2600]

I am an intelligent person, educated, however not on medical issues. I lost my health insurance, and I can't even get anybody to run routine tests on me. They diagnose me without so much as a blood test. I am going to wind up in the gutter at this rate, my life is being affected drastically.

Very quickly, here is my problem:

I get a horrible pain on the left side of my neck. This happens when I am constipated and/or I ate more than a bird. I get instant relief from my pain upon using a fleet enema, without fail. I seem to get constipated if I sit up straight, or curl up at night. Well last night my heat went haywire, and it was a bit chilly. I kinda curled up a bit, woke up with the pain in my neck, barely hurting. Went and ate, after a while it got worse. Finally it became unbearable. It radiates from the base of the left side  of my neck up through the left side of my head, sometimes even to my nose. I was constipated. Used a Fleet enema,  went through an miserable bowl movement. Pain was 90% gone instantly, and 100% in a few minutes after the bowl movement. I feel like I just engaged in strenuous activity, kinda tired. This has been an ongoing thing for almost 1 year.

Sometimes if I don't have a bowl movement for a few days, the pain wont go away until I use an enema every day for a few days, like it all doesn't come out at once and I'm real bloated. But I have learned not to miss a day or eat too much, and this keeps the pain away without fail.

The laugh at me in the ER, so I quit going. My doctor said I was crazy, but "come  back after you get insurance maybe we can figure it out". Pain pills, Valium, xanax, even tried marijuana, none of it will make the pain go away except going to the bathroom. "normal" for me was going once a day.

I have friends who are PsychDrs and they say that there's nothing wrong with me mentally. My doctor talked me into seeing a psychdr, and she said whatever was wrong with me, it wasn't mental. Until this incident, (and my loss of insurance!) I had no history of being called hypochondriac.

I am scared, and in pain. I just want a general idea of what might be wrong with me. I know what a migraine is, believe you me, I get them once in a while, and they sure don't go away when I goto the bathroom. I treat them with Midrin just fine. I do not have the normal (for me) symptoms of  a migraine with the neck pain.

[Branfan]

I read you and the comments, and believe me, seemed like your were writng about me. Years with that problem, my doctor kept telling me it was because of my neck arthritis, but I knew it wasn't.  I thought I couldn't know more about the topic than her. Laxatives helped after half a day, I concluded (on my own) it was probably allergies to preservatives, processed food, spicy food, but nothing stopped it, till one day I found the cure. Low fiber. It's been a year treating myself with wheat and rice bran, to cover both types of fiber. I only get the neck pain when I get careless about my fiber. It's been a year I've kept the pain away, with just 10% of the pain once in a while. I hope my case can help some or all of of you. Good luck my friends.

[dhpraise]

First off I am not a Doctor or nurse but I have the same problem but it is like bad muscle spasms in my neck and then it hurts all day. I have asked my Doctor and got the same reaction as you. I am beginning to think it is from eating to fast and to much. I have had gall bladder surgery and probably need to slow down when I eat. I have noticed it helps with my indigestion. I also don't eat enough fiber and fruit. To much bread can cause constipation also. It sounds like you may have become dependent on laxatives.  

[ClaireNicole]

I have chiari malformation and this sounds so similar to me! Please get an MRI done!! Look up chiari malformation 1.

[Dvega]

I have had the same thing for over a decade now.  I have only recently tied it into the fact that constipation comes along with the severe neck pain, generally on the left but often on both side of my neck.  
I used to get headaches too with the neck pain, but after years the condition has changed and I only get neck pain - no headaches.
It generally lasts 3 days - but that also has changed in last couple years, so it  may last 1-3 days now..  I get nauseous on movement an vomit green bile.
Saw a Gastroenterologist, the only thing  they could find was a bit of agitation in my stomach and a hepatic shunt on my liver, nothing really to say why this was happening.  My trigger is sugar, after too much sugar intake over a 3-6 week period I will get sick.
The last 2 times I have felt the neck pain begin in the morning when I wake, I immediately take a Dulcolax, and once i have a bowel movement, it seems to subside .
Just as the  original poster mentions, the neck pain starts upon waking, then gets worse with 1-2 hours of being awake.
Also, when I went through a particularly bad year with the illness, I could not eat for 1-3 days at a time, as my left abdomen would hurt, or my stomach would burn, thankfully after enough fasting on and off, and giving up coffee, my  body finally returned to normal, very gradually, over an 8 month period.
I could eat again normally, but still have all the other symptoms and pains as mentioned above.

[Tiroshimo]

I have the same problem.  I have cervical arthritis and it gets really bad if I do not use the bathroom.  It's worse on the left side  of my neck  and also  causes severe headaches.  

[philnoir]

Doctors are not trained in central pain syndromes. Some do not even believe in their existence and because of it, there is much untreated pain in our medical system, leading to an increase in chronic pain syndromes. In fact, chronic pain is perhaps the largest silent epidemic in America today. Pain research is way behind research in heart disease and cancer, yet more dollars are spent treating pain in America than in treating heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, combined. There are an estimated 50 to 100 million people living in pain today, right here in a country that used to have the best medical system in the world.

So, please get your insurance and go see a board certified pain specialist. This is an advance trained anesthesiologist, usually with credentials MD, DABPM. These doctors are trained in pain, central pain and diseases of the spinal cord and are perhaps your best bet for an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan.

Best wishes.

[VickiLeigh]

Funny, I have the exact same experience as you have mentioned in your 2008 post about pain and it leaving after you went to the bathroom. I wonder if you figured out why this was happening.?

[trenton2600]

PS, I'm 39 yo male 5 10 175lbs (gained weight when this all started)