Chronic Neck Pain

[Ikemire22]

My wife has been suffering from very extreme chronic neck pain for right about six months now. Her neck from the base of her skull to her shoulders is very sensitive to touch and it's beginning to get bad enough that it is causing nausea and vomiting. I have known her for several years and I can say that she is very tolerant of pain, so I am sure that it has to be extreme due to her reactions. She fell off of a horse about six months ago and fractured her wrist and at the time felt no unusual neck or back pain at that time. However, approximately on month after the accident she started to have neck pain on a regular basis. She started going to a chiropracter and later had an MRI and video flouroscopy (sp?) done. The MRI showed nothing unusual or apparent causes of the pain and the video flouroscopy showed that she was getting some slippage from side to side of her C3 and front to back of her C4. The doctor that read this expressed some concern, but the specialist and ER doctor that we've seen recently tell us that this movement is normal. The pain will start out mild and progress to severe, which I can actually see due to her starting to limit her neck movement as the pain progresses. It will move up into her head where she describes it as pushing on the back of her eyes. Then in the worst case scenario so far, it will cause her to get dizzy and nauseous, sometimes to the point of vomiting. She has felt tingling in her hands and feet, although this does not happen everytime. The ER doctor we saw prescribed a muscle relaxer and Ibuprofin which will "take the edge off" but does not help much. She is a Radiology Tech and she's had to miss several days of work due to the pain and does not want to be on the meds due to working in a Level 1 trauma environment. We have consulted four different doctors so far and all of them look and the MRI say that they can't see anything that would be causing her pain from the film and send us on our way. We are trying to be positive and not get discouraged but it is getting harder with each visit. I do not know if this will be enough information to make an educated guess on any possible problems that might be overlooked but it is upsetting me to watch her have to live in this much pain and I just thought that I would try this avenue before we go back to another doctor. We are in the process of getting a referral to a neurologist which will be pretty much our last hope. If there are any questons I will be glad to answer them or let her answer them if it would be more helpfull.

[Evie1963]

I don't have much to offer except that I believe it did have something to do with falling off the horse. The fact she gets tingling in her hands and feet suggests that something is going on with her spine. Did you have a CT scan with the fluoroscopy?
CT scan -"invaluable in diagnosing and treating spinal problems and injuries to the hands, feet and other skeletal structures because it can clearly show even very small bones as well as surrounding tissues such as muscle and blood vessels."
(www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=bodyct&bhcp=1)

If you have already had this test and nothing showed I would keep getting further opinions until I received the treatment and answer I need.

How did she land? Was it on her bottom? I've heard of motor bike riders sustaining injuries from landing down hard on their rear end. The injury is very hard to find unless specifically looking for it. What happens is the spine is forced upwards towards their skull from the impact to the base of their spine. I hope your wife finds relief soon. Good Luck.

[sammydrums]

I have been experiencing the same thing. I have tried everything from messages to chorpractic ajustments. Ya,it feels good for a short time then, the next day it is back to the same ole pain. I recently went to my DR. and explained everything to him, he says that this is caused from extreme stress,anxiety, and tention. I told him that I had that for years and never had a problem before. He said that due to ongoing stress that eventually the nerves and tention strings would wear out and start short circuiting,(kinda like bare wires).  He gave me some muscle relaxers and it really helped me.  By the way you are explaining the movement of pain from the shoulders into the neck and upward to the back of the skull, this exactly where it affects me. I would bet that your wife is constantly under extreme pressure,stressful, with anxiety.  Does this describe her?  I think if she could get away and relax some with no phones,no pagers,no children to take care of,no deadlines,and no one to be bothering her, she could take the muscle relaxer and would feel much better. I think that the muscle relaxer just takes the edge off because the stress facters are still there.  Try what I suggested and see if I'm right.  It certainly couldn't hurt, and oh by the way,I don't think falling off the horse has anything to do with it.  Just coincidental.  Going to the neur. Dr. is a good thing. At least this will finish the diagnostics...Sometimes just getting away from all the everyday stress and activities can do wonders.