1 more thing. This problem has me so confused in terms of which part and side of the neck that it's coming from, how can I find out (the most blatant methods have prbly been tried). And is there any way at all other than verbal communication that will allow the specilist to see or feel the problem so that he can confirm what your telling me?
I too was working with poor head posture for years, leaning over people a a dentist for 18 years before one day "the camel's back" broke and I was in constant pain from that point on. I agree with the info you obtained from another forum---muecle spasm---this is exactly what I described above, except that my post gives you details on precisely which muscles are probably involved. The short tight pecs, upper traps, scms and scalene are the muscles you can say are in "spasm"... The trigger points in these muscles need to be released, and they need to be stretched. The weak, elongated muscles in the back (scapular stabilizer, rhomboids, longitudinal muscles of the spine) need to be strengthened. There is no medical test for muscle imbalance syndromes/pain. the sooner you understand your problem (do the research, reading) and the sooner you realize that going to doctors wont get you anywhere, and the sooner you realize you need to work this out ON YOUR OWN (although perhaps with some good guidance from a PT knowledgable in postural pain and muscle imbalance syndromes), the sooner you will get better. Remember-- you had an MRI on your neck and there were no pertinent findings. KEEP YOUR HEAD OVER YOUR SPINE 24/7. Do the "Wall test" on Jolie Bookspan's website. hope this helps..PS-- your problem is probably coming from both sides of the neck !!!
I hope you don't mind me asking loads of questions, but since your solutions seem to have the possibility of working and your answers are on par with a physiotherapist / orthopedist, I figure that I may as well learn as much about this problem as possible. Thanks for the answers.
It always feels worse on the left though, and only on the odd occasion does it feel strained on the right. Surely that explains why my neck always tilts downwards to the left and struggles to turn right (the left muscle feels like it's being torn apart when I try turning right, but when I turn left it's easy because there's no stretchy feeling). What I think I am sure of is that the right one is more or less ok, but it's slightly problematic because it's taking mostly all the load because the left one is somehow weak or damaged (the physio suggested that months ago).
The neck exercises that I did were: sterno-cleido-mastoid stretch, upper trapezius stretch, levator scapulae stretch and the neck tuck & hold. Im not sure if you understand what they are (you seem to have the equivalent knowledge of a physiotherapist so this shouldn't flummox you, otherwise you'll find diagrams on google). Is swimming better than those suggested exercises of yours or not (I'm hoping that it's not and that all I have to do are those exercises).
you are on the right track with your stretches and the chin tuck/hold. good job. swimming is ok too, but the exercises that will help you the most are those that strengthen the mid back, rhomboids and longitudinal muscles of the spine. full body extension exercises/stretches, and exercises that pinch your shoulder blade togetther will help. one thing you have not mentioned is trigger point work. yu should gegt a theracane (available on the net) and clair davies book on trigger point therapy. I would almost guarantee you that you have nasty trigger points in your scalenes and SCm. you will do a heck of alot better if you work on these every time you have a chance, and especially before your stretches. another good tip[ is to use hear before the trigger point work, and ice after you a re all done with the stretching/exercise/ so0--- heat//trigger point release/stretch/exercise/re-stretch/ice in that order is what worked best for me.
Lastly, one side feels worse than the other becaue one side prbably IS worse than the other. this is not unusual at all.
Well I am certainly glad to hear that the swimming isn't the most useful. If all of these are stated in the book, then I'll be willing to buy that, the worst case scenario is that I waste £18ish or however much it costs.
So should the physiotherapist have noticed this ? (I wasn't the one who asked to move onto the orthopedist)
I assume that if this does help then I don't have to redo it, but I need to be careful with regards to posture etc. I'm still going to speak to the orthopedist at my appointment, but I may have some questions for you afterwards, regardless as to what he or she has to say (it does hurt to think that as good as your advice is, that it turns out that it isn't the problem, I've been there before countless times, but here's to hoping that it is right on the mark). I see that you often give advice on here, do you actually have a medical background of any sort with regards to this specific area, because you've stated some stuff that no-one else has?
Oh yer forgot, I've ordered the thermacare heat pads, care to offer an opinion on there effectiveness and where specifically I should stick em (it shows an example of the shoulder being a place to stick it, but not the neck which is where I'd presume I would put mine. I wonder if it'll be more effective than a heatpack or deepheat?