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Chronic Neck Pain
After seeing my personal doctor, a chiropractor, a physical therapist, and an orthopedic surgeon, I still don't have answers to the chronic pain I have in my neck/shoulder area. (Bottom of my neck/trapezius area) It started out as just a sore neck, but over the years, it has worsened into feeling almost like a pinched nerve
I am 19 years old and have had the same pain in my neck for the past 5 or so years. It started when I was working in a restaurant and was on my feet for 6+ hours a night. The pain started off bearable, but over the years it has gotten worse and worse. I went to my personal doctor when it first started, and she said I should try seeing a chiropractor. I had regular appointments 3 times a week for about a year with a chiropractor. He took x-rays of my neck and back and said that nothing looked out of the ordinary. He started off adjusting my neck and back, but when that didn't help, he started a treatment using electricity. I'm not completely sure what it's called, but he would hook me up to a machine that would send electrical waves through the muscles in my neck. It did help, but if I didn't set up another appointment within a week or so, the pain would come back. The chiropractor said I had neck pain because I have bad posture (I'm a sloucher, I will admit that) but I didn't understand why it would only be on one side of my neck. I have NEVER had this pain on the other side. My health insurance eventually said they were going to start making my family do a copay so I stopped going. The pain was manageable with ibuprofen and a heating pad for a while, but then it got worse again. My doctor said try physical therapy. I did physical therapy for about 6 months, where I would do exercises in the appointments and at home. The therapist also used an ultrasound machine (I think that's what it was) to try to loosen up the muscles in my neck/back. It did help, but it was another situation where it was just a temporary fix. Last spring, my doctor sent me to an orthopedic surgeon for cortisone injections. And it helped! For a while, at least. I had little-to-no neck pain for the past 8 months.
Recently, though, it has come back and it is worse than ever. My doctor has said that it could be the muscles pinching a nerve in the trapezius area, because in addition to the pain, I also have numbness and a "tingly" feeling in the area. The physical therapist I saw said it could be scar tissue built up from a previous injury, but as far as I know, I have had no injuries. The pain is in the left side of my neck only, and I'm right handed, so I can't think of anything I could have done to cause the pain. I have noticed that the only time when it really bothers me is when I'm standing in one spot for an extended amount of time (I work as a cashier so this is a problem) or when I sit in one spot with my head positioned pointing slightly down (like sitting in class taking notes). Driving also makes the pain flare up. Laying down, especially on my back, makes it feel a bit better. Ibuprofen, ice, and heating pads don't help anymore. I don't do anything strenuous, like lifting weights or carrying heavy objects.
I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm tired of constantly being in pain. When my neck doesn't actually hurt enough to make me notice it, it's constantly an annoying sore feeling. Massaging it helps a little, but only during the massaging.
To date, I haven't been given a straight answer as to what is causing my pain, or what I can do to make it stop. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this, or if anyone knows of ANYthing I can do to make it go away. I'm only 19 and I feel like I'm falling apart!
This discussion is related to What do I have?.
I am 19 years old and have had the same pain in my neck for the past 5 or so years. It started when I was working in a restaurant and was on my feet for 6+ hours a night. The pain started off bearable, but over the years it has gotten worse and worse. I went to my personal doctor when it first started, and she said I should try seeing a chiropractor. I had regular appointments 3 times a week for about a year with a chiropractor. He took x-rays of my neck and back and said that nothing looked out of the ordinary. He started off adjusting my neck and back, but when that didn't help, he started a treatment using electricity. I'm not completely sure what it's called, but he would hook me up to a machine that would send electrical waves through the muscles in my neck. It did help, but if I didn't set up another appointment within a week or so, the pain would come back. The chiropractor said I had neck pain because I have bad posture (I'm a sloucher, I will admit that) but I didn't understand why it would only be on one side of my neck. I have NEVER had this pain on the other side. My health insurance eventually said they were going to start making my family do a copay so I stopped going. The pain was manageable with ibuprofen and a heating pad for a while, but then it got worse again. My doctor said try physical therapy. I did physical therapy for about 6 months, where I would do exercises in the appointments and at home. The therapist also used an ultrasound machine (I think that's what it was) to try to loosen up the muscles in my neck/back. It did help, but it was another situation where it was just a temporary fix. Last spring, my doctor sent me to an orthopedic surgeon for cortisone injections. And it helped! For a while, at least. I had little-to-no neck pain for the past 8 months.
Recently, though, it has come back and it is worse than ever. My doctor has said that it could be the muscles pinching a nerve in the trapezius area, because in addition to the pain, I also have numbness and a "tingly" feeling in the area. The physical therapist I saw said it could be scar tissue built up from a previous injury, but as far as I know, I have had no injuries. The pain is in the left side of my neck only, and I'm right handed, so I can't think of anything I could have done to cause the pain. I have noticed that the only time when it really bothers me is when I'm standing in one spot for an extended amount of time (I work as a cashier so this is a problem) or when I sit in one spot with my head positioned pointing slightly down (like sitting in class taking notes). Driving also makes the pain flare up. Laying down, especially on my back, makes it feel a bit better. Ibuprofen, ice, and heating pads don't help anymore. I don't do anything strenuous, like lifting weights or carrying heavy objects.
I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm tired of constantly being in pain. When my neck doesn't actually hurt enough to make me notice it, it's constantly an annoying sore feeling. Massaging it helps a little, but only during the massaging.
To date, I haven't been given a straight answer as to what is causing my pain, or what I can do to make it stop. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this, or if anyone knows of ANYthing I can do to make it go away. I'm only 19 and I feel like I'm falling apart!
This discussion is related to What do I have?.
I might add this. I had cervical injuries and I know the pain can be absolutely gun-in-the mouth unbearable. I went through a variety of chancre-mechanics, and my injury got worse, and worse and worse....I finally ended up, after several years, and a recommendation for a spinal fusion (!!!!!!) with a brilliant French pain specialist. Manipulation is not always wrong, but the axial traction is absolutely positively necessary. That swollen mashed tissue much have the pressure relieved on it or it will get to the point where it will never return to normal. The way to relieve that pressure is intermittant axial traction. Not continuous traction. Short periods of traction from three-thirty minutes with long periods between. Continual traction, as with a collar ends with loss of muscle tone. Every case is different, and my experiences are, of course anecdotal, but you can bet when I had the pain I researched every place on the planet looking for help. You may, in fact, eventually need surgical intervention, but that should be a very last resort.
First of all an x-ray is absolutely positively worthless in making a diagnosis. It is an obsolete diagnostic procedure except in a little village without running water in Zimbabwee. You need a 3T MRI. I believe you have been totally absolutely mishandled from day one. The appropriate treatment should not have been manipulation but intermittant axial traction, for six to ten minutes four to six times a day, plus an anti-inflammatory. Starting good hydation, with prednisone for a few days, then ibuprufin. Keeping sugar levels under control is important because high sugar causes changes in osmolality that increase the berve pressure. No muscle relaxants. Manipulation is contradindicated. Later on range-of motion exercises are prescribed. As far as meeting medical people who know what they are doing, you seem to have hit the trifecta. You have a mashed up bit of tissue and a nerve is being compressed. You need another doctor who did not get his degree by sending in cheerios boxtops.
I had neck pain from a pinched nerve, it was a test. I went to a massage therapist 3 times and the pain never returned in my nedk , my back is still killing me though. she was training more in cranial massage ,maybe thats why it worked. she held my neck with her fingers on presure points. it was great.maybe this will help you?
I've been calling around for the past few days and I haven't been able to find one within 25 miles that takes my health insurance. I set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to get another cortisone injection which will be Dec 1st, and I'm going to ask him for a referral. That will probably be the easiest way.
You're right. Just ask if they do manipulations. DO's specialize so not all of them continue to practice what is formally called OTM.
My D.O. is an Internal Medicine Physician that does manipulations. She was only a year out of residency when she came to our clinic. These physicians are trained to feel a quarter on the last page of a Chicago sized phone book from the top. That's how sensitive their touch. They can "feel" what's right and wrong in your musculoskeletal system. I know it sound like bologna. I would have been and was skeptical. It's not some mumbo jumbo. These doctors practice just as any other they just have this additional training and education. If you look goggle D.O. it will explain them better than I am doing.
If a PCP can order an MRI will depend on your insurance company's rules and regulations. The HMO I had would only allow a specialist like a neurologist to order an MRI. My current insurance will allow PCP to order them. In my opinion an MRI can't hurt. It can help in the diagnostic procedure. A DO will be able to determine if it will be beneficial.
Please let me know how it goes.
My D.O. is an Internal Medicine Physician that does manipulations. She was only a year out of residency when she came to our clinic. These physicians are trained to feel a quarter on the last page of a Chicago sized phone book from the top. That's how sensitive their touch. They can "feel" what's right and wrong in your musculoskeletal system. I know it sound like bologna. I would have been and was skeptical. It's not some mumbo jumbo. These doctors practice just as any other they just have this additional training and education. If you look goggle D.O. it will explain them better than I am doing.
If a PCP can order an MRI will depend on your insurance company's rules and regulations. The HMO I had would only allow a specialist like a neurologist to order an MRI. My current insurance will allow PCP to order them. In my opinion an MRI can't hurt. It can help in the diagnostic procedure. A DO will be able to determine if it will be beneficial.
Please let me know how it goes.
What a coincidence that we are so near each other!
Thank you for the help. I found a few in my area so I'll give them a call on Monday and start asking questions. When I call, I just need to ask if the DO does manipulations, correct? And in your opinion, would getting an MRI done help in finding a diagnosis?
Thanks again - It's greatly appreciated.
Thank you for the help. I found a few in my area so I'll give them a call on Monday and start asking questions. When I call, I just need to ask if the DO does manipulations, correct? And in your opinion, would getting an MRI done help in finding a diagnosis?
Thanks again - It's greatly appreciated.
Hello Hanhan, fellow Wisconsinite! Welcome.
You are much to young to have to deal with chronic pain. I noted that you said that the injection eased your pain. You can have three in a year so why not try another to ease the pain until you find a diagnoses?
In our state there are D.O.'s (Doctor of Osteopathy) that practice OMT (osteopathic manipulation therapy). It is similar to chiropractor adjustments only it is preformed by a physician. Insurance companies treat their visits as they do any other physicians visit. DO's have extra training and education in the structure, function and proper alignment of our bodies. The often are able to diagnosis problems with structure and function of our musculoskeletal system better than any other physician. They practice in all types of setting and specialities. So as you search you will have to ask if the DO does manipulations. Is you cannot find one send me a PM and I should be able to help you. We live only about an hour and a half from one another.
It was a DO that finally provided me with a diagnosis after other physicians were unsuccessful. So don't give up.
We are here to support you. Many of us have had to search years for answers. We all suffer from chronic pain. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. Best of luck to you.
Take Care,
Tuck
You are much to young to have to deal with chronic pain. I noted that you said that the injection eased your pain. You can have three in a year so why not try another to ease the pain until you find a diagnoses?
In our state there are D.O.'s (Doctor of Osteopathy) that practice OMT (osteopathic manipulation therapy). It is similar to chiropractor adjustments only it is preformed by a physician. Insurance companies treat their visits as they do any other physicians visit. DO's have extra training and education in the structure, function and proper alignment of our bodies. The often are able to diagnosis problems with structure and function of our musculoskeletal system better than any other physician. They practice in all types of setting and specialities. So as you search you will have to ask if the DO does manipulations. Is you cannot find one send me a PM and I should be able to help you. We live only about an hour and a half from one another.
It was a DO that finally provided me with a diagnosis after other physicians were unsuccessful. So don't give up.
We are here to support you. Many of us have had to search years for answers. We all suffer from chronic pain. Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. Best of luck to you.
Take Care,
Tuck
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