Pain in the neck

[elizilla]

Ever since Sunday I have been having trouble with pain in my neck. I can't turn my head too far, it hurts. Monday was the worst, it was driving me crazy and it kept waking me up. Tuesday I started taking motrin for it, which has helped a lot, but it persists. I can feel a tight, spasming muscle coming down the side of my neck and the back of my right shoulder. I sure hope this goes away soon.

I have been eating way too many chocolates all week. There are three fancy chocolate boxes on my desk, Godiva, Harry and David, and Whitman's. I think the Godiva's are the best, though honestly I'd be just as happy or happier to eat much less expensive chocolates like the ones you find at the supermarket checkout. Not that I'm complaining about people giving me holiday chocolate gift boxes! Though there are some coffee truffle things in the Harry and David box that are particularly noxious.

I wonder where thatguychuck is tonight? He said he was going to start heading back north from Austin today (dammit, I haven't been to bed, so it's still today even if it is past midnight). I talked to someone on the support line today, who was in Dallas, and they said it was 60 degrees there, lots warmer than yesterday, so that's working in Chuck's favor.

I've told him that if he gets into too much snow on the way home, I'd be willing to drive the truck four or five hours south to get him. But hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Comments

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

It is the side of the neck you turn to when you're looking behind (or do you just trust your mirrors?) I had a similar problem with a poor fitting helmet, and ended up with a bit of RSI in a very similar place. The cure was a little NSAIDs for the worst of it, slow streches, and, of course, a better fitting helmet.

BTW, excellent choice of music. Ms. Newcomer was always difficult to mix for (she really didn't know how to us a mic) but was always worth the effort.

[elizilla]

Trust my mirrors? Ha! My head's on a swivel all the time, no matter how many wheels I have on my vehicle. When I'm on the motorcycle, I don't even switch from the one side of a lane to the other, without a head check. Right now we have too much snow for me to take the motorcycle out, but even in my truck this neck pain is driving me nuts.

I'm a big Carrie Newcomer fan; I've got all her albums. Where did you mix for her?

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

Good. You looked to smart to trust mirrors. I was just guessing at an obvious source of neck strain -- swivel-head with a poorly fitting helmet.

I mixed Carrie quite a few times at Off Broadway, in St. Louis, before the club was sold (and my ear were shot.)

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Tuesday I started taking motrin for it, which has helped a lot, but it persists. I can feel a tight, spasming muscle coming down the side of my neck and the back of my right shoulder. I sure hope this goes away soon.

If it persists, and you can get some, you might want to try OTC muscle relaxants. I use them primarily to break headaches (some of migraine quality) that originate in a shoulder RSI or my TMJ.

I can't get them here in Texas, so I don't know if you can get them there in Michigan, but I used to buy them OTC in Ontario. The brand name was Robaxisal or Robaxicet, depending on whether the MR was bound with asa or acetaminiphen (sp?). Watch out if you buy them, there is also a "-C" version which contains codiene as a third ingredient.

[elizilla]

The Motrin seems to be helping. If I get out to the pharmacy I might look for something like Midol, or other OTC menstrual cramp med, and see if they are any better than the straight up Motrin.

I'm not usually a person who gets a lot of aches and pains, so I don't have a medicine chest full of such things already here. Asprin upsets my stomach so I usually take Tylenol for headaches, but it didn't help this neck pain at all when I tried it on Monday.

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you are probably doing this, but ice and heat. Not just on the neck, but on the shoulder too. And I mean around the shoulder blade. Also massage.

This sounds very like my shoulder RSI, and when it flares, there are usually a number of "tender" spots or "knots" in and around the shoulder blade. It can hurt like hell to have them worked on, but it really does help. And alternating ice and heat around that area helps as well.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Look for some Alleve. It's an anti-inflammatory, muscle-relaxant type thing that's available over the counter. Does wonders for all sorts of strains and stresses of this type.