Chronic Neck Pain

Messed up Mikey

New member
Hi,

Allright, so I'm a male 24 y.o. computer geek and have had pain, mostly in my neck, for the past year or so. I've been living of off savings and the occasional job every now and then but never really been able to sit down and work (or do anthing, for that matter) without having to leave my computer to lie down after 20 minutes tops.

I've done a lot of research, seen a bunch of different types of doctors and of course each one of them told me they could fix the problem by doing this and that. None of anything has worked.

My hope is that the vastness of the internet might contain someone who might know something more about the problem.
So let med list all of the symptoms:

- Sitting is the worst enemy. Having to hold my head up causes the muscles to tense up which causes more pain for the longer I spend sitting. I have yet to explore exactly How high I could get the Pain-O-Meter to go.

- I can lie down, seemingly comfortably, in bed with my head resting on pillows with laptop in my lap. The neck would not complain, but then the latissimus dorsi gets sad. (the wide muscle from your shoulder to your lower back)

- Areas in pain have gotten numb.

- I can no longer lie flat on my back. That causes pain in the lower back area.

- Lying down fixes almost everything. I have no problem sleeping, no headaches and no other history of sickness or injury. Focused relaxation, like meditation, works most of the time when the pain is not too bad.

- Heat, cold and pressure temporarily keeps the pain away. Tiger balm also works great as a temporary measure.


What have I done so far:


- Worked out. 6 months of another type of pain, working various machines, doing various excersizes recommended by my physical therapist. No effect.

- Common health doctor. Gave me pain pills, which worked for about a week. Then I guess I got immune to them. No effect.

- Chiropractor. No effect.

Getting desperate..
- Naprapathy. (A kind of chiropracty but with focus on muscles instead of bones). No effect.

- Ayurveda. Alternative medicin from india, herb based healing. Haha. I'm currently 2 weeks into it, with a month to go. Currently no effect.

The worst part of everything is that everyone seems to know exactly what to do so I'm given all this false hope. And even worse is that everything is suppose to take this enormous amount of time, weeks, months. So here I am, 14 months later, in the same amount of pain I was in since day one. At least it hasn't gotten worse, right.

Next up, I'm considering:

- An MRI. For whatever reason. Maybe visualizing it might give me some clue.

- Seeing a psychologist. Since I think I figured out that most likely the problem is stress related.



Thoughts anyone?

Thanks for taking the time!
Marcus
 
Do you have a head-forward position? For every inch your head is forward, you add an additional 10 lbs in stress on the neck.

You might try an Upper Cervical Care Chiropractor who specializes in gentle manipulation of the neck to help align it.

Have you considered TMJ? Below are some of the TMJ symptoms:
Neck and Shoulder Problems:
- lack of mobility - reduced range of movement
- stiffness
- neck pain
- tired, sore neck muscles
- shoulder aches
- back pain upper and lower
- arm and finger tingling, numbness and or pain​

Have you seen a physical therapist? I found luck with an Orthopedic Manual Therapist.
 
Thanks for your response, MountainReader.

How can I find out whether or not I've got a head-forward position? I'm pretty sure I've been sitting with my head tilted towards the screen for the majority of my computing time, but so does a lot of other people I know and none of them have ever had an issue like mine. I'm assuming you are talking about an abnormally tilted position, which might be corrected by adjusting the neck joints?

Not sure I'm following you on the TMJ issue. Wouldn't that also include some issues with my jaw? I also don't have most of those symptoms. No tingeling, no stiffness and no lack of mobility. Just the pain and sore muscles.
 
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