Well, my year keeps getting better and better, not! As some of you may know, I was involved in a motor vehicle accident just over 6 years ago. I have dealt with awful migraines due to a brain injury. A year after the accident, I had a grand mal seziure and ended up pulling my shoulder from the socket. I went through orthoscopic surgery to correct some tears and bleeding. The surgery was a mess, and I have chronic pain from the shoulder too. Well, last night, I sat up in bed quickly for some reason. When I lifted my head from the pillow, I heard a loud "crack" in my neck. The pain that followed was about a 9.9. I have not slept since. The pain is still about a 6-7 constantly, close to a 9 if I try to move my head at all. I have a towel wrapped around my neck like a cervical collar. Question- Has anyone had this happen before? I have woken up with a stiff neck before, this is 10x worse. Could I have done something really bad to myself? I have a slightly bulging disc in my neck from the accident, but I was told is was not severe enough to do anything about it. I really need some input here. I have taken twice my normal amount of narcotics, and I'm still in h&ll. I am watching my 3 year old and will have my 5 year old after she gets out of kindergarten. Rest is not really an option. Man, I can not believe this much pain can happen from sitting up in bed!

Bump! Anyone???

Maybe one of your cervical vertebrae popped out of alignment? Do you know a chiropractor that you (or your friends) trust?

A good one could feel your neck and tell what's up. PLEASE, don't let them crack your neck. Barbaric and dangerous. But they could use an activator (little hammer thing) to gently tap it into place.

Another thing I do is roll up a hand towel and stick is under my neck while I lie on the floor. After about 5 minutes of trying to relax my muscles, breathing deep and all, if you slowly turn your head from side to side, sometimes that pops my vertebrae back into place.

I am so sorry you are in such pain. Do you have muscle relaxers?

Oh and I would certainly call your doc.

And heat. Heat helps me.

Thank you for the reply! I'll try the towel thing. No chiros in my area. I've never experienced pain quite like this, and I am no stranger to pain. Hopefully something is just out of place and will go back. Geez! I must be getting old!

Did it help?

My PT always tells me not to let the pain scare me off. What this means to me, based on your situation, is to gently feel your neck w/your fingers and try to find the source of the pain.

If you apply some gentle pressure w/your fingers to the source of the pain, it may help too.

Maybe you pulled a muscle or a tendon and have pinched a nerve.

Getting old does stink.

I tried it, but it is too painful to move it much. The pain seems to be coming from deep in my neck. I'm trying to get in with my neuro first thing tomorrow. I'm just nervous because it is not getting better.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend moving at all and call 999 (sorry, 911). Any sort of vertebrae injury and they get you on a spine board and strap you down so tight you cannot move and totally immobilise your head, due to the risk of paralysis.

I don't know how it works in the USA though, and I don't know if I'd take my own advice, but certainly be very careful moving your head. Driving is out, I would say.

Nephro is right. If you can't move at all w/out such severe pain, better to be safe than sorry. Plus w/your medical history, seems even more worrisome.

My Dad had a friend that actually broke his neck and walked around w/it for a couple of days. When he went to the doc, they put him in a halo brace right away. So sometimes, we can injure ourselves really badly w/out knowing.

Granted sitting up suddenly does not usually result in such an injury but who knows.

Call 911, bring your young child w/you (if they let you do that) and have a friend p/u your other child.

Or if you have a friend that can drive you the ER, that would work too.

Good luck and let us know what they say.

Thanks to you and Nephro. I am going to wait until my wife gets out of work this evening, then go to the ER. There are just too many colds and flu going around to bring my children anywhere near an ER. I have an appointment with my neurologist in the morning, but hopefully I can get an MRI or some kind of scan to bring to him. I just can't believe I did this to myself!

Sounds like a plan. Be very careful til then. Also watch lifting and bending, not just your neck.

An x-ray, scan or MRI will definately help your neuro figure out what is going on.

Please keep us updated. Best wishes to you.

I personally would go the 911 route so the EMT's could immobilize you on the trip to the hospital. It may seem to be just a minor neck injury, but one wroung move or bump in the road if travelling by car could cause some nasty damage.

Better off being safe than sorry. Let those trained in this sort of stuff get you to the ER.

Hi Tjt. Hope it all turned out ok. Let us know when you have time.

Thanks everyone for the help. I went to the neurologist this morning. He said my neck is in spasms, probably from a pinched nerve. I have some swelling and still a lot of pain. He started me on a cycle of steroids and muscle relaxers. I guess I will live

Thanks for the update. I am glad it was not anything more serious.

My PCP orginally misdiagnosed my ruptured cervical disc as a pinched nerve. After 6 months plus, I went to a neuro who sent me for an MRI, etc., etc., etc.

Just some info. A PCP diagnosis is much different than one from a neuro who knows you.

Hope it gets better soon.

Good Luck

I can't believe the bad luck some posters here have when it comes to getting meds. Seriously, most people I know (and this is in many different states, not just mine) consider getting scripted 120 Norcs/90 Somas to be getting "ripped off"! Seriously, I've been reading this board since 2004 and from reading it, I thought it must be impossible to find a compassionate doctor... but in my real life (and people I know from music boards, LJ etc) people have no problem getting SCH IIs, even without or with old/very weak (no obvs problems) MRIs. I feel awful for people on here

Hi TJ,

How is your neck doing? Better I hope?

Meon

bump. I guess I should just pm him.

Just never heard of steroids for a pinched nerve. Wondering how it worked.

Meon...I think the theory here is that the Steroids will Possibly reduce Inflammation/Swelling and Possibly help to relieve the Pinched nerve...Doing the Epidural's or Facet Joint Injections are basically the same theory . JMHO

That is what my former pain doc tried to force me into having done (which is why he is now my former pain doc)

From what I understand after talking to some family members who are RN's and LPN's it is a 50/50 shot at best. And if the doctor would screw up while giving the injection......an unsteady hand, involuntary tick, etc you could wind up in even more pain than you were in before.

That is why I decided against having them done. And what really irked me about my physician was that even though I told him that I was refusing the treatment he still went ahead and scheduled me for the procedure anyhow - I found that out when the hospital called me to confirm my appointment.

It actually worked out somewhat to my advantage. My no-fault ran out so I would have had to start paying him cash. First off he is expensive as all hell. Secondly no matter how much I begged, he would only write for brand name medications - not a problem usually with no-fault but there was an issue with the company that did the billing for the prescriptions, and they were not going to pay for any more prescriptions till it was settled (it still isn't settled)

At that time waiting was not an option because the pain was unbearable. I wound up paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket for the medication.

Doing the math, it is actually cheaper for me to use a face to face consultation service that isues a paper script. Plus I will get a script for Hydrocodone instead of Percocet. Hydrocodone will manage my pain, and I can still function while taking it. Percocet knocks me for a loop, which is another issue that I had with the doc - he kept upping the dose even though I kept telling him this. I went from 5mg to 7.5mg to 10mg.

And since these services are now legitimate with the way they run, I can just submit the bill to my attorney to tack onto the lawsuit.

While the pain is not half as bad as it was, I still need to have pain meds on hand for now. Every now and then the pain flares up BAD. I have a TENS unit that I use that sometimes will get the pain back under control, but sometimes it doesn't.

That is so odd Warvet. Did he tell you why?

Nope - no reason given.

Actually once he gave a very odd and vague reason - he said that "they are easier on the stomache" and then he quickly changed the topic.

This really cost me a fortune. One med was Soma 250mg - not available in Generic. I asked (pleaded for 350mg so I could get generic) he refused.

Another med - Arthrotec. Again available in name brand only

Percocet - Name brand only - no generic even though I pleaded with him on that.

Valium - one time name brand one time generic. Well actually he wrote it for name brand but the pharmacist filled it with generic. The pharmacy didn't have name brand in stock, and it was pretty late - no way to get in touch with the doc.

That was the main thing that drove me nuts about this guy. The Arthrotec did nothing, but cost a fortune.

Soma is available in generic form at the 350mg dose, but he would only write for the 250mg strength available in name brand only (although he did give me a physicians sample of four tablets....whoopee)

Percocet - widely available in generic, but insisted on name brand.

Valium - been available as a generic for Lord knows how many years - still insisted on name brand. I just lucked out the one time.

I don't doubt that he is a good doctor, as he is the head of the pain management department at a local hospital (although not a very good hospital) It's just things like this that he did that drove me nuts - especially when I had the problem with the no-fault and I was literally begging him to write generic scripts.

But the straw that broke the camels back was when he scheduled me for those injections without my consent.

That's when I wound up firing him.

I actually still have a script of 250mg Soma sitting at the pharmacy - the no fault situation never got straightened out and I wasn't about to drop all that money again. I went to a NROP and ordered #90 350mg tabs for less than $100.

So in my case, a visit with one of the face to face consult services actually works out cheaper than going to him. Actually they are my only choice. The VA won't write for anything stronger than Darvocet. I don't have a PCP, but the doctors that I did visit (five) with all my records in hand wouldn't prescribe anything stronger than 800mg Ibuprofen.

I just can't figure that pain doctor out. I know that some physicians will only write for name brand medications for certain medications only - like Dilantin and Cumadin (I know that from my dad's doctors) because of potency issues. But pain medication and Valium???? Real strange.

Sorry, I just saw this. I'm doing much better. I don't know if it was the steroids or just time, but the neck feels much better. These were, by the way, pill steroids, not injections. I've done injection before. Never again. Thanks for the concern!

Glad to hear it.

Same here. There is just something about the human factor involved in inserting a needle close to verterbrae/nerves that make me a bit nervous. Especially if there isn't a 100% guarantee of the procedure providing any relief at all.

Hey I'm glad to hear your better and stevo1 was dead on that's the theory exactly. Next time (lets hope not ever) but just in case you should ice it immediately to reduce swelling and inflammation. It seems to work better than drugs because there isn't a lot of blood flow to cartilage which is between our vertebra.(drugs move to/from thru blood) I actually am going through a herniated disk atm and it's not fun at all. Ice and exercise rehab every day... Anyhow Glad your better, neck n back problems suck!!! :p