Is there a doctor in the house?

[Brutus]

or at least a chiropractor or massage therapist type?

I slept on my neck awkwardly, apparently, and it's so stiff I can't move this evening. I've had a heating pad on it for a while, though while it's alleviated some of the sharp pains, it hasn't taken away much of the discomfort or stiffness to this point (but admittedly I've not yet had it on for the allowable 8 hours).

Any suggestions by professionals or even those that want to play a doctor on TV? Heck, any personal experiences are welcome.

Oh, and don't worry about the doctor-patient confidentiality

[SunDeck]

I massage a lot of pain out my back and treat a chronic sciatic nerve problem with tennis ball therapy. Basically, you use a tennis ball to mash blood out of trigger points in your back. That is actually a proven therapy, except that sports medicine professionals use tools not readily available in the home, like a tennis ball. See part three of this series for upper body suggestions.


[post edit] Forgot to mention that I get neck pains once in a while and have found that tennis ball therapy works. I grind away at the upper back and shoulder muscles. Eventually, I'll push on a hard spot and feel it in the part where my neck hurts.

[Heath]

On road trips, Chip stays at Holiday Inn Express.

[bucksfan2]

or at least a chiropractor or massage therapist type?

I slept on my neck awkwardly, apparently, and it's so stiff I can't move this evening. I've had a heating pad on it for a while, though while it's alleviated some of the sharp pains, it hasn't taken away much of the discomfort or stiffness to this point (but admittedly I've not yet had it on for the allowable 8 hours).

Any suggestions by professionals or even those that want to play a doctor on TV? Heck, any personal experiences are welcome.

Oh, and don't worry about the doctor-patient confidentiality

I get those occasionally. Its where you have a kink in your neck and it hurts to turn you head one way. In order to do so you need to turn your entire body to look over one shoulder.

My advice is time. Do what you can to loosen the neck up. Heating pad, keep turning your neck as far as you can, etc. Each day it will get a little better and finally it will be gone. It usually takes me about 5 days to get back to normal with each day getting a little more movement back.

[RFS62]

Chiropractor.

[SunDeck]

Minor soft tissue problems often feel quite different after a week.

I used to push wheelbarrows and lay patios for a living, so I've had plenty of dings, gashes and muscle strains, and it's always been remarkable to me how magical 7 days can be in the healing process. Right now, I'm nursing some bruising of the muscles between my ribs (from a nasty fall). Days 1-3 were horrible; I couldn't breath. Days 4-5 were progressively better. I'm on day 6 and am feeling pain but it doesn't really bother me. By tomorrow, I plan on resuming my exercise routine.
I have repeated that same healing cycle many times, from pulled muscles to smashed fingers, and while one week doesn't provide for complete healing, it seems always to mark the turning point for many injuries. If I don't notice progress in a week, I begin to worry.

[westofyou]

I massage a lot of pain out my back and treat a chronic sciatic nerve problem with tennis ball therapy. Basically, you use a tennis ball to mash blood out of trigger points in your back. That is actually a proven therapy, except that sports medicine professionals use tools not readily available in the home, like a tennis ball. See part three of this series for upper body suggestions.


[post edit] Forgot to mention that I get neck pains once in a while and have found that tennis ball therapy works. I grind away at the upper back and shoulder muscles. Eventually, I'll push on a hard spot and feel it in the part where my neck hurts.

Plus 1

I use a hand ball

[medford]

A couple of things, Neck pains can be associated w/ gas bubbles inside of your system, so doing something to relieve that can help (if its a cause)

My step-mother has some sort of heating pad w/ corn inside of it, that you throw in the micorwave for several minutes so that is supplies warm, humid heat to the area its placed. I've slept on the coach w/ that think pinned to my neck/shoulder/back area thru the night and it generally provides heat for several hours (by the time I wake up its usually cool), but thing is great. My wife used it for her neck pain due to gas bubbles after delivering our first child, my sister used it after having an apedectomy and similar gas bubble/shoulder pain. I don't know where she got it, but I've always kept my eyes open so I could have one at my house. I imagine you could find one at a natural medicine type food store. I don't know if corn hold bags would do a similar trick or if the type of material used to store the corn in a corn hole bag would be thick enough to keep the heat for long enough to be of use.

[Roy Tucker]

We have a microwavable flax seed bag thingie that we use for aches and pains.

It will stay hot/warm up to about an hour after microwaving. Does the trick.

[Brutus]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Today it feels quite a bit better. Theres' still some discomfort, and the full range of motion in my neck isn't back yet, but I can tolerate it better today.

I've gotten this before, but yesterday was far worse than I'd experienced before. In the meantime, I'm going to try the tennis ball idea and try to work out the rest of the discomfort.