My personal take on neck injuries (re:Votto) for what its worth.

[Brisco]

First, I am not a doctor, not do I have any more information about Votto's injury than anyone else... but after reading the thread on Votto in ORG I wanted to add from my personal experince on neck inuries and hopefully dispel some misinformation.

No, they do NOT all go away within two days.
No, they are NOT caused only by car accidents and anxiety.
Yes, even a minor stiff neck can be physically debilitating.

Most of the back muscles, some of the strongest in the body by the way, attach to the neck. A post by Vottomatic mentioned that he pulled back hard from a pitch the night before he went out and then winced. From personal experience in the field I can tell you that this is an entirely plausible explantion that Joey would sit out for a while. I am not saying that is the definite answer... just that this is plausible. I have had the same thing happen during field exercises.

The dilema with a neck injury of this type is that if Joey did flinch back hard and the back muscles pulled unevenly on the neck, the resultant soft tissue injury makes him especially prone to do the exact same thing again the next time he puts a lot of strain on that area of the body unless he gives it time to heal.

That's why you dont just take an aspirin and goto work... you need to take a few days without physical strain to allow the inflammation and trauma to heal... then you can be as good as new. Your neck actually heals very nicely if you give it the chance.

Then again, if you are an idiot, like I am, you pop some ibuprophen, strap your kevlar back one and get back on the job. Then the injuries start to become more and more frequent until you end up getting major neck surgery (2 actually) and now over half my neck is fused together. I can't even type something as short as this without the neck stiffening up.

If Joey looks sad sitting on the bench, maybe he just hates not playing... in that case, kudos to the Reds medical staff from protecting him from my brand of idiocy.

[brm7675]

Whatever it is, PLEASE make sure he 100% before he starts playing again, a nagging injury will do neither him nor the team any good.


First, I am not a doctor, not do I have any more information about Votto's injury than anyone else... but after reading the thread on Votto in ORG I wanted to add from my personal experince on neck inuries and hopefully dispel some misinformation.

No, they do NOT all go away within two days.
No, they are NOT caused only by car accidents and anxiety.
Yes, even a minor stiff neck can be physically debilitating.

Most of the back muscles, some of the strongest in the body by the way, attach to the neck. A post by Vottomatic mentioned that he pulled back hard from a pitch the night before he went out and then winced. From personal experience in the field I can tell you that this is an entirely plausible explantion that Joey would sit out for a while. I am not saying that is the definite answer... just that this is plausible. I have had the same thing happen during field exercises.

The dilema with a neck injury of this type is that if Joey did flinch back hard and the back muscles pulled unevenly on the neck, the resultant soft tissue injury makes him especially prone to do the exact same thing again the next time he puts a lot of strain on that area of the body unless he gives it time to heal.

That's why you dont just take an aspirin and goto work... you need to take a few days without physical strain to allow the inflammation and trauma to heal... then you can be as good as new. Your neck actually heals very nicely if you give it the chance.

Then again, if you are an idiot, like I am, you pop some ibuprophen, strap your kevlar back one and get back on the job. Then the injuries start to become more and more frequent until you end up getting major neck surgery (2 actually) and now over half my neck is fused together. I can't even type something as short as this without the neck stiffening up.

If Joey looks sad sitting on the bench, maybe he just hates not playing... in that case, kudos to the Reds medical staff from protecting him from my brand of idiocy.

[OesterPoster]

I've had stiff necks before, and they are not pleasant at all. I think people who are dismissing the issue have never had a true stiff neck. I get one every few years, and after a few chiropractor visits, it gets a little better. But I'd say a bad one takes me at least 3 or 4 full days before it's decent. Makes it really difficult to drive a car, so I can't imagine standing in a batter's box and trying to hit a 95 mph fastball with a stiff neck.

[AintlifeGrande]

Cowboy had talked in a game the other night about how players sometime get neck problems due to the fact they travel so much and half to sleep on different beds,and pillows all the time.You know we all have days like that where you slept wrong,but imagine having to go out and swing a bat and throw a few days straight or longer without a break.

[UC_Ken]

Who needs Joey Votto anyway? Cairo outperforms him every time he gets the start at first.:)

[bellhead]

I've had stiff necks before, and they are not pleasant at all. I think people who are dismissing the issue have never had a true stiff neck. I get one every few years, and after a few chiropractor visits, it gets a little better. But I'd say a bad one takes me at least 3 or 4 full days before it's decent. Makes it really difficult to drive a car, so I can't imagine standing in a batter's box and trying to hit a 95 mph fastball with a stiff neck.

I finally went to a Chiropractor after my last one became so bad I almost couldn't see and move at all, my mom came over and gave me a vicoden and a muscle relaxer. "parents once in their 60's are walking pharmacies" I was finally able to sleep. Two days later I saw the chiro and after 12 sessions I haven't had one in over 5 years. Mine occurred after being in a bad car accident.

[ILoveWilly]

Anecdotal evidence fail. I mean it's like anything else, there's degrees of everything. I've had neck pain that's bothered me for days or bothered me for hours.

[Vottomatic]

In Joey's last game he played, he absorbed two brush back pitches in his last at-bat (I think). The first one completely took him by surprise. It was thrown at his head and he had to jerk back at the last second. He actually looked uncomfortable after that.

Am I saying this is how it happened? No. I have no idea. But I remember thinking at the time that Joey's neck will probably hurt tomorrow. (Just kidding) Seriously, I thought at the time that he took too long to respond to the brush back pitch and he looked uncomfortable afterwards.......but I had no clue that he might have hurt himself. But it was a major jerk backwards he did...........so it might have resulted in his stiff neck.

Just my $.02 cents.

[Brisco]

Anecdotal evidence fail. I mean it's like anything else, there's degrees of everything. I've had neck pain that's bothered me for days or bothered me for hours.

Not sure what you mean by this post. My point was on the plausibility of Vottomatic's hypothesis. Not following how anecdotal evidence is not evidence of plausability.

[Jones1]

Votto out again tonight, no matter what anyone says its time to worry! Hanigan will likely be out for a month and if Votto goes on the dl too this team is going to be hurting! Cairo wont keep up this torrent hitting. If Votto isnt back by Mon he'll probable to dled and it wont be from a stiff neck. The team hid his reasons for not playing last year and it seems to be happening again, i hope this isnt the case because as june rolls around and ends the reds season may be unrelevant again as it has been for so many years. Lets hope Votto comes back in the next two days otherwise thi teams gonna lose momentum and end up in the crapper real quick!

[brachial pleXUs]

Anecdotal evidence fail. I mean it's like anything else, there's degrees of everything. I've had neck pain that's bothered me for days or bothered me for hours.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this either; you call it a fail, and then proceed to back it up by saying there's different degrees of everything. Brisco was not saying that ALL neck pain is the same, and I didn't see anything anecdotal about it. He didn't tell a story about the time he had neck pain that lasted for days once and hours another time. That's anecdotal evidence.

I'm a medical student studying for the board exam, and I can tell you that Brisco's take on this is extremely well-reasoned, and as far as I can tell, pretty much medically correct. From what I have learned, a very important part of treatment for a muscle strain, especially of the back or neck, is rest. Just about the worst thing you can do is to try to come back too soon and wind up re-aggravating it (I've done that with my back several times :( ).

I don't like playing the whole "I'm going to be a doctor" card, but I was impressed by Brisco's post, and fail to see the "fail" in it (no pun intended).