Pain In The Neck

Literally...I've had Torticollis before and thought that was painful.  I'd gotten a 'kink' in my neck and had been to the chiropractor and seemed on the mend...thought one more adjustment ought to do the trick...only problem, regular chiro out, sub in.  Not a good adjustment.  Magnified the problem (and the pain), necessitating a trip to the ER for pain medicine (which didn't work) and weeks of lying either flat or reclined with ice.

Follow up appointments with regular chiro and 4 weeks later I can actually comb my hair!  And feed myself with my right hand!  I truly do not know how people with chronic pain manage...I do not handle pain well...nor lack of sleep.  The sleep issue is the next big ticket item to deal with.  Because of the ongoing pain I had been waking up about 4 hours needing 'fresh' ice packs.  Now my body is in that mode.  I'm open to suggestions on how to reboot my sleep cycle.

Here is some information I found on cervical subluxations from Spine-Health:

"Symptoms of a Cervical Herniated Disc

A cervical herniated disc will typically cause pain patterns and neurological deficits as follows:

C4 - C5 (C5 nerve root) - Can cause weakness in the deltoid muscle in the upper arm. Does not usually cause numbness or tingling. Can cause shoulder pain.

C5 - C6 (C6 nerve root) - Can cause weakness in the biceps (muscles in the front of the upper arms) and wrist extensor muscles. Numbness and tingling along with pain can radiate to the thumb side of the hand. This is one of the most common levels for a cervical disc herniation to occur.

C6 - C7 (C7 nerve root) - Can cause weakness in the triceps (muscles in the back of the upper arm and extending to the forearm) and the finger extensor muscles. Numbness and tingling along with pain can radiate down the triceps and into the middle finger. This is also one of the most common levels for a cervical disc herniation (see Figure 1).

C7 - T1 (C8 nerve root) - Can cause weakness with handgrip. Numbness and tingling and pain can radiate down the arm to the little finger side of hand.

It is important to note that the above list comprises typical pain patterns associated with a cervical disc herniation, but they are not absolute. Some people are simply wired up differently than others, and therefore their arm pain and other symptoms will be different."

Mine was a C-6, which has 'worked' its way down, thank God.  Unfortunately I've experienced all the symptoms described above, including the inability to write or hold anything with any weight.  I wasn't even up to typing or sending text messages!

I'm still not a hundred percent - and this information from another page at Spine-Health

"The nerves heal from the top down, and depending on how much damage is done at the time the nerve becomes impinged (pinched), it may take weeks to months for the nerve to fully to heal."

Sums it up well.  I'm definitely past week 4 now...and my chiro has recommended exercises to strengthen my neck.  These pages show some of the exercises I was given, as does this one, and this one.  I found a few more, here and here, these are segments of a lengthy article.

It is advised to NOT self diagnose, always seek appropriate medical care.