Hi all,
Wanted to ask your advice on what to do or where to seek treatment for a sharp, constant pain on the left side of my neck. This pain started around October 5 and at first could be controlled by Advil.
I believe that the pain was caused by my visit (first time ever) to a chiropractor. I went to 3 sessions. On the last session on Sept 26, I had a headache after treatment and then 5 days later experienced the sharp constant pain on the left side of my neck.
I attempted to swim through the pain and just take Advil. However, one week later, the pain is so intense that I now cannot swim at all. As of yesterday, my shoulder and left arm are numb. It hurts to inhale deeply on land or in the water.
I've alerted the chiropractor (although I will not go in for another session!) and am making an appointment with my general doctor. Advil, Tylenol and Aleve no longer work.
Do you guys have other recommendations like:
See a Physical Therapist
Get deep tissue massages
Apply heat and/ or cold
Get X Ray
CAT Scan
Something else?
Sux to not swim! :cry: Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I would suggest strongly that you see your doctor. Your doctor will probably order an x-ray and if s/he doesn't immediately pipe up with that recommendation I think you should ask for it. Based on the x-ray, your doctor may refer you to a spinal specialist who may well order further diagnostics such as an MRI. I would not go back to the chiro again until I had pursued these diagnostics.
The nerves that serve your arms come out of your spinal cord at your neck. So if you have some injury to the C4-C5 or C5-C6 joints, the pressure on those nerves will make your arm numb.
I had symptoms much like you have described that started rather suddenly after some fly in practice. In my personal case, it turned out that the cause was a "block vertebra": my C5 and C6 (or maybe it's C4 and C5; I can't remember) are fused, and probably have been since I was a wee embryo. The lack of a proper joint between them makes the joints above and below take more stress, and eventually the joints and the discs in them rebelled. I didn't have any trouble with it until I was in my late 30s but then I had a long period of activity limitation, not to mention a really weak grip, until I sorted it out with PT and Pilates. (My doctor's first recommendation was muscle relaxants. In hindsight, I wish I had rejected this advice and insisted on an xray right away.)
My understanding is that a good chiro could diagnose this defect with manual examination of the neck. OTOH, a bad chiro might well try to achieve mobility in the fused joint with potentially disastrous results.
I would suggest strongly that you see your doctor. Your doctor will probably order an x-ray and if s/he doesn't immediately pipe up with that recommendation I think you should ask for it. Based on the x-ray, your doctor may refer you to a spinal specialist who may well order further diagnostics such as an MRI. I would not go back to the chiro again until I had pursued these diagnostics.
The nerves that serve your arms come out of your spinal cord at your neck. So if you have some injury to the C4-C5 or C5-C6 joints, the pressure on those nerves will make your arm numb.
I had symptoms much like you have described that started rather suddenly after some fly in practice. In my personal case, it turned out that the cause was a "block vertebra": my C5 and C6 (or maybe it's C4 and C5; I can't remember) are fused, and probably have been since I was a wee embryo. The lack of a proper joint between them makes the joints above and below take more stress, and eventually the joints and the discs in them rebelled. I didn't have any trouble with it until I was in my late 30s but then I had a long period of activity limitation, not to mention a really weak grip, until I sorted it out with PT and Pilates. (My doctor's first recommendation was muscle relaxants. In hindsight, I wish I had rejected this advice and insisted on an xray right away.)
My understanding is that a good chiro could diagnose this defect with manual examination of the neck. OTOH, a bad chiro might well try to achieve mobility in the fused joint with potentially disastrous results.
