I'm so frustrated!! I've had neck (trap)and upper back pain for almost a year now. It would come and go. Now it is "going" almost constantly. I went the medical route first....muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory drugs and rest....for about 2 weeks. It helped temporarily. (I HATE taking muscle relaxers....they make me feel tired and lazy!)The minute I stopped taking them and tried to swim, it came back.
I went to a chiropractor. He did X-rays and said my neck was straight. It is supposed to have a slight backward curve...sort of a natural "shock absorber" for your spine. He also said my neck (cervical spine) is shifted big time to the left.....explains why it hurts on the right! :doh: He said my trap muscles have been doing all the "shock absorbing" and had many knots in them on both sides. He also said my pec muscles were too tight and pulling my traps I've been going THREE times a week to get adjusted by the chiropractor. I've been stretching, icing and not swimming. The only thing that has helped is massage...and that's not in my budget! It doesn't seem to be getting better.:shakeshead: :cry: I finally went "swimming" Thursday to try to stretch it out. The doctor said it was ok as long as I didn't push it! I thought I would just kick a lot. I did try to swim some EASY strokes. It tightend up real fast! I ended up kicking on my back and doing a lot of vertical kicking in deep water. Any advice?
Oh Beth, that sucks.
Lots of good ideas from folks here. My main piece of advice would be to use every contact you can think of to make sure you're seeing the best doctor. You're looking for someone who treats healthy, athletic people and someone who is willing to LISTEN to you. You don't want someone who normally treats patients for whom watching tv and sitting in front of a computer is their usual daily activity. Ask friends you know from work, ask people you see at the pool, ask anyone for recommendations. You probably know lots of doctors/nurses from work... ask who they'd send their family to.
And for the massages... while they don't work as well as a massage, I use the tennis balls too. My PT demo'd how to use them for my piriformis muscles (deep nasty muscles kind of in the side of the butt that for whatever reason I have to keep happy to keep my knees happy.) You want to start out on a really soft surface and then move to harder surfaces as your body can take it. I usually use a doubled over yoga mat.
Hang in there, Beth, and know that we're all rooting for you.
Carrie
Oh Beth, that sucks.
Lots of good ideas from folks here. My main piece of advice would be to use every contact you can think of to make sure you're seeing the best doctor. You're looking for someone who treats healthy, athletic people and someone who is willing to LISTEN to you. You don't want someone who normally treats patients for whom watching tv and sitting in front of a computer is their usual daily activity. Ask friends you know from work, ask people you see at the pool, ask anyone for recommendations. You probably know lots of doctors/nurses from work... ask who they'd send their family to.
And for the massages... while they don't work as well as a massage, I use the tennis balls too. My PT demo'd how to use them for my piriformis muscles (deep nasty muscles kind of in the side of the butt that for whatever reason I have to keep happy to keep my knees happy.) You want to start out on a really soft surface and then move to harder surfaces as your body can take it. I usually use a doubled over yoga mat.
Hang in there, Beth, and know that we're all rooting for you.
Carrie
