Neck strain continues after 13 days. Doctors are clueless.?

Question

Hi, I'm 32 years old and have suffered from torticolis (or so I thought it was) for over a year and a half now. I usually get them every week, and they last 4-5 days. This last one has been going on for 13 days now. I've tried Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, Flexeril, and even Oxycotin!! NOTHING WORKS. Websites prove to be useless and I'm really in a lot of pain. I cannot participate in any of my daily routine activities. My chiropractor won't touch me and my physiotherapist is not helping at all. Can someone give me ANY advice? I've had 1 treatment with the acupuncturist, and it hasn't helped either.
They say that if there was something really wrong it would show in the x-rays, and that I don't need any more tests. Are they waiting until something worse happens to me or what? I love life and have a child that loves to go out with his Mom to play at the park, but even eating and drinking is tough. HELP!!!

Answer 1

Could you try a massage therapist or chiropractor? Maybe you already have -- I know when I have a lot of neck or back pain a massage really loosens everything up and I feel great the next day.

Answer 2

Wry Neck can also occur in adults for various reasons, such as an injury to the neck or simply sleeping in an awkward position. One may find that upon awakening it is extremely difficult to lift one's head or is extremely painful to move it.

Doctors will normally prescribe an anti-inflammatory, but the pain will subside on its own given time. Once the severity of the pain begins to lessen gentle and increasing movement of the head should begin to restore the full range of motion.

It is also possible to have a muscle relaxant injected into the body to help speed recovery.

I assume they gave you the anti-inflammatory drugs? Pain killers will not work alone, likewise perhaps you need the muscle relaxant as well?

Answer 3

I was diagnosed at the emergency room with torticolis back in 1999. This in spite of the fact that in addition to the neck pain I had numbness and pain down my left arm, and a cruching pain in my chest.

My chiro was out of town, and had a replacement in. When i went to him and he applied traction to the neck, the pain abated.

Meanwhile my family doctor came to the same conclusion and prescribed pain meds and muscle relaxants. this went on for some months.

When my chiro returned and I finally felt up to going back to him (I was still in severe pain), he put traction on the neck, I said that made it feel better, and he immediately stopped, wrote me a scrip for an MRI (I didn't know they could do that) and said to get there right away.

Bottom line.....two herniated discs. This was so obvious that even I, as a layman, was able to see the stenosis (narrowing) of the spinal chord when I looked at the raw MRI film.

So I had surgery (neurosurgeon) and now I'm pain free, although the numbness, though less severe, still remains.

X-rays cannot show soft tissue damage, like a disc. Maybe your doctor needs to think about an MRI