Excruciating head & neck pain... Been doing huge amount of PC and mouse work and photography for website and Photoshop work. RSI is raising it's ugly head again to be expected... Nobody to give my shoulders a massage, and the muscles feel like high tensile steel!!!
So I've been sitting in the sun and even if it started off as very painful, I've been rolling my head, left to right in an oval formation and rocking it back and forth, and doing open jaw excercises and it's giving me great relief.
Wanted to pass it on.
The gentle movements may hurt at first but it improves and the warm sun is helping.
I shall keep it up!
Anything that gives relief is welcome!
Poppy the 🐈
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Poppy_the_cat
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I suffer from this sort of pain a lot and do similar work. Highly recommend some gentle yoga, personally I do Yoga with Adriene on youtube. See her vids for Neck and Shoulders, upper back and the headaches. I use tiger balm when it gets really bad, deep heat is also very effective tiger balm just smells a bit nicer and stings less.
I always have a stiff neck and have had investigations in the past because I thought I was getting spondylitis but it wasn't the case. I do wonder if it has something to do with my goitre but when I asked my GP he said not. I now try to sleep just on one pillow unless I am unwell and need to prop myself up.
I suffer too, and found the main culprit was my pillow. After trying 1000s of pillows I finally bought a water pillow. Like the old water beds but a pillow. What a difference! You have to find how much or how little water is good for you. Everyone is different. I bought it on Amazon US. There are several brands and I think they must all be pretty similar.
I will try your advice. Been so miserable for the last 2 months. Turning my head hurts and the pain radiates to my shoulder and scapula. Dr sent me to physical therapy but still waiting to hear something from them.
I have a more tips based upon my own empirical observation.
1/ I have found a bean bag style sausage thing, put in the microwave, heated up to a good warm temperature, put just behind my neck when sitting in front of the sofa a great help. Just warm enough to ease my high tensile steel-like, drum tight muscles up... I usually use frozen peas wrapped in a light towel fir a different dirt of migraine pain in or on the head. You will know the difference ..
2/ Make sure you have good, moulded support behind the back of your neck, especially when sitting on your sofa. A good feather down, smallish cushion curved over just to fit that space. Too little and it does nothing, too large a volume and if makes the pain worse for only increasing the localised tension. If right handed, sit on the right so you have support for your right arm. Make sure the seat you are sitting in is not too soft, sometimes if helps to add a flat cushion to build up your height a little more, si your right arm rests better on the Arm rest.
3/ At bedtime do the same, make sure you have that Goldilocks pillow arrangement! If you sleep on your side, try an arrangement that is high enough to protect your shoulder socket from getting crushed when your sleep on your side. Too low a pillow will put extra pressure on the shoulder socket... And the pain travels.
4/ Posture during the day.
Stand as straight as you can with your head/chin as level as possible, neither pulled down, nor looking up...but think of a good 90' angle!
Practically levitate yourself off the ground you are standing so straight.
Imagine you are a marionette with a string emerging from the very top of your head and you are being pulled up to your full height!
Simultaneously breathe vas deeply as you can. Feel your lungs inflate, your ribcage swing outwards as your diaphragm comes down as far as you an push it, to inflate as much of your lungs as you can....hold it for a few seconds and exhale slowly, and repeat.
I do this while walking! The action of waking seems to make it easier than doing it statically! Probably because we are putting 'our entire machine into gear!'
5/ If you are having to do pc work, you will need to compensate with plenty of breaks and sit as non hunched as you can.
6/ Finally nutrition!
*For me, vitamin D levels that hover around 80 are too low... I need to be closer to 100... If not I get pain.
Obviously you partner it with
* Magnesium.
* Iron levels are very important for me with this pain... Do you get issues with your jaw?
Do you need a gum shield at night?
Iron needs Vitamin C at the same time, in other words an acidic stomach environment is required to properly absorb the iron.
It seems low stomach acid levels can even actually cause the dreaded acid reflux!
Antacids are also a serious hindrance to iron absorption and also prevent proper vitamin B12 uptake.
* I also take vitamin B12.
Low stomach acid, taking Omeprazole which reduces stomach acid, makes it difficult for us to absorb vitamin B12 and iron which are so vital for us...
* You may wish to consider increasing your stomach acid levels using Organic Cider vinegar, if you have no contra indications. This has helped me immensely in so many ways.
By supplementing with the above I have improved my pain in the areas we share s great deal.
I have also found a great duo of physiothérapists on Utube that give terrific demonstrations of self help massage. If you are interested I will look them up, just ask.
I hope this shared experience helps.
The stress of current times will only make our muscle tension worse too, something to keep in mind, as is the problem of working at a laptop from home. Bad posture can be criminally painful.
Anything else I can add, it you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Interestingly you say you've had this severe pain for roughly the length of this lockdown... Are you too working a great deal on a laptop from a non ergonomic position I wonder??
I am so glad I found you!. Yes, you are right this pain started during the lockdown. I have been doing lot of freelance work and I sat on the computer for long periods of time. Then I started homeschooling and I added more stress. I can tell tension is the cause of this because my neck get stiff when I get up in the morning and by the end of the day too. I have been worried about all this situation and my anxiety skyrocket. Also, since I am inside the house I don't move a lot. Bed to the couch, couch to the computer, and computer to the dining table. Doctor said I could get an MRI but I want to wait and give it a chance to see if I can get better. Last night I followed your advice and did some of the exercises and I am feeling better today. I will be happy to watch the videos you talked about. Thanks for all your help! You are awsome
Pd: You are also right about nutrition. My Vit D. levels and Ferritine are not the best. I am taking supplements to improve it.
These two guys are brilliant, practical, down to earth and explain it all so easily.
The excercise is painful initially, but within seconds gave me relief.
Do it several times a day.. obviously limiting your PC work right now does not sound like a possibility... So take regular breaks, stretch...do the 'marionette stretch' with the deep controlled breathing, even if it's standing still...and follow the moves on this Utube video and it's pretty much the best you can do to help fix yourself.
These two guys have other videos for other physio work outs, so you may find other things that help you too.
Good luck.
Be confident you can fix yourself.
I have. I'm 85% improved without any shadow of a doubt. When all this is over, proper head submerged beneath the water breast stroke in the swimming pool at the sports centre will fix the rest for me, it did in the past.
Good luck, any other questions, just ask, will be happy to help if I can.
The excercises are all my own discovery/invention! They are born out of observation and deduction. How wonderful they work for you too. I am thrilled for you.
I will send you the link for the Utube video... My little kitten is agitating to have her nightly walk, on her harness down the street... So shall do it upon my return. I am di pleased you have had some relief because I know the pain is excruciating... It can get so bad you could cry! I know.... I will get back to you shortly 😉😉
Excellent. I have complete faith in you. Just follow your instinct and 'listen' to the pain and you will unravel it!
Being proactive and sorting it out yourself will empower you immensely, rather than passively accepting your pain and relying on MRI scans.
With all the good will in the world my GP organised the same for me and the painful physiotherapy that followed, including being massaged with the point of the physio's elbow, was very painful, prolonged and ultimately did not resolve the issue. Even the excruciatingly painful cortisol injection into the shoulder socket gave me very little and short relief.
The way to go is nutrition above all. You can't unblock a rusted hinge on a garden gate by trying to crank it open, attempting to bend it backwards and forwards.... You need to deal with the rust first! Equally you need to be on top of your game when it comes to nutrition and adequate vitamin absorption... To get those rusty hinges moving smoothly!!!!
And the rest is, gentle, sensitive, intuitive movement and excercises.
Swimming when we are able to go back to sports centres, proper breast stroke does wonders to build up strength; it relaxes you, de-stresses, Helps you sleep better and times your whole body!
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