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46 Year Old Male, woke up with excruciating neck upper back pain

Hello, Occasionally I "jam up" as my wife calls it. I don't really have a history of chronic back pain, I do have a sternum injury from like 20 years ago and you can hear my sternum pop sometimes that brings relief.I guess you could say I do suffer from some kind of musco skeletal condition. Anyhow I have experienced horrible severe back pain on and off for years, I have been to at least 1 chiropractor and was treated. Yesterday I woke up with excruciating pain in my neck shoulders and general upper back area. I also have minor pain in both of my elbow joints and mostly in my left where the arm meets the shoulder. I am still in pain, it feels like my back muscles near my shoulder blades are very tight and when I move my neck back it really hurts no so much when I turn it right or left. My wife thinks I slept in a funny position I wouldn't doubt it. I tried an ice pack and hot water in the shower that only brings temporary relief.Yoga and Tai Chi seem to bring some relief. I don't like to take pain killers because then how willI know if it's the pain killer or the pain just went away. I thought maybe it's a slipped disk or herniated or maybe even back spasms. I don't have a chiropractor these days and I don't have insurance so going to see an MD is out. I searched for similar symptoms online but the only thing that came close was pinched nerve and that may be the culprit but who knows anyone else experienced anything like this?
Thanks for your help.

Tags: back, chropractor, disk, herniated, neck, pain, shoulder, spams

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Permalink Reply by Shane on August 10, 2010 at 8:10am

There are a lot of things that could potentially cause your symptoms. A disc issue would seem to be the most common source of pain that comes on suddently and is associated with a lot of spasm or tightness that extends from the neck into the upper back.

Most of these issues, especially with your prior experience, resolve with conservative interventions (e.g. chiropractor, yoga or tai chi). It is hard to know based on your description if the symptoms in your shoulders/arms are referred from the neck but they could be.

One option would be to try some McKenzie exercises for your neck. These exercises can be very helpful with acutely flared symptoms. Robin McKenzie is a famous PT and has written books about "Rapidly reversible neck pain." You can find pictures of some of the exercises online. You could also see a good McKenzie trained therapist (PT) and this would be a good start.

I personally like the McKenzie chin tuck as a good starting point. There are a lot of other good exercises out there. I am a physican and started a blog to communicate with people about exactly these kinds of issues.

Hopefully this is helpful and your symptoms get better.

Shane Mangrum, MD
www.backexercisedoctor.com