Neck pain migraine.

I get neck pain as a prodome with a migraine attack but today I woke up from a dream where I was looking for my meds as a migraine once again ruined an outing with a friend.... and my head was splitting with pain. Yay. So I took my handful of meds, which has blunted, just slightly blunted, the pain in my head, and I also have awful neck pain on my left side. It goes from a spot right where my skull meets my neck and goes right over my head to above my eye. This pain has been accompaning the migraine more and more often. It is as annoying and just a step below the pain in my head. joy, joy.

I keep rotating my neck and hear all the lovely snaps and crackles THAT produces! as I try to get the spot to just STOP hurting. Nothing is helping. I can press on it till the cows come home and nothing changes. I'm sitting here at my desk... not working... with my sunglasses on just trying to get through the day til I can go home at 1 and go back to bed. I'm nausous and feel like crap. Thank god the phone are quiet today and not much is requiring me to think. My bosses are great... Not even bothering me. They know when the sun glasses are on.... life sucks for me.

And to top it all off, I gouged my foot on a root while chasing my bitch cat and it has chosen today to hurt the most. A really nice bruise is keeping the gouge company.. What was I doing outside with no shoes on, my daughter asks?.... I can only reply, "being migraine stupid". Who is the adult here? The 21 yr old or the 48 yr old? Jeez! Walking sucks. I put a big cushion of gauze over it so that helps a bit.

I'm NOT having a good day.

Alli, Sorry you are having such a bad day. The older I get the more neck pain accompanies my head pain. Not sure why. I had a job interview/orientation yesterday with 50 people stuffed in a room for 3 1/2 hours. I was having the neck pain/migraine the whole time. Luckily, my friend (angel) drove me since I wasnt feeling well. Very close to going to ER last night. Wish I could offer better advice.
Hugs,
Cindy

[quote]life sucks for me

Wow, Alli. We are having similar days. I just posted and wrote "It sucks to be me". Then I read your post. Are you the sister I'm truly supposed to have? The nice one? The one who inderstands?

Neck pain is increasingly involved with my M's. I had an MRI last year and I have a couple bulging discs, but not sever enough for anything to be done. But more and more if I turn my head a certain way I'll get shooting pains in my neck and a M will start shortly after.

Alli,
today I feel more or less the same.
I'm at my desk and cannot think. When I move my head, everything hurts.
It's noon and I have to wait till 5 pm to go home, put a large ice pack on my head and curl up on my sofa.
Life sucks, especially in springtime

Alli I have almost permanent pain in the right of my neck these days.
Some days it is "ignorable". Most days not.
Never been sure if it is cause or effect with the migraines, but it really hurts badly when I get one.
I rub red tiger balm in and it sort of takes the edge of.....distraction more than anything.
Pain killers dont help, but the Triptans ease it.
When I have a better day and try to leave the house.
Once I am in the car (passenger) I get a bad head within 10 minutes and have to take something.
I am convinced this must be my neck.
Numerous people have told me there is something "wrong" with it, but no one seems to know what or how to fix it.
The nearest I got was a physio lady who said it the stermocleidomastoid which is riddled with trigger points.
She does trigger point therapy, but I can now not travel that far.
If you have anyone who does it,it is worth checking out.

pen said "The nearest I got was a physio lady who said it the stermocleidomastoid which is riddled with trigger points. She does trigger point therapy, but I can now not travel that far.
If you have anyone who does it,it is worth checking out."

I've had trigger point therapy work done on the stermocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle and the rest of the muscles of my body that contribute to the trigger points in the SCM muscle. Yes, it has helped me quite a bit, but it is a long process. Neck muscles are more flexible and the pain is gone. However, the neck is still a little tight.

Here is a web site that explains the SCM and other head and shoulder pain:
http://www.round-earth.com/HeadPainIntro.html

If you follow the illustrations, you may be able to feel the trigger points and help your self.

pen, here is another web site on trigger points:

http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/fibromyalgia-discussions/medicine-treatments/338691-bone-pain-in-face-headaches-this-helped-no-drugs

Thanks very much. Bought a whole book on it but I really need to see someone.
My problem is it isnt exactly big over here (UK), and I cant travel.
Catch 22, need to get better to travel to get better....

Glad it has proved some help.

It's a good thing we have our own "happy" little group here that understands this crap. The rest of the world doesn't seem to get it. We are all sisters and brothers in misery and occasionally, joy.

My neck feel better today but the head pain keeps stabbing and my freakin foot is a mess!! I can't put very much weight on it so I'm limping. Thank god my tetnus (sp) is up to date. The last thing I need in gangrene! My own stupid fault.
Alli

Upper back, neck pain and headache is a large percentage of the people I treat with massage and other modalities. There are so many causes that it's hard to weed out the one main culprit. Ice and stretching are good hold overs for most but once that inflammatory process get going it's a bear to stop.

30% of the arterial blood supply to our scalp and brain comes from the cervical artery in the back of our necks. We tend to think it's all the carotid artery that we can feel pulsing in the front of our necks. When the muscles contract in the back of our neck it restricts blood flow to our brain. It doesn't take much oxygen deprivation to cause a lot of problems like pain, dizziness, memory loss and lack of concentration.

Stress is the main culprit to cause upper back and neck pain. Stress triggers the fight or flight response which is great to allow us to fight the perceived attack or run from it. But most of the time we don't do either. We go back to work the next and deal with job stress or we drive the same congested roads. Or we go home to stressful family dynamics.

And for us the sick irony is neuro-chemical migraines produce stress, a lot of stress. Never mind the accompanying crap that comes with migs.

So would we consider the bad pain I get from the bumpy roads is coming from my neck?
I cant go more than about 10 minutes and it kicks in.
It isnt migraine. More in eyes and in back of head.
Usually responds to OTC if I can take them quick enough.
Doesnt develop to migraine, but can hurt like a milder one.
I figure this has to be "physical".
Any ideas anyone please, Brent maybe.
I dont get to go out much at all, but this is putting me off even trying.
What can I do...
thanks
Pen

Wow, sounds like the back of the head/neck pain I get. It is throbbing, severe (8/9) pain. It is like having someone beat me in the back of the head with a baseball bat. Every beat of my heart makes it worse. I can see the blood vessels throb in my eyes. Life sucks and then you die.

Hal

"Who is the adult here? The 21 yr old or the 48 yr old?"

You rightly guessed your problem, or rather, your unconscious made you realize it. You have neck pain because you have received too much love and care in your childhood, and you are expecting to be treated in the same way as an adult. This is a self-harming attitude which your unconscious is trying to terminate by producing your symptoms. You are probably an only child, an only girl among boys, the youngest of siblings, the most beautiful one, or have enjoyed a privileged status among your siblings for any other reason.

Your unconscious will stop producing your symptoms only if you start behaving like a responsible adult. If you wish, I can tell you what you have to do to get rid of your symptoms.

Altan

Hey guys.

My migraines also start in my neck and upper back. Have any of you been diagnosed with occipital neuralgia? Or cervical migraine? I'm just really starting to explore this possibility for me. I am very atheletic and I have been involved in a motor vehicle incident. I didn't think much of it 5 years ago when I was rear-ended, but now.... Also, I have been thrown from horses several times. My next plan of attack for the migraines is a chiropractor. Have you guys tried a chiro or physical thereapy? I wondering what options you have tried. I will let you guys know if the chiro helps!

All of my migraines are accompanied by neck pain. If I can have someone massage the right spot in my shoulder (very hard) it eliminates the pain up my neck and into my migraine. Too bad they can't stand there all day and do it though. Pain comes back when the pressure is relieved. In my case I am sure the neck pain stems from the migraine, not vice versa.

This Altan guy is nuts (see above). I am not an only child, not the only girl, wasn't spoiled, and my migraines didn't start until I was in my late 40's.

Estre - he was referring to Alli. He copied something out of her post (she was being totally sarcastic) but yes I think he's nuts too.

Lil Bird - In another thread we were discussing commonalities and a lot of us have had neck and head injuries. A lot of us are either current horse riders or former and well getting dumped occasionally is part of it. Part of some head injuries does lend itself to being susceptible to M. Try out the chiro...I saw mine after several car accidents and he was able to fix some of my other joint injuries (I had a shoulder that got knocked out of whack). I did see him when my M went chronic but he told me point blank that it wasn't due to my spine...been seeing him for years (I go in every 6 months whether I need it or not) and he can pretty much predict what will be out and it's not triggering M. Others have had various experiences with them - some good and some bad but it can't hurt to eliminate this as a possible cause. One thing I would recommend though (if you can afford it) is to get a massage following an adjustment. It will help work out inflammation from being out and help the adjustment stay better (and it feels oh so good).

estre004

Something happened in your life in your late 40's that terminated your being treated like you were treated in your childhood. There are many reasons for, and many forms of, being a privileged child. Maybe you have been very very attractive until late 40's. How this sounds to you?

Altan

Altan, Do you have a license to practice psychology in all 50 states? You don't so you would be best served by keeping your offensive and ignorant opinions to your self. I would ask you to start behaving like a responsible adult yourself and stop trying to tell people how to act.

This is a support forum for people in pain and crisis. It is not a soap box for your twisted and deluded opinions. Take it somewhere else!

I just read Altons analysis on me. ROTFLMAO!! He got it soooo wrong.

He says---
"You rightly guessed your problem, or rather, your unconscious made you realize it. You have neck pain because you have received too much love and care in your childhood, and you are expecting to be treated in the same way as an adult. This is a self-harming attitude which your unconscious is trying to terminate by producing your symptoms. You are probably an only child, an only girl among boys, the youngest of siblings, the most beautiful one, or have enjoyed a privileged status among your siblings for any other reason."


I did not receive too much love and care as a child. My father was absent, my mother worked two jobs so was not around as much as she would have liked. I am one of 5!!! children, one of 4 girls and one boy, the second oldest, not the most beautiful one, and did NOT have a privledged status among my siblings. We fought like cats and dogs most of the time.

The 21 yr old I was refering to was my daughter!! not myself. Of course 4 whiplashes and scoliosis have nothing to do with neck pain, nor migraines even though one of the symptoms of migraine is neck pain.

This is why you should not listen to people who dispense "advice" over the internet when they know nothing about you. What a crock!

I'm sorry my head is not good today so I did not read all the posts.

Have you tired correcting your posture or is it already great?

I've had some really good response so far to correcting mine. It has really helped decrease my pain. I would normally have a raging 8-10 by two PM and now it's much later in the day...like around six...if I work hard at correcting my posture all day while seeing patients and charting.

It's worth a try if you have not already tried it.

Brent wrote:

ROTFLMAO - Brent I'm going to have to copy this image for other uses.

HeelerLady wrote:Estre - he was referring to Alli. He copied something out of her post (she was being totally sarcastic) but yes I think he's nuts too.

Lil Bird - In another thread we were discussing commonalities and a lot of us have had neck and head injuries. A lot of us are either current horse riders or former and well getting dumped occasionally is part of it. Part of some head injuries does lend itself to being susceptible to M. Try out the chiro...I saw mine after several car accidents and he was able to fix some of my other joint injuries (I had a shoulder that got knocked out of whack). I did see him when my M went chronic but he told me point blank that it wasn't due to my spine...been seeing him for years (I go in every 6 months whether I need it or not) and he can pretty much predict what will be out and it's not triggering M. Others have had various experiences with them - some good and some bad but it can't hurt to eliminate this as a possible cause. One thing I would recommend though (if you can afford it) is to get a massage following an adjustment. It will help work out inflammation from being out and help the adjustment stay better (and it feels oh so good).

Thanks HeelerLady!

There is a massage therepist in with the chiro, so.... I should be able to justify to my husband getting both right?

It usually works better to get the massage therapy first before the adjustment. If the muscles attached to the vertebrae are relaxed the adjustment takes less force and will hold longer. It also won't hurt near as much, not that most adjustments have much pain to begin with.

altanloker wrote:
You rightly guessed your problem, or rather, your unconscious made you realize it. You have neck pain because you have received too much love and care in your childhood, and you are expecting to be treated in the same way as an adult. This is a self-harming attitude which your unconscious is trying to terminate by producing your symptoms. You are probably an only child, an only girl among boys, the youngest of siblings, the most beautiful one, or have enjoyed a privileged status among your siblings for any other reason.Your unconscious will stop producing your symptoms only if you start behaving like a responsible adult. If you wish, I can tell you what you have to do to get rid of your symptoms.
Altan

I think he is after me. I am an only child. And of course therefore the only girl. My cousins were all boys.
I am also the youngest (and the eldest).
I had a privileged status. I was the only one. And on the occasions my parents weren't wrapped up in our baker shop, I got far too much love and care. To the point where my aunt once found me searching for my adoption papers.
I was convinced I must be adopted because real parents would have loved me more overtly.
I had to work in the family business from the time I was able to be useful (about 7 I think), so I must have a lot of growing up to do....
I was responsible. Whenever anything went wrong, I was responsible..
So there you go, it's me. I fit the description totally.... Especially as I am definitely the most beautiful one....