Joe A Shaw PA-C - 1/31/2008

Question
I have fibromylagia, so muscle pain is not knew to me, however I was hoping you could give me some advice on the crink in my neck!
I woke up one morning having "slept wrong" it has been a week or more now, I have a sore neck and shoulder with some numbness/tingling.
I can not seem to sleep "right" to correct this.  What is your suggestions?  Hot? Cold?  What can I do?

Answer
Ralley,
I know how you feel, I had similar thing happen to me several yrs ago..it took about 3 wks for it to go away (altough I don't have FMS). If you're a white male 45 or older you always have to suspect some type of bone spurs/growth on the vertebrae..I have known several pts over the yrs in which this was the case. It comes on gradual (ie no trauma)weeks to months...neck pain that turns into shoulder and arm pain with numbness and tingling. Also you may have degenerative disc disease (DDD) basically a fancy word for arthritis in your spine and disc area. This can give you the same symptoms.. and Pts with FMS it seems to be magnified.
And finally you could have just strained the muscles in that area as you suggested.
I would try 10-15 mins of ice with compression (ie don't just lay a baggy of ice on neck) the commercial gel packs we use are best, you want that cold to penetrate,followed by 10 mins of moist heat,followed by range of motion exercises of neck and shoulder. Do this at least 2 if not 3 times a day. Also take advil per label if you can or tylenol. Try this for 2 wks if not better then I would get evaluated..xrays,possibly MRI later on etc...