Question
Hello Sir,
I am curious if you have any suggestions. About 2.5 weeks ago my son (who weighs 26 lbs) and his friend who weighs about the same jumped off the couch when I was sitting on the floor and jumped onto my neck.  It didn't really hurt when they did it but I woke up the next day with a sore neck.  Progressively over the past 2.5 weeks my neck has been getting worse. I have notice symptoms including shoulder pain, swelling of the right side of my neck, minor ear pain in the evenings, and a mild headache in the back lower center af my head. (where my neck connects to my head).  What do you think that I should do to alleviate the pain?  It is extremely difficult to get to the Doctor (& I wouldn't know what type of Dr to go to anyway) because the Doctor is about an hour away and conflicts with my work hours and the few hours I have away from my son.  Please help b/c the pain in my neck is getting worse.
Thank you,
Kate

Answer
Katey:

Thanks for writing!

I can't tell for sure from your description but it sounds like  the boys landed on the top of your head. But, if not, here is the basic principle.

When the boys landed on your neck, they bent the neck and head in a particular direction. Let us say they landed on top. The neck and head would be jammed down toward your spine. If the landed on the right shoulder-neck area, it would be bent toward the left. Figure out which direction it was driven into.

Then, reverse that. Move it the other way. If it was driven into the spine and pelvis, use traction. One could hang upside down, if possible. Or tie a towel around your head and chin and have the boys pull on the towel. Or put one on each leg and have them pull while you hold onto something, there are a million other ways to do it.

So, first bend it opposite of the injury. Then do the following exercise.

There is a home exercise you can do that will correct it. And it is this.
Standing or laying on your back, keep your face straight forward. Do not tilt the chin down or up. If you are lying on your back, move the face toward the ceiling is such a way that if it touched the ceiling, your face would be flat on the ceiling. If you are standing, move it straight forward in such a way that your forehead and chin would touch the wall in front of you at the same time. It has to go straight forward.
Holding that position, move your chin in a figure eight pattern. Imagine the wall is a piece of paper. You have a pencil sticking straight out from your chin. Use the tip of the pencil to write a "8" laying on its side. When done correctly, the neck will then make a crunching noise at the base of the skull. This is good. It will help your neck. It might not take the crunching sound out right away, but it will ensure that no damage is done and in fact will correct the problem if one persists in using it.

The type of doctor you need is a chiropractor.  Go to www.sorsi.com, www.icak.com and www.soto-usa.com and look for a good chiropractor near you. They can go over the exercise with you. It if from Dr. DeJarnette's writing.

Does this answer your question?
Dr. Rozeboom