stress and pain

[chrisvenus]

Just since I seem to have explained this a few times I thought I might as well put it out for general viewing so people know what's going on.

Recently people have asked me how I am and my response is usually a variation on "tired, stressed and in pain".

Stressed is due to tight work deadlines arising from Monday's meeting. All fun work but meant that I've been busy during the day and was up til 2:30 last night working. I might not have had to but it has reduced the stress today significantly. The deadline is technically today due to the lovely Aoife in Ireland going on holiday tonight and wanting to sign off before she goes. We have most of it done (thanks to my late night last night) so all is good. I explained that some bits were missing and she doesn't remember what those bits were so she is clearly not overly bothered. :)

The pain is the next bit to explain. On sunday morning I woke up with what a doctor once described as "a wry neck". I'm sure everybody has had something similar in their time. Its just a stiff neck but one that persists for a long time. Its something to do with muscles in the neck spasming, not relaxing and so causing me pain when I try to turn my neck too much from the norm. A massage from my housemate helped a lot as has taking ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory as well as pain killing or something like that). However, its still hurts and its rare for much time to pass without a twinge of pain.

This brings me onto the last point, tiredness. The working late doesn't help (I was up til 2 on sunday evening finishing demo stuff for the monday meeting and lots of travelling made me tired). However when I sleep I move. I don't know if its always when I move but at least sometimes I move such that my neck gets pain. I then wake up. I move carefully and then fall back to sleep. This doesn't make for great sleep.

I've had this with my neck before a few years ago and the doctor said nothign to worry about which is why I've not been panicing. However, I have decided that I will go to the doctor tomorrow just to reassure myself (and any others out there who were going to try to tell me to do this). I need to phone up at 8:30 for an appointment though (I just phoned and was told they couldn't do anything until into next week - I asked about open surgery and they said I shoudl phone at 8:30 tomorrow). Given the phone situation at home though I may just drive down there and ask them in person. a) because that's more likely to get me an earlier time and b) because I have to leave the house and go down the road to use the phone anyway so I might as well go the extra five minutes to the doctor.

Though I have a vague recollection that there is a doctor just round the corner so I might investigate his opening times later.


There are also some other things that are making me down at the moment but I am hopeful that those are all tiredness related and the fact that I have technically been in pain for over 80 hours now. Besides, the other stuff's the stuff that I gloss over because people just fuss and worry and stuff and then I'm better and everybody wasted their energy worrying and that makes me feel bad. So lets avoid the vicious cycle by just keeping a stiff upper lip. Chin chin!

Comments

[tyasante.livejournal.com]

Mostly I'm sympathising with the sore neck - 'cause I've got a sore back - I'm wishing you good luck with all laid out plans, and would try to provide you with something more constructive than just saying "You should get more sleep, work less and get your neck sorted out"... but I can't, so, stiff upper lip old boy, it could be worse.

[susanofstohelit.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the neck pain. I've been going through a lot of that lately.

are chiropracters common in the UK?

massage therapy will help, if you have time/$, because it can force the muscles to relax. icing helps too, if you didn't already know that, plus stretching, not slouching, and exercises like rolling your shoulders and lifting weights.

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

I say, old-boy, good-show! That's the attitude! Jolly hockey-sticks, old bean, this banter's making me yearn for the goodness of St Trinians! How bally strange!

Toodle-pip!

[chrisvenus]

They are around. They are something of a specialist so you'd only really go to them if your doctor told you to (that's how I see it anyway). I've been doing stretches and neck exercises. One of the reasons that I'm going to go and see a doctor (and maybe go get a massage after) is because I have started to worry that my comfortable head resting place may not be a good place for it to rest at so want to get professional advice again.

The nice thing about my work is that time off for medicinal purposes is easy to come by, even for something less traditional. Also given I'm working from home tomorrow it should be easy enough. And quite allowed given I worked from 8 (when I got home from work) til 2:30 last night so am owed a bit of time. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/elle_/]

Deep tissue massage may help with the neck, especially if it's partly due to the stress - it's bloody painful when everything locks up, and as you've noted massage (although painful in itself) can be an absolute godsend. But might be worth getting the doctor's advice beforehand.

[chrisvenus]

I hope my housemate is reading this. :)

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

*hugs*
Not much I can do from here but let me know if there is.

[metame.livejournal.com]

On a practical note, ibuprofen gel is a wondrous wossname - gets that anti-inflammating happening right where you need it. Can give numb fingers to the person who applies it too which is funny (if worried just wash your hands...).

On a piratical note, Yarr m'hearties - A barrel o' rum will sort out that stiff upper lip...

On neck pain

[omentide.livejournal.com]

Something I've suffered on and off for the past 30 years.

If it goes right round and makes your shoulders tense and painful (even spasming) and if you can't turn your head round to do stuff like cross the street safely without moving your feet it might be the same thing. Mine's cervical spondylosis and the pain comes from the spine. Occurs more frequently in older people, so either I'm unlucky or it's whiplash or some really bad excericises a dance teacher got me to do in my teens.

Massage helps relax all the muscles you tense up because it hurts and because it hurts when it moves in specific ways. I would advise strongly against a collar (which is what you might get if you go to A&E as, whilst that does ease the pain in the short term, it weakens the muscles that should hold things in place).

The thing that helped me was Alexander Technique. Postural retraining. It can't hurt to learn good posture. The first teacher I had was lovely and sympathetic but didn't do me much good. The second one was a real dragon of a woman, but, since I went to her it's been more manageable. Not 'cured', but I do know what I need to do to handle it and keep painful days to a minimum.

Whatever's causing it, it would almost certainly help to get your keyboard and screen set up properly.

Neck Pain

[wimble.livejournal.com]

If it's a pinched nerve, it'll go away on its own after a few days. If it doesn't then other muscles will start compensating. And get their own problems, until it's a much bigger problem.

At least, in my case, it's my lower back that's the underlying problem, but the effect of it seizing up was to cause compensatory stress working its way updward until I couldn't turn my neck.

And you've seen how much grief it's caused me.

Go and get it checked at least: as ever, the sooner you catch possible problems, the easier they are to resolve.