49ers,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your struggles.What part of the Bay Area are you in ? I am from San Jose. It sounds like you need a specialist to check out your upper neck. An Upper Cervical Chiropractor, NUCCA or Atlas Orthogonal chiropractor may be able to help you. Generic chiros are usually not skilled in this specialty.

A simple way to tell if you have an upper neck injury is often tenderness behind the ears. That bony part will be tender from muscle spasming due to an injury/inflammation in the upper neck. Gentle traction and cervical vertebra manipulation/mobilization may give you temporary relief. If it does, continued treatment with icing between treatments and disciplined posture 24/7 may slowly help your upper neck heal.

There is a thread from a few weeks ago with a Neck Exercise Program for upper neck injuries. Here is a link http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread198627.html

Sometimes, a specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation known as a Physiatrist can be helpful. Occupational health doctors tend to be hire guns for the Work Comp agencies. They are not much help with healing injuries like yours. Be careful about volunteering information to them. They like to get patients 'signed off' as recovered.

What other symptoms are you having ?