Hello group I'm looking for suggestions to help my wife. Her neck/shoulder muscles get tight/stiff/pain if she is under stress or pushes herself too much when she is fatigued. The result of neck/shoulder pain then causes headaches, pressure behind eyes(maybe just one eye), light sensetivity, etc.

What can be done help her relieve of herself of neck/shoulder pain?

Also, has anyone else since their concussion also experience more neck/shoulder tightness/pain?

Why is this? what have you done to help it? does it go away?

Any stories, suggestions, would be greatly helpful.

Mike

Dear Mike,

My daughter got her concussion in a ski accident and she also hurt her neck and shoulder in the same accident.

I wonder if your wife also hurt her neck and/or shoulder when she got the concussion? Do you think she may have sprained something in her neck/shoulder when she hit her head? Like a whiplash injury?

I have had a whiplash injury myself from a car accident. Your wife may find some relief taking Alleve or Motrin today.

Also massage the tight muscles. If she can get an appt for a massage somewhere today that may help her feel better right away. I also find accupunture helps.

I find relief with ice and cold compresses....others prefer heat.

I would suggest making an appt with an orthopedic doctor asap to evaluate her neck and shoulder. She may benefit from physical therapy or meds.

Hope she feels better,

Mike, I am an experienced professional massage therapist, who also has PCS. When the bike rack came down on your wife's head, the impact also jarred her neck and perhaps even her shoulder.

The muscles of your upper back attach up into your head, so the two are connected directly. She may even have a whiplash type of injury, where the head goes forward and back rapidly and potentially moves the brain within the skull too.

I have treated this many times and experienced it myself. It takes time to heal, sometimes months or even years depending on the severity and how you go about treating it. I am experiencing shoulder/neck/head tightness and pain myself since my accident in March.

Things that could help:
Use an ice pack on the neck and base of head for about 15-20 min. You can also alternate with a heat pack.

Massage is the best thing for muscle tightness. The pain she feels behind her eye(s) is most likely referred pain from the muscle tightness, it is common to experience this and will go away when you do get the muscles to relax.

As long as there is not swelling inside her skull, you can take 2 tennis balls and tie them into a sock, then have her lay on the floor with her head resting on the tennis balls. You find the widest part of her ear and trace that place to the back of her head, that is where you place the tennis balls...her forehead will be higher than her chin.

Work up to 10-15 minutes, starting with a minute or two. It may be slightly uncomfortable as her head relaxes and makes changes as the muscles, etc find their way back to what is correct. Or, she may not feel anything at all, but more relaxed. Either is normal.

If possible I would recommend finding a local massage therapist who has experience with treating whiplash symptoms. All the muscles in her neck, shoulders, and back will need to be worked on, preferably once or twice per week, even if that means doing 1/2 hr sessions only to get the consistancy in.

Another fabulous option is to find a really good cranial sacral therapist...their work, if done properly, has the best benefit for PCS as far as bodywork is concerned. It is very gentle, but can be quite profound.

She can also use the tennis balls by rolling on the them to loosen her upper back. She can roll on the tennis balls with the groove between the them on her spine, so there is no pressure directly to the spine.
Tender spots are the ones that need it most. If she finds one, just rest on the tennis balls for approx 30 seconds and just have her breathe through to her tolerance.

Physical therapy is usually covered under insurance and they can help alot and assess her particular situation. Alot of physical therapists are now doing craniosacral therapy, so you try to find one that does this as well.

Yes, this will go away...perhaps in a couple weeks or longer, just depends on the severity she personally has.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Perhaps this will help others too.

Oh, also check her pillow situation. I was making my neck and shoulders worse by sleeping on my side with my head too high on pillows, thus contracting my neck too much over nite.

I just got a new pillow, called a tri-core orthopedic pillow. It's helped alot!

I had neck problems also, a contoured memory foam pillow helps, upper cervical chiropractic helped alot. Icing and Ibuprofen are helpful at times. Good luck!

Eponagirl..

Thank you for your great response. We have a appt with her Primary Care doc tomorrow and was going to ask about physical therapy. The stiffness and pain in the neck isn't always there the past 3 months but it comes when stress, over exertion, etc.

I don't exactly get the following technique. (You find the widest part of her ear and trace that place to the back of her head). Can you try another way? I'll try reading again later in the day

Mike in Maine
SpouseofPCS



As long as there is not swelling inside her skull, you can take 2 tennis balls and tie them into a sock, then have her lay on the floor with her head resting on the tennis balls. You find the widest part of her ear and trace that place to the back of her head, that is where you place the tennis balls...her forehead will be higher than her chin.

Work up to 10-15 minutes, starting with a minute or two. It may be slightly uncomfortable as her head relaxes and makes changes as the muscles, etc find their way back to what is correct. Or, she may not feel anything at all, but more relaxed. Either is normal.

BeccaP,

Any suggestions in a good place to get one? Is this something I could get at walmart/target?

Mike
SpouseofPCS

Where did you buy the pillow?

I've had lots of problems with neck and shoulder tension/spasm. I found relief with a Physical Therapist using myofascial release techniques.

As others have said, a concussion also impacts the neck and shoulders since the head is connected to them. These problems are often left undiagnosed. It is odd that medical professionals are so prone to forget this basic anatomy.

You said, <Her neck/shoulder muscles get tight/stiff/pain if she is under stress or pushes herself too much when she is fatigued.>

This is also a good way to receive information from the brain/body. She may need your help is determining when she needs to slow down or stop and activity. The best skill to learn after a PCS causing concussion is when to limit effort/stress. You can help her by watching her eyes and facial expressions. You will likely notice her starting to get spacey eyed.

She needs to learn to live with her current brain condition before she can give it the rest to try to recover to her previous brain condition. Every time she over does it, she had gone backwards a few days in her recovery. She needs to learn how to avoid these over stress situations so she can link as many good days together as possible.

Think of her brain as a strained muscle. If she keeps re-straining it, it will never get a chance to heal.


Give her your explicit permission to slow down and rest. You may even need to make an effort to prevent her from over-doing it. You efforts will be rewarded with her improvement. The improvement will likely be very slow at first. As she get consistent at not over-doing it, her healing may speed up.

Do not be tempted to return to previous levels of activity prematurely.

Time may heal most wounds, but it takes lots of time to partially heal brain injuries.

My best to you

Mark in Idaho,

We are getting better in not over doing it. Before if she had a "good" day or portion of the day the we were both eager for her to do more. I like the advice to string a few good days together.

It is tough to do this even tougher when we have two young kids (2 and 6). We have been both guilty of pushing too much. I have learned to become more patient. This forum has helped a lot. I'm glad I found it.

I'm going back to work this week (teacher) and I'm going to work something out with school so that I can drop the youngest at daycare so my wife doesn't need to drive. All will she need to is help get 6yr old ready for school which should be doable.

She felt "good" last night but decided to stay instead of joining the family at the park. Today was a little better.

She still gets very fatigued and mentally overwhelmed easily. The tension in the neck/shoulders return if she does too much. I think she is getting better at ready the signs and realizes when she needs to take a break which may include a nap.

We are hoping that since both kids (and I) are back to work or school this week that life slows down for her and can do what and when she wants during the day.

We are going to ask for physical therapy tomorrow at her Primary care doc appointment. We ordered from amazon the tri-core cervical pillow.

This is the most frustrating thing we have been through and I am very impressed she is emotionally doing so well for so long.

Mike in Maine
SpouseofPCS