[SillyRugger]

Hi folks,

So, I know I'm only on month three, but I thought I'd let everyone know about my progress:

As noted earlier, I had a tough time with flying/stress, but since returning to Oregon I've been doing a lot better. I've been working four hours in the morning without issue, and I spend the next four hours catching up on the school work I missed during my accident. I've started swimming, which has been fine and I feel amazing afterwards. One more thing that has really helped is that I turn off all electronics at 10 pm. It's really helped with my insomnia.

I finally went to a physical therapist for my neck. Turns out a few of my discs were out of alignment. He put them back in place and showed me a few stretches. I felt AMAZING afterwards. 100% better. I didn't have a headache for days and was energetic at work the next morning. Unfortunately, my neck pain has slowly crawled back and with it, the headaches. My heads are more of the ice pick kind and rarely last for more than five minutes. They're usually on my forehead and radiate to my neck and left shoulder.

Does this mean that my headaches are mostly related to my neck problems? I feel so close to being done with this.

[Eowyn]

So glad to hear of your good progress! That is awesome!

The good news is that your headaches are probably related to your neck injury. The bad news is that one alignment won't permanently fix the problem. You also need to strengthen the muscles along the spine to hold the discs in place so that they don't "creep out" like you're experiencing now. Otherwise you will have to have repeated realignment over and over in order to remain pain free.

I would suggest scheduling several appointments with the physical therapist if you can. He can re-do the alignment, but also ask for exercises to help strengthen the muscles along the neck next to the discs to help hold the alignment in place. Sometimes the PT offices will have special equipment (at my office it was called a Med-X machine) that specifically trains those muscles.

Congrats on your awesome progress! Hope it continues!

[Mark in Idaho]

And, ice your neck after every treatment and regularly thereafter. It takes 6 weeks or more for the ligaments to heal and tighten up enough to hold the vertebra in proper alignment.

Stay off the rugby field/pitch until you have been able to greatly strengthen your neck. Even then, find a league with less physical risk.