Pain in the Neck
This summer, I made a donation to charity and was rewarded to a free back examination from a chiropractor. A marketing effort I saw as an obvious attempt to gain new patients. Still, after my lumbar injury, maybe I should at least take the complimentary exam.
The diagnosis was no major issues but they always want to find something wrong so they can sell you a treatment. Mine was an ailment called "Forward head posture", meaning my head doesn't sit perfectly on my back. Apparently more and more common in modern life as we spend hours looking down at books, phones, computer screens, etc. It results in tense neck muscles which have to work to keep your head upright. All of those could be resolved for $600. As I was in no pain, I passed.
Now months later, I hurt my neck somehow. Probably slept on it wrong as it started when I was doing my morning stretches. I couldn't move my head to the left easily without pain. Also, I would have a sharp but quick pain every hour or so. At this point I considered taking up the chiropractor offer but decided to take some ibuprofen and wait it out. 2 weeks later, my neck feels much better. The pain is mostly gone with just a bit of soreness. The worst is over and I'm re-thinking my neck health. Perhaps this information will be of some use to future me.
The diagnosis was no major issues but they always want to find something wrong so they can sell you a treatment. Mine was an ailment called "Forward head posture", meaning my head doesn't sit perfectly on my back. Apparently more and more common in modern life as we spend hours looking down at books, phones, computer screens, etc. It results in tense neck muscles which have to work to keep your head upright. All of those could be resolved for $600. As I was in no pain, I passed.
Now months later, I hurt my neck somehow. Probably slept on it wrong as it started when I was doing my morning stretches. I couldn't move my head to the left easily without pain. Also, I would have a sharp but quick pain every hour or so. At this point I considered taking up the chiropractor offer but decided to take some ibuprofen and wait it out. 2 weeks later, my neck feels much better. The pain is mostly gone with just a bit of soreness. The worst is over and I'm re-thinking my neck health. Perhaps this information will be of some use to future me.