yesterday I had a painful neck (must have slept on it oddly), but went riding anyway.

After a couple of runs, my front wheel washed out on a flat loamy corner, and I tensed up to bring it back in line – something in my neck ‘went’, and I’ve been in agony ever since.

The left side of my neck has tweaked, and it really hurts to look to the right or down – lifting stuff with my left arm hurts too… sleeping last night was not fun since pretty much all positions hurt, and rolling over was excruciating.

Anyone got any tips for recovery? I’m going with painkillers and looking straight ahead at the moment.

Dave

Hot bath.

No bath available (at least not until the end of the month when our bathroom is getting redone)

Having suffered from this on and off over the years, I’d say coldness is your friend – put an ice pack/frozen peas on the sprained ligament area for half an hour until it’s numb. Do it a few times during the day and it’ll help to decrease inflammation in the neck muscles. If not, it’s GP/chiropractor time.

Physio. If something’s gone ‘twang’, then something’s out of place/torn.

I’d get it looked at asap, before it heals badly and you have a lifetime of gip from it.

And keep it warm (deep heat, scarves, etc)

Pain relievers such as aspirin or ibuprofen can help reduce the pain and any swelling. Muscle relaxants can help ease spasms. You can apply an ice pack for 15 to 30 minutes at a time, several times a day for the first 2 or 3 days after the injury. This will help reduce inflammation and discomfort. Although heat, particularly moist heat, can help loosen cramped muscles, it should not be applied too quickly.

That’s from a proper medical website. 😉

so hot or cold then?

isn’t the internet wonderful 🙂

sprained neck, will I die

your head is obviously starting to fall off, so yes…. unless you hold it on with a rubber band.

try to exercise your neck if you can, probably not easy right now but, you need to try and keep moving it.

I once woke up on the day of a mates wedding and couldn’t look side to side, gradually through the day, with the help of alcohol it eased up considerably, i was even dancing by the end of the night…

Alcohol is your friend here . . .

those ‘wheat bag’ warmers that you microwave are good – mould to your body shape and you can regulate how warm they are quite easily by how long you warm them for.

frozen peas to the rescue

frozen peas to the rescue

Frozen peas have worked for me.

Hope it improves quickly.

newsflash: my neck is cold…. still hurts though

That’s because it’s cold. You want to keep it warm 😉

I’ve always found heat with anything muscle related where there isn’t obvious bruising to be better, certainly 24 hours after the original injury.