HELP I hurt my neck!?

Question

i woke up this morning and my neck was sore from sleeping funny. I tried stretching it and that made it way worse causing alot of pain in the side on my neck down towards my shoulder and it hurts if I straighten my neck.

SO do I keep my neck straight which hurts a lot or leave it to one side which is tired and difficult and may make me stiff and more sore?

What can i do to reduce pain? Im currently at school... mabye i should go home, its really sore.

Answer 1

If you are at school, yes you should go home. Can you think of anything you did yesterday that would put strain on it? (i.e if you play soccer, went on a roller coaster, anything). You may have whiplash.

Try not to keep it to one side. That can seriously kink your neck and make it more painful in a few days. If it hurts to keep it straight, try lying down. Feel your neck, or look in the mirror. Is it swollen? If it is, take advil, and take some tylenol. The advil will bring the swelling down and the tylenol is a pain killer. The two work quite well together.

If it is very very swollen, you should idealy have an ice pack on it. (Never touch ice directly to skin.) If it's not too swollen, try putting a heating pad on it, and relax it.

It's nothing super serious, like broken or anything, because you were still able to get up and get to school. Give it some rest, and if you participate in sports or anything, try not to until the pain is quite minimal. If the pain persists for a long unusual amount of time, you should see a doctor.

Definately, definately advil and tylenol. If worst comes to worst, even if they don't help (which there is a 99% chance they will), they can't harm you.

Good luck, I hope you get better soon. :)

Answer 2

I'd recommend gentle massaging... just rub around the problem area with three fingertips kind of hard.  If it hurts more to do that, stop.

Answer 3

Well you should do whatever is comfortable for you to do.  If your muscle is tense than keep it comfortable.  Take some ibuprofen, gently massage the area and maybe try some mineral ice.  It should go away on its own.  Just don't do anything strenuous to make it worse.