Pain in neck, running down arm. Docs says 'soft tissue damage - no cure'. Correc!

Pain in neck, running down arm. Docs says 'soft tissue damage - no cure'. Correct? What can I do?

This was an amazingly freak injury that happened over a year ago, done by leaning my head forward while drying my hair (I am male, so it wasn't vigorous head-throwing like you might get from a female ;-)) ).

Basically it felt like a tear in an indeterminate area around my neck and right shoulder. I've had trouble with this, with varying degrees of severity for the last year and a quarter. At the moment it's really stiffening up again and offers reasonable resistance when I try to turn my head through it's full range of motion. Also, for the last few months I've had a pain running down my right arm to around my elbow. Went to the doctor about 2 months ago, who said it's soft tissue damage and she can do nothing except suggest ibuprofen. I don't want to destory my stomach so am opting against that, but I'm at a loss how to 'cure' this. Occassional massage offers a level of relief, but only temporarily. Nothing seems to help the pain in my arm. Help me please!

The pain in your arm sounds like some sort of nerve damage, stemming from the neck injury.

If you don't want to take ibuprofen, you could try applying it topically as a gel or mousse.

You probably need to try to "rest" it, if its inflamed, poking about and doing too much will aggravate things further.

Did you have the arm pain when you saw your GP? Did you tell them about it?

You can ask to be referred to a physio who would be able to offer you advice and "specific" neck exercises for you to do.