What Causes Chronic Neck Pain And Headache After An Accident?

Posted on Mon, 10 Jul 2017

Question: Hi, I was involved in a horrible horse accident in 2010,, since I have been having issues with my neck. I was nicked up and then came down on the horse bucking for all he was worth,, ithat I was washing machines. Received a TBI,, blind spot in left eye and nerve damage on my left side of face. Whew,, ok my question is I fell asleep while sitting in my kitchen stool, head dropped to right side. I woke up to a terrible headache and half if my head numb. This was 1 1/2 weeks ago and still have the the numbness from neck right side to right ear and over the top of my head. What do I do? It wasn't painful in the beginning but now when I turn to right instant headache.

Answered by Dr. Mahaveer Patil (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Seems to be a neuritic pain

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for posting the question.
I have gone through your medical history in detail.

From the history,it seems that one of the spinal nerves in your cervical spine (neck) has been compressed due to the incident that happened 1 and 1/2 weeks ago.This in turn cause inflammation of the nerve leading to severe pain.

Unless the nerve is decompressed,the pain will not reduce in its intensity.

I would suggest you to get an MRI of the cervical spine done to confirm the diagnosis.

Physiotherapy in the form of cervical traction,short wave diathermy,analgesics with application of local gel/hot fomentation will help.

Use of a cervical collar will offer support to the inflammed nerve and reduce the pain to some extent.

I hope the answer was useful.

Feel free to ask me any doubts that you may have.

Thank you.
Best wishes.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Remy Koshy

Follow up: Dr. Mahaveer Patil (2 days later)

Thank you for being there and shedding some light on my issue. Is this something that will go away on its own in time? MRI's are very expensive in my area, but I guess if I have to do it I will.

Answered by Dr. Mahaveer Patil (11 hours later)

Brief Answer:
PHYSIOTHERAPY

Detailed Answer:
Hello there,

It will not go away spontaneously. But,physiotherapy measures like stretching exercises,cervical traction,short wave diathermy and use of a soft cervical collar will help.

You can try these measures for 8-10 days.

If there are signs of improvement,then you need not need to get an MRI done.

But,if the symptoms persist,MRI would be essential.
Thank you.

Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana