37 ms·

This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously. I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falli

by daeken 14y ago

This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously. I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falling to the side and was going to hit my head, so I decided to twist so that I'd fall flat on my back, figuring I'd be fine. Well, I was, until a few hours later, when I started having chest pain and my left arm went numb and started getting shooting pains. Thinking it was a heart attack, I went to the ER and was told I was fine, and it was probably just a pinched nerve from the fall. Three years later, the pain hasn't stopped -- the chest pain isn't so bad these days usually, but my left arm is almost continually numb and, well, the body doesn't really get used to the pins-and-needles feeling. If I had taken it more seriously, had a CT scan taken at the time, etc, it may have been caught early. Unfortunately, now that so much time has passed, doctors are at a loss as for what's going on. I'm still finding new doctors and doing my own research into what's going on, but this process has been excruciating. So, please, if you have a fall: go to the doctor, and have them do a real examination immediately. When I went, they focused on my heart and didn't even so much as look at my neck or my shoulder; had I gone after the fall, they may have figured out what it was, and I wouldn't be in pain years later. Hope this cautionary tale helps someone!

seestheday 14y ago
I some similar problems along with significant pain, also caused by falls (and a fairly serious injury that compounded things). I had pain for years, until I stumbled onto a combination of things that completely resolve the issues as long as I stick to them. I'm telling you in case they help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt anything. In order of importance: 1. Develop & maintain significant muscle mass, specifically in my upper & lower back. I'm not a huge musclehead by any stretch, but I can do 20+ pull-ups (not chin-ups) in a row and deadlift over 350 lbs. This had the biggest impact, and if I stop working out, the pain/symptoms come back. It literally took me years to get here, but is completely worth it to live pain/numb free. Health/aesthetics benefits are nice too. 2. Active Release Therapy - this broke up scar tissue that I had, may not be applicable to you. 3. Fish Oil Supplements - acts as a natural anti-inflammatory 4. Vitamin D/sunshine - Not sure if it's just because the sun & vitamin D makes me feel better overall, but I feel like it makes a small difference. Edited to clean up paragraphs
- mattdanger 14y ago
  I highly recommend active release therapy to treat muscle and joint pain.
- driverdan 14y ago
  Gaining strength / muscle mass and losing fat can help for many kinds of pain. My father had back pain for something like 20 years. He worked an office job and was 20-30 lbs overweight. After he started working out again, jogging on his lunch breaks, and lost the weight his back pain went away.
- chimpingout 14y ago
  what a load of balls... the average man should be light and active enough to do a few chin ups with ease and run for a while i have deadlifted over 350. it did nothing for my chronic neck pain and in fact only made it worse by over developing my traps. neckbeard lifting gurus are so full of shit
  - pyre 14y ago
    You responded to: | This worked for me, I'm going to tell you | because it might help you too. with: | what a load of balls... and | neckbeard lifting gurus are so full of shit Way to keep it classy.
  - flatline 14y ago
    Aside from the troll content here, you do have to be careful if you have e.g. spinal issues. Nerve damage can make even light exercise excruciating. I had to build back up carefully, never hyperextending, always keeping good posture, using light or (usually) no weight, focusing on weakened muscle groups, and never going to exhaustion, all of which is rather boring but was completely necessary. I do find that regular exercise helps with my neck and back pain, but it is certainly not a cure-all, and I worked out regularly before the pain started and definitely cannot do that type of workout any more. I've put back on about 15 pounds of muscle mass, but it's taken over a year of diligent work. On the plus side, my muscle tone is much better than it ever was from previous workout routines.
  - 14y ago
loceng 14y ago
I will assume you tried chiropractor, acupuncture, and perhaps even yoga?
- neotek 14y ago
  And pixie dust and sugar pills and wishes.
  - pm90 14y ago
    Do not dismiss other techniques so easily. The human body is a very complex mechanism and we still don't know exactly how it works. Modern medicine has been based only on the knowledge that we have: which is thus quite limited. I'm not saying that they will work. But acupuncture and yoga are not the same as pixie dust, dung pills or what have you. To give an example of what I mean: the waters of the Ganges were said to have "magical powers that cured disease"[0]. It was later found that the waters contained bacteriophages that killed bacteria. Could anyone have guessed this? [0]:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225782/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225782/
    - neotek 14y ago
      >But acupuncture and yoga are not the same as pixie dust, dung pills or what have you. Okay, so why don't they show any efficacy above pixie dust in double-blinded studies?
      - r00fus 14y ago
        Do you have a cite for this? And efficacy in what? They are not medicines, they are lifestyles (just like lifting or diet as another commenter mentioned)
      - sp332 14y ago
        Don't forget that pixie dust (or a saline injection) can actually be fairly effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect#Pain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect#Pain
lloeki 14y ago
It does not even have to go that far: I was 26 when I was having a silly argument with my SO, and I tripped over while putting trousers on and fell forward. I had the bad reflex of putting my hands in front of me, but not fast enough so that my hands folded backwards, damaging wrist ligaments and cartilage. Immediately examined by a doctor and a number of x-ray shots done, one of my left arm bone was slightly fractured which I was told will heal jsut fine, but cartilage had suffered permanent damage, that will only get worse with time. I had the habit to do regular Aikibudo wrist exercising (it helps prevent RSI), and this helps a lot in maintaining a status quo by strengthening ligaments and muscles, thus protecting the joint itself. While I'm usually not in pain, I happen to be at seemingly random times, and I know what is the cause and that it will only get worse with time (it already does and I'm only 0x20)
- Swizec 14y ago
  You think that's bad? My sister broke her forearm in half, both bones, by tripping over her own leg (while getting ready to do a floor exercise at a gymnastics competition, that's the ironic part). Seriously though, you should never fall straight on your arms. They're just there as a quick cushion before you do a roll over your shoulders. Learned that viable lesson spending my teenage years racing bikes down hills in the forest. Has saved me multiple times, once in a head-on collision with a motorcycle. (I was on a mountain bike) I have never had a broken bone in my life.
GigabyteCoin 14y ago
I fell on my tailbone delivering papers in the icy winters of Canada when I was about 10 years old. My tailbone still occasionally acts up 17 years later.
KVFinn 14y ago
Sounds like a herniated disc in your neck. Given the time frame it seems stable -- but the only way to fix it is probably years of difficult physiotherapy or surgery (and then physiotherapy).
- daeken 14y ago
  My theory when I started seeing a spinal surgeon was a herniated disc at the C8 root. But an MRI ( http://demoseen.com/mri/ http://demoseen.com/mri/ if you'd like to see the imagery) didn't show anything of the sort. At this point, it's looking likely to be either Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or another injury to the nerves there.
dwbutler 14y ago
I suspect whiplash from the fall caused trigger points in your neck and shoulders. I've had similar issues caused by RSI and stress. I highly recommend giving this book a try: http://www.triggerpointbook.com/ http://www.triggerpointbook.com/

by daeken 14y ago

seestheday 14y ago

I some similar problems along with significant pain, also caused by falls (and a fairly serious injury that compounded things). I had pain for years, until I stumbled onto a combination of things that completely resolve the issues as long as I stick to them. I'm telling you in case they help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt anything. In order of importance: 1. Develop & maintain significant muscle mass, specifically in my upper & lower back. I'm not a huge musclehead by any stretch, but I can do 20+ pull-ups (not chin-ups) in a row and deadlift over 350 lbs. This had the biggest impact, and if I stop working out, the pain/symptoms come back. It literally took me years to get here, but is completely worth it to live pain/numb free. Health/aesthetics benefits are nice too. 2. Active Release Therapy - this broke up scar tissue that I had, may not be applicable to you. 3. Fish Oil Supplements - acts as a natural anti-inflammatory 4. Vitamin D/sunshine - Not sure if it's just because the sun & vitamin D makes me feel better overall, but I feel like it makes a small difference. Edited to clean up paragraphs

mattdanger 14y ago
I highly recommend active release therapy to treat muscle and joint pain.
driverdan 14y ago
Gaining strength / muscle mass and losing fat can help for many kinds of pain. My father had back pain for something like 20 years. He worked an office job and was 20-30 lbs overweight. After he started working out again, jogging on his lunch breaks, and lost the weight his back pain went away.
chimpingout 14y ago
what a load of balls... the average man should be light and active enough to do a few chin ups with ease and run for a while i have deadlifted over 350. it did nothing for my chronic neck pain and in fact only made it worse by over developing my traps. neckbeard lifting gurus are so full of shit
- pyre 14y ago
  You responded to: | This worked for me, I'm going to tell you | because it might help you too. with: | what a load of balls... and | neckbeard lifting gurus are so full of shit Way to keep it classy.
- flatline 14y ago
  Aside from the troll content here, you do have to be careful if you have e.g. spinal issues. Nerve damage can make even light exercise excruciating. I had to build back up carefully, never hyperextending, always keeping good posture, using light or (usually) no weight, focusing on weakened muscle groups, and never going to exhaustion, all of which is rather boring but was completely necessary. I do find that regular exercise helps with my neck and back pain, but it is certainly not a cure-all, and I worked out regularly before the pain started and definitely cannot do that type of workout any more. I've put back on about 15 pounds of muscle mass, but it's taken over a year of diligent work. On the plus side, my muscle tone is much better than it ever was from previous workout routines.
- 14y ago

loceng 14y ago

I will assume you tried chiropractor, acupuncture, and perhaps even yoga?

neotek 14y ago
And pixie dust and sugar pills and wishes.
- pm90 14y ago
  Do not dismiss other techniques so easily. The human body is a very complex mechanism and we still don't know exactly how it works. Modern medicine has been based only on the knowledge that we have: which is thus quite limited. I'm not saying that they will work. But acupuncture and yoga are not the same as pixie dust, dung pills or what have you. To give an example of what I mean: the waters of the Ganges were said to have "magical powers that cured disease"[0]. It was later found that the waters contained bacteriophages that killed bacteria. Could anyone have guessed this? [0]:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225782/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225782/
  - neotek 14y ago
    >But acupuncture and yoga are not the same as pixie dust, dung pills or what have you. Okay, so why don't they show any efficacy above pixie dust in double-blinded studies?
    - r00fus 14y ago
      Do you have a cite for this? And efficacy in what? They are not medicines, they are lifestyles (just like lifting or diet as another commenter mentioned)
    - sp332 14y ago
      Don't forget that pixie dust (or a saline injection) can actually be fairly effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect#Pain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect#Pain

lloeki 14y ago

It does not even have to go that far: I was 26 when I was having a silly argument with my SO, and I tripped over while putting trousers on and fell forward. I had the bad reflex of putting my hands in front of me, but not fast enough so that my hands folded backwards, damaging wrist ligaments and cartilage. Immediately examined by a doctor and a number of x-ray shots done, one of my left arm bone was slightly fractured which I was told will heal jsut fine, but cartilage had suffered permanent damage, that will only get worse with time. I had the habit to do regular Aikibudo wrist exercising (it helps prevent RSI), and this helps a lot in maintaining a status quo by strengthening ligaments and muscles, thus protecting the joint itself. While I'm usually not in pain, I happen to be at seemingly random times, and I know what is the cause and that it will only get worse with time (it already does and I'm only 0x20)

Swizec 14y ago
You think that's bad? My sister broke her forearm in half, both bones, by tripping over her own leg (while getting ready to do a floor exercise at a gymnastics competition, that's the ironic part). Seriously though, you should never fall straight on your arms. They're just there as a quick cushion before you do a roll over your shoulders. Learned that viable lesson spending my teenage years racing bikes down hills in the forest. Has saved me multiple times, once in a head-on collision with a motorcycle. (I was on a mountain bike) I have never had a broken bone in my life.

GigabyteCoin 14y ago

I fell on my tailbone delivering papers in the icy winters of Canada when I was about 10 years old. My tailbone still occasionally acts up 17 years later.

KVFinn 14y ago

Sounds like a herniated disc in your neck. Given the time frame it seems stable -- but the only way to fix it is probably years of difficult physiotherapy or surgery (and then physiotherapy).

daeken 14y ago
My theory when I started seeing a spinal surgeon was a herniated disc at the C8 root. But an MRI ( http://demoseen.com/mri/ http://demoseen.com/mri/ if you'd like to see the imagery) didn't show anything of the sort. At this point, it's looking likely to be either Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or another injury to the nerves there.

dwbutler 14y ago

I suspect whiplash from the fall caused trigger points in your neck and shoulders. I've had similar issues caused by RSI and stress. I highly recommend giving this book a try: http://www.triggerpointbook.com/ http://www.triggerpointbook.com/