Nerve Pain

[03CVLX]

Has anyone had to deal with Nerve pain in their backs before? Over the past three days or so I can barely sit back in a chair or brush up against anything without getting a sharp jolt of pain. What did you do to relieve the pain? Any tips will be appreciated.

I have been going daily to my Chiropractor and its slowly beginning to help but I wanna do something to help it in between visits.

[Prince Valiant]

Generally for pain like that, hot packs, or preferably moist heat packs are most appropriate. Sometimes gentle stretching is appropriate, depending on the muscle that may be causing the problems....usually scalene, sternocleidomastoid, levator scapula and rhomboids are the most problematic for becoming spastic either as a result of neural dysfunction, or being the cause neural entrapment. You can try to look up stretches for each muscle, see if the muscle is approximately the affected area, and then try gently stretching (IE, up to when there is a mild, and certainly not painful resistance).

The fact that you are improving generally means you're on the right track. The stretching/heat won't really "speed up" recovery per se (these episodes should generally run their course from the low end of 3-5 days, to as long as 1-3 months), but it will make you more comfortable in the interim.

Though some may eschew them, muscle relaxers can do a great job of reducing the intensity of the symptoms, and if the muscle is in fact the cause of the symptoms, then they may also reduce the time to no sx's.

If this becomes a recurring problem (more than 2 episodes a year), certainly I'd advise a trip to a neurologist or spinal/neural surgeon for further evaluation as well as ruling out other possible causes.

[Sprayaway Fox]

I got it sometimes. I have a chiropractor thats like 80 years old and been doing it out of her house all her life and registered. She calls what I got "tractor neck" lol.
I get mine between my left shoulder blade like its twisted to sheet. If I paint alot or lift my arms for a long time I usually get it. Whatever ya did try to find a easier way to do it.

Hot packs help greatly but dont leave them on all the time. They will weaken your muscle.:thumbsup

[03CVLX]

Thanks guys. I am using one of those heated/massaging back cushions and it seems to be helping a ton. My Chiropractor said to use cold packs but somehow that didn't seem like it would feel very good. Thanks again for the tips.

[Troutman]

i always used ice. or cold then heat treatment

[subliminal1284]

Negative on the heat treatment, it may relieve the pain but it can sometimes actually make it worse. Think about it the reason why you are having nerve damage is because the nerve is being pinched, heat causes expansion which in turn causes the nerve to become more compressed. Ice is your best treatment as it will take any swelling down and relieve some pressure on the nerve.

I had real bad back problems a few years ago so bad it would shoot down my leg and made my whole leg feel like it was burning and my toes went numb. I went to a chiropractor and it got better it does take time though. Massage therapy can also help.

[03CVLX]

Makes sense, I broke out the ice packs and it really did seem to help. At this point the pain is almost gone. The real question is will it stay gone or will it come back again in a few hours. Im gonna continue my daily trips to the chiropractor and hopefully make it go away completely.

[Prince Valiant]

Negative on the heat treatment, it may relieve the pain but it can sometimes actually make it worse. Think about it the reason why you are having nerve damage is because the nerve is being pinched, heat causes expansion which in turn causes the nerve to become more compressed. Ice is your best treatment as it will take any swelling down and relieve some pressure on the nerve.Well, your explanation is quite off, perhaps more mechanical than medical...but one part of your statement can in certain circumstances, be correct.

Humans are primarily water, not metal. We do not "expand" nor contract as a reaction to heat in the same way as metal would. Instead, differing temperatures may have differing effects on either differing chemical processes occurring in our bodies, or some physical processes occurring within our bodies.

Both Ice and Heat are what are considered analgesics, meaning, either can reduce pain by reducing the nerves ability to conduct pain impulses. Ice actually can inhibit cellular permeability of the nerve cells, reducing the nerve cells ability to transmit pain impulses. Heat, we are less certain the exact mechanisms that cause it to inhibit pain, but several theories abound, and studies prove it's pain reducing effects.

Both heat and ice also can reduce muscle spasm, which are helpful if local spasm is causing the neural entrapment. Since muscle spasm follows a pain-spasm-pain pattern, both work to reduce spasm by interrupting the "pain" portion of the cycle, thus reduces the tendency to spasm. Both heat and ice also act differently on the muscle to reduce the spasm portion, thus also helping to reduce pain, thus effectively helping to significantly reduce spasm. In certain circumstances, such as acute muscle spasm, particularly acute torticollis, heat can be contraindicated.

Where heat becomes detrimental however, is after an acute injury, which this is not. In an acute injury, a healing process known as the inflammatory process begins...the initial phase of which may last 24-72 hours, in which inflammatory cells move into the affected area to begin the process of repair...we see evidence of this from things like swelling, redness, pain (substance P which excites/activates/sensitizes the pain fibers moves into the tissue), and more. Heat can actually INCREASE the amount of these chemical mediators, thus making things more painful, increasing the amount of swelling, etc...thus increasing the work the body has to do until the inflammatory process has worked itself through, and thus the timeline for healing increases. This is why we commonly hear to use ice the first two days, then heat after.

But here, we have a different process altogether. First, it's a chronic injury...one that recurs. I can safely assume in Tom's case, a couple possibilities:

1. Tom has an issue w/ a nerve foramen, be it bone spurring, disc material herniating, or congenital causes has resulted in impingement/irritation of a nerve root. This is why continued or increasing problems should result with a visit to a neurologist/spine surgeon for further consultation/evaluation.

2. A muscular issue is causing neural compression....since he specified the neck, the 4 most common causes are scalene, sternocleidomastoid, levator scapula and rhomboids...issues here can be caused by a number of things including injury, muscle imbalance, poor work ergonomics, congenital defects, and more.

Given that this is a chronic injury, heat or ice is absolutely appropriate, and recommendations are generally given based on the particular preferences of the clinician. Some clinicians are adamant about one thing over another...so be it. Myself, I've found either to work well in many different circumstances, and unless absolutely contraindicated, won't keep a patient from performing their preference.

In this specific case, heat generally is easier for the patient to obtain/use in a wide variety of circumstances (work, bed, etc) w/o the mess that commonly comes with ice/icepacks.

And ice isn't always the best treatment either...as some people actually can almost allergic type response, be hypersensitive to ice, or can result in temporary shortening or in muscle tightness. Also, ice doesn't take swelling away per se, instead, it reduces a tendency to swell.


At this point the pain is almost gone. The real question is will it stay gone or will it come back again in a few hours. Ice or heat are generally temporary in effect, however, if muscular spasm is part/all the cause, I've seen cases where one icing/heat session has more or less resolved the patients complaint. Fwiw, for these individuals, stretching can also have fairly dramatic effects too.

As stated before though, if the issue continues to return, say more than 2x/year, other issues should be ruled out, which may be something as simple as changing ones workplace ergonomics.

[03CVLX]

Wow, That was really interesting and I think you may have hit the nail on the head in a way or at least one of the major contrbuting factors. The chairs at work are not comfortable at all. Of course my job requires me to sit there from 8-16 hrs a day. I can't go more than across the room trying to walk or stretch except for my breaks due to the nature of the calls I have to be able to answer the phone fast.

[JBs92Lude]

Prince Valiant makes some good points, however I will add my bit. I used to have bad back problems and I saw a Chiropractor on a regular basis and that greatly helped me. Once my back was less swollen and painful I did exercises to strengthen my abs and my lower back to help stop new back pain from starting. I would maybe talk to a physical therapist or a chiropractor about some simple exercises that can help your back. If you can't deal with the pain, most doctors will give you a painkiller (Vicodin) and some sort of muscle relaxer that can help you to feel better and be able to sleep if the pain gets too bad.

[Yooformula]

so thats why I saw your car at chiropractor's office! I figured you needed another decal after telling my wife how badass I thought that car was. Then I realized who it was!lol

muscle relaxers help to relax a pulled or strained muscle for temp relief until the nerve is less irritated. but some muscle strengthening will take a load off and help prevent a recurrence. For back pains usually the stomach muscles and glutes are culprits when they are weak or out of shape.

[subliminal1284]

When I was going to the chiropractor for my back pain she specifically told me not to use heat and thats the reason she gave me as why I shouldnt. Ice did seem to work better atleast in my case.

[03CVLX]

Damn Yoo, I have been trying to figure out who left that there all day. Thanks man.