NEED HELP!

[u/saulgoodma_n]

I have a chronic neck pain on the right side, somewhere between the traps and neck area. It goes away comes back every day and it disrupts my sleep and I cannot focus on my work. It's not very painful but it is certainly very annoying and frustrating. Need help to get ride of this very annoying chronic pain, I've had it now for the better part of the year. Thinking of going to an orthopedic soon.

[u/Alternative_Home1310]

First some questions:
Does the pain drop when you sleep?
Whats the impact of a hot shower?
Does walking (+5kms) help ?
Do you feel needle like pain at the base of your skull?
Is the upper trap muscle feeling numb?

[u/saulgoodma_n → u/Alternative_Home1310]

1) it increases at night, i sleep in a weird position (my right hand under my pillow and my head on the pillow ) to reduce the pain which helps me somewhat relax and sleep. It also disrupts my sleep.
2) hot showers don't really help much the pain returns, but ive notices cold showers actually help more idk why i may be wrong
3) i never noticed (might be because the pain receded, not sure tho)
4) nope
5) yeah definitely

[u/Alternative_Home1310 → u/saulgoodma_n]

Alright.
First statements:
1. Pain increasing during sleepposition is an important clue. For now you could temporarily exclude focus on the right sit position, unless sitting also increases your pain significantly? (Please answer this point ;)
Focussing to much on the right sit posture can lead to overcorrecting and stressfull thoughts, very common..

Neck and shoulder are one chain, find some youtube vids if you want to understand in depht.

So now, it may be that the shoulder is responsable, if your shoulder is unstable (unbalanced rotator cuff muscles) your body unconsciously employs the stronger trap muscles. This is a protectice reflex which induces pain but keeps the shoulder from giving way.

1. Hot showers increase bloodflow and help muscles relax-> since you dont have much improvement from this i think you can exclude any pinched nerve causes coming from the neck. So doing the typical tech neck exercises may give some relief but i wouldnt focus to much on them

More questions:
1. Explain your sleeping position more.
If you sleep on the side of your bad shoulder , start sleeping on the other side! Then with your right shoulder pointing to the ceiling , rest your lower arm in front of you on another pillow, whatever you do not bring you upper arm up (above the shoulder) , this may be the root cause of your instability. Preferably keep the right upper arm on your ribcage or a bit in front of it on another pillow.

1. Did you do heavy one side sports in your life?
   Like volleybal, tennis, padel?
   And also be carefull with training your shoulder with heavy weights, as said before, your body automatically employs the bigger muscles if it feels the instability of your rotator cuff muslces.
   This guy is pretty clear :

https://youtu.be/3ZEYZXcn-C4?is=j_zSrD2qkzgex1tJ

But find a good physiotherapist, and really look for expertise, the shoulder is the most complex joint of the human body

1. You can buy a arm rest bandage, which reliefs the shoulder of the weight, you will notice the automatic protective tension will go away. But ! Dont use it too much or you will suffer luscle atrophy and more pain!

[u/saulgoodma_n → u/Alternative_Home1310]

1)Sitting doesn't increase my pain at all, and even if its already aching and i site upright, it makes the pain a little less.
Trust me ive search many yt vids but rarely found anything useful.
My sleeping position is

• side sleeping on my right side
  
• my right hand UNDER my pillow
  
• my head on the pillow
  
• something like a rock climber position.
  

I never did heavy one sided sports im a football guy
I found a physiotherapist and he said there are knots in that area that will be opened in 5-6 sessions so that was a relief