Pain in the Neck

Cervical Spine and the spinal nerves that might be hurting me. (image credit)

No, no I am not talking about the kiddos!

My biggest complaint about IIH is the neck pain. Often times when I get the big head feeling it will be accompanied by a stiff and sore neck. Before I started treatment I would say it was probably the worst pain I have ever experienced and I have had kidney stones so that's saying something.

It is a documented symptom of IH so I have been wondering why it happens. I finally put together enough motivation to research it. It is not caused by infection. My CSF has been tested for all types and it is squeaky clean, as is should be in a patient with IH. It is theorized (no one knows for sure of course because no one will bother to research) that the pressure causes the spinal nerve sheaths to stretch so much that they exit the spine and actually enter the muscle. Ouch.

I actually thought for about two weeks before the double vision started that I had pulled a muscle in my neck. I never thought to go to the doctor because who goes to the doctor for a pulled neck muscle? I even saw somewhere that they can take over a month to heal so I wasn't really worried about it. Turns out I should have been. It was the first indicator that my ICP was dangerously high. Secretly I felt like something was really wrong. You get that bone deep feeling where your body tries to tell you, but you ignore it because you get the same feeling other times and it's nothing. Like the time I got a rash the night the President announced we killed Osama Bin Laden and I was convinced he was going to come on and talk about biological warfare and I was showing the first symptoms but in reality I was just allergic to the antibiotic I was taking. I felt like something was really wrong that time too and it totally wasn't so forgive me if I occasionally do not trust my own body.

Oh well, all's well that ends well right?