Difficulty moving my head up, down, left and right! :-(

[greensmurf]

Even when taking Neurofen, (the night before) when going in the shower I struggle to wash my hair because moving my head in any direction (especially up) hurts. Also it's difficult in the car, to look around.

How much pain do I have to be in to be seen? My hospital appointment isn't til Dec which cannot be moved sooner and it seems like I'm waiting a lifetime.

Anyone in the same situation?

The warmth of the shower helps instantly but only for a minute :-(

GS I was thnking of starting a thread about this very thing today.

I send my empathy and sympathy.

I have aggravated an old whiplash injury and I'm in agony though the stiffness has eased ( I have been in pain for about a month).

I have seen a doctor at my GP's and she advised looking up and down and side to side several times. It doesn't seem to help but freaks me out as I can hear crunching noises!

My right shoulder is also very painful and in bed I have to lie on my side instead of cwtching down, which is the worst thing as I find I am only sleeping lightly.

I had a steroid injection when it was really bad years ago which really helped. I have been told to go back in a month. I take strongish painkillers for arthritis but they don't help much with this pain.

Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks SM for the useful info, will try the epsom salts and no pillow. I did cut down to having 1 from 2 when I first started with this, god the thought of no pillow-UGH!

Earthymama thanks for the reply. Did your whiplash bring on the arthritis? I strongly suspect that mine is spondylitis. Negative RA tests. Hoping to have H-LAB test and x-ray and scan at hospital.

Don't know if this will help at all, but when I got a whiplash injury I found that Pilates exercises really helped. The one called 'Egyptian' in particular. Before I discovered this, I struggled to look behind when setting off in the car, it was affecting my sleep, and I was in some sort of pain pretty much all the time (and yes, washing my hair was painful). Now I can honestly say I hardly think about it. I have to be a bit careful with my posture - basically just making sure I sit up straight - and if I find my neck hurts a bit, I just do the Pilates exercises for a day or two and it's all fixed.
The doctor, to be honest, wasn't much use - I had an X-ray, and was told it was just 'wear and tear' and I should take pain killers.

sympathies, am also suffering from aggravated whiplash, was sore already yesterday and got into car with someone who was so busy yakking that they reversed into car behind, only lightly but enough to make me extremely sore today, no pain like it.