I have had episodes of acute neck pain on and off for years, but it now seems to have 'settled' into more of an everyday chronic pain issue. Painkillers don't help, I have tried physio, chiropractic, osteopathy, seeing the GP of course, but the message from all of them seems to be that based on what they see on an xray it shouldn't really hurt. However, it really does, it's becoming quite debilitating. Periodically I get crisis episodes where my back seizes completely and it is incredibly painful. There is no arm tingling, but I get daily pain across my upper back and over my head, as well as a very nasty specific hot pain around the area of the damaged vertebra. The radiographers report says:
'There is isolated disc degeneration at C5/6 with height loss, and associated secondary to endplate sclerosis and minor osteophyte.
There is resultant angulation and minor loss of the normal lordosis centred on this level as a result. Normal coronal alignment.'
So given everyone says that it shouldn't hurt and therefore offer no real advice, can anyone suggest a way forward? 