I cannot help but push myself. Whether that be juggling three different jobs or being a high performing athlete. I do not mind everything I do, if anything I love the challenge and opportunity. I set high expectations for myself. However, there are stressors and tension in the things I do. I tend to hold all that stress and tension in my neck. I have always carried tension and stress in my neck ever and began to notice I was doing it even more when I became an athlete in college. Even after I retired from my sport, I have moved on to another sport that also requires a lot of stress on my body and even my mind worrying about the pain. On top of that, my three jobs that I tackle can also cause me stress that puts my neck even under more tension.
I began tracking my pain levels on June 13th, 2022. On a 10-point pain scale I would rate the pain I was and am experiencing would be a 3. The pain is uncomfortable and sometimes fades if I am distracted enough to where I hardly notice it. It is not till my day is done and I try falling asleep where my pain point scale goes up into a 4 or 5.
The scales that I utilized to track my neck pain was the McGill Pain Inventory and the Visual Analogue Scale. According to physio-pedia.com, the Visual Analogue Scale has a few ways of rating pain. The one that is the simplest to use is a scale that is a 100 mm horizontal line with different sections on the scale meaning a certain intensity of pain. 0-4 mm is no pain, 5-44 mm is mild pain, 45-74 mm is moderate pain, 75-100 mm is serve pain. Looking back on my pain diary where I use this scale, I find myself between mild to moderate pain. Most of the days I would be in the mild range during the day where the pain comes and goes. One thing I found interesting that I had not taken notice of before, was that while I am trying to fall asleep I find myself in the moderate range of pain. The pain was bad enough to where it was inhibiting my ability to fall asleep.
The McGill Pain Inventory Questionnaire is where you check off the type of pain you are feeling along with the intensity of the pain and mark where you are feeling pain. For example, I am experiencing moderate gnawing pain and moderate tender pain. I rated those pains moderate and all around the neck and shoulder area. I think it would be useful if they added a tightness category in the questionnaire along with the others, since it can be considered a type of pain as well. I feel this way because I have in the past and am currently experiencing that type of pain. I have also spoken with other individuals who have struggled with a similar type of pain.
Since the pain I am feeling as been around for a few years, I was no stranger to using conventional or alternative medicine. From my experience, conventional medicine had no effect in relieving my pain. Alternative medicine on the other hand has proven to be the best form of relief for my pain. Some alternatives medicines I have used and am currently using are, massage therapy, chiropractic work, muscle relaxation sessions, and acupuncture. Some medical alternatives work better than other depending upon the individual person. For some, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) will be a good way to control their pain (Brannon et. al, 2014). The ones that I found that gave me short term relief were the chiropractic work and relaxation sessions. The ones that were most effective and gave me long term relief were the massage therapy and the acupuncture work. I continue to go to massage therapy for my neck pain as it has shown to be the best to keep my pain under control.
References
Brannon, L., Feist, J., Updegraff, J. (2014) Health Psychology: An Introduction to Behavior and Health. (8th ed). Cengage Learning.
Visual analogue scale. Physiopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://www.physio-pedia.com/Visual_Analogue_Scale
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