Today for no appearant reason I started having neck pain. My chair was against the wall and I sat back in my chair and put my head against the wall. Then I started having pain in the upper back part of my neck and around my jaw. It hurt to move my head back and my throat and tongue seemed to swell up. It became hard to swallow and hard to breathe through my mouth at times. After several minutes, the pain went away, but my neck is still a little sore from whatever happened. Does anyone have an idea on what happened? Never had any pain that made my tongue and throat seem to swell.

Putting your neck in that position could have pinched a nerve especially if you have narrowed discs. I can't ever put my neck in that position as the nerve pinches off and I'll get a feeling of not being able to breath and it effects my throat. That's one possibility but other things could be going on to so you might want to avoid doing that. I never had the tongue swell or anything but I live with neck pain and have learned over the years what not to do. The soreness could be a left over from the neck spasm that may have pinched off a nerve.

I've had my head in that position before and nothing has happened. I didn't even lean back that far, so I don't understand how that happened. The chair was up against the wall and I was sitting on the edge of it. All I did was scoot to the back of the chair and put my head against the wall. I also can pop my neck just by moving it to the side. My whole back and neck can be popped easily. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not.