Neck pain and bad headaches..help!

[Toree]

Hi,
I have been seeing an increase in the headaches that begin with soreness and then pain in the left side of my neck. It involves the entire curve across the shoulder blade up and around and eventually in the base of my skull. This causes painful headaches that can last a day or two. Sometimes if I am sitting and suddenly turn my head it sounds like someone crunching celery and that shoots right up my neck.

I also suffer from problems with my balance when I tip my head forward or bend down to look under something.
Then I experience a terrible sensation of my balance is way off. The room is not spinning but feel I have to grab ahold of someone or thing and keep my head absolutely straight, eyes straight and sit still for hours until it passes. I have meclizine for this but it does not work at all. Sometimes aspirin and a small dose Valium will do it but it will be a full day before I am better.

The neck and balance thing is getting worse. My doctor said the issue with the balance is due to Positional Vertigo but I am not sure.
I would appreciate any suggestions about the neck issue..thank you.

[AMK34]

Hi,

I have suffered years from vertigo and can sympathize....there is not alot that they can do for it. But the Pain your discribing sounds like you my have a ruptured or buldging disc in your neck. I have had two cervical fusion this past year and I had similar symptoms. You need to talk eith your doc. about getting an MRI.

What other symptoms are you having?

Hope this Helps...

AMK34

[Toree]

Thank you so much for replying..I was beginning to wonder if I was having a problem that no one else recognized.

I have had people say it could be a pinched nerve in the neck area. I never thought about a disc problem.
The sounds I hear when I turn my head, sometimes, range from that crunching noise to a popping or cracking. There is tendency to go into a bad headache and soreness when the crunching noise happens. This headache pain makes me nauseated and I can't function until it passes.

I have mentioned it to my doctor and he said the crunching and popping is possibly due to some osteoarthritis in the bone. But how do I know if that sound is caused by the bone? Would I want a MRI or someother imaging test done?
Thank you so much for your interest...

[AMK34]

I would not worry so much about the sounds but the symptoms your discribing are. An MRI will show if there is any ruptured or buldging disc that don't show on regular xrays or cat scans. Do have any pain or numbness down your arms into your fingers?

[Toree]

Yes, both arms. This scared me in the beginning because I thought I was having a heart attack. My doctor did an EKG and that was normal and some labs which were within the normal range and that new lab for seeing if you have any inflammation in the blood vessels around the heart too but it was okay. I still wasn't convinced and went for a test that was an ultra-sound of the heart and it was okay.

But at the time, about 6 months ago I did not have the loud neck noises, but did have the neck pain and headaches. He told me to try ibuprofen which did absolutely nothing. He is a primary care doctor and has been my doctor for 6 years but I think he is missing something here and I am worried....