ways to relax shoulders???

[solardust]

Hi everyone,its me again, I find I have many questions, and am driving myself nuts trying to relax,I got the new collar yesterday,(miami)and find myself back in the habit of hunching up my shoulders,which I know is not helping,plus does anyone know the symptoms for c5 c6 nerve pinch,???such as, are the legs or feet involved? And how can I reduce this terrible cycle of worrying?I dont ask for much do I,lol thanx for any help given.

[more]

I think I semi answered this question on another page - but here is another reply in case you did not see my last reply.

I have found relaxing definitely aids in the pain reduction. I often find I have the most pain when my shoulders are tensed (in the cold or I am under stress).

If you can try to relieve the tension in your shoulders - when sitting push your shoulders down (not with pressure but using the muscles in your upper back) and don't hunch them. Do not force them down but try to relax them -- this will build up the muscles and also relieve some of the tension in the neck.

I found when I was in the Miami J doing this tended to relax me more and cause less tension on the neck - it also gave me the ability to depend on the neck muscles more and I did not totally depend on the brace to support my head. I tended to do this more when I was sitting than walking The day the brace came off my doctor referred me to a rehab doctor to assess my strength and the rehab doctor could not believe the strength I had in my neck after being in a brace for six weeks - when I told him of my not depending on the brace when sitting he indicated this definitely helped me.

Note, I only did the neck muscle use very minimally at first and gradually increased it.

Note; I had 2 levels done with hardware and used my own bone (C5-6 and C6-7). Maybe I had less pain in the neck because I definitely felt more pain coming from my hip.

[solardust]

Thankyou somuch "More" for responding to all of my questions,you are right about just letting the shoulders drop,it takes a bit but it works,I had surgery aug 13, donor bone,and hardware,level c6-7,(c5-6) is also buldging with mild flatting on cord,but my NS did not fuse this,he said it was too much for me,the reason this was even mentioned was when in hospital he came and seen me,I told him how gratefull I was for the pain to be gone out of my right arm and shoulder,but noticed pain in left shoulder,his response("That from c-5-6,I did not do that one")talk about wanting to throw -up!I asked why, he said"it would be too much"that other levels tend, to go from pressure of fixed level,and it would be yrs before I would have to worry,just position arm,to relieve pain"He told me at 1st appt,that he is a surgeon ,that he could of thrown level c 5-6, on the tab but did not,he has 6 patents on differant hardware and tools that he invented,as well as opening a buisness here in town for a new plate he developed for our kind of surgery, that the screws will not break, and is supposed to make it so patients no longer need a collar after surgery,as well as being recommened, as a top notch surgeon,but....to be honest, I am still worried about the whole thing, I really do not want to go through this again,and how will I know what is healing, and what is that c-5-6,doing,and god forbid I go into that level of pain again,so I guess that adds to my worry.I see him this tuesday,so I plan on getting a better idea on what to expect.gee's sorry about the length here,I swear I would love to invite you all over for some coffee and have a powwow,lol again thankyou,and as ya prolly already guessed , you all have not heard the last of me,Diana

[dennisgb]

Hi,

I think I finally figured out why your surgeon opted to not fuse both levels. You are a younger patient. Fusion reduces movement on your neck. It also puts more stress on the non fused levels, causing them to fail at some point. Your surgeon is concerned that being young, you should not have the other level fused until nessesary, or you will end up with your whole neck fused before you are 50.

Neck problems do not cause problems in the legs. These are different nerves (lumbar). People who have neck problems more often have lower back problems, these nerves do effect the legs and feet. I had C-56 and C6-7 and also have lumbar disk problems.

I have terrible problems with muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders. Use the relaxing excercises. Also, rub Flexall on there. Have been taking antihistamin also. For some reason this helps reduce the spasms.