Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Phantom Menace

Over the weekend my neck started cramping up in a bad way. It started Saturday and immediately I wrote if off to a crick, except that it sorta started in the middle of the day and got worse. Then I remembered trying to play He-Man Friday night with a new push mower I had bought (it includes a grass catcher so that Fred can play outside and not have to wade through a foot of dead grass). The salesman seemed to have lifted it with ease, so why should I have a problem doing the same. When I tried though something popped in my neck and the thing didn’t budge.

That was 4-5 days ago and it’s still killing me….then I had a conversation that has now got me completely freaked out. My dad lives in Jacksonville, Fl and though I only get to see him once or twice a year, we talk on the phone about every 2 weeks. I had last chatted him up about a week ago and he was still suffering through the flu. He said he’d call me back when he felt better. No big deal. A week goes by and The Granny calls asking when the last time I had talked to him was. Seems she had been trying to reach him for a few days and couldn’t get him to answer the phone.

Later in the day I called, got him to answer, only to discover that he’d been to the ER 3 times in 4 days. It turns out that out of the blue his neck had cramped up so severely that he may have to start taking some physical therapy depending on the results of an MRI they have scheduled for this coming Friday!!!! It wasn’t until I hung up the phone and tried to turn my head without looking like a robot, that I realized the freaky connection! Now I’m wondering if the timing is coincidence, yet possibly something genetic I need to be aware of is going on or if I’m having sympathy neck pains.

2 comments:

The Father of Five said...

Herniated Disk... Yup.. that's what my "extreme neck crick" turned into. I herniated the disk between c5 and c6 - and it heniated IN (into my spinal cord) and pinched off some nerves that made my left arm and the top of my hand go numb.

It started as just a pain in my neck/shoulders - and just never got better.

I went "under the knife" and had the disk removed, and a "cage" put in.

Not that I hope this is what you and your father are dealing with, but in my case, after recovery from the surgery (and two years to let the nerve repair itself) I am 90% back to where I was (I lost a little bit of "turning my head" motion on the far extreme ends..

Good Luck!

Julie Young said...

Now that is crazy. What are the odds of you both having the same problem. Keep us updated on what you find out.