Pain in neck/upper spine when tilting head backwards

[Ryan_11]

I've had this problem for quite a while now. I'm a 26 year old male. I have a desk job but never suffer from any pain while at the desk or afterwards. The cause may be from weight training that I started 8 months ago, although I never felt any pain in any of the gym sessions or had a sore neck or upper back afterwards.

I only noticed the problem when I was flossing my teeth before bed one night and tilted my head back to get a better angle. When it was almost all the way back (as far as it would go normally) I noticed a pain/hard ache in the back of my neck/upper spine. Around where the crease develops between the head and upper back when tilting the head back. If I had to pinpoint it I'd say it's near the top of the spine but not quite in the neck. About where the last couple of vertebrae are that you can feel if you massage your upper spine.

I kind of forgot about it as the pain was only present in that certain position and as it's an uncommon position it doesn't affect my lifestyle. However I'd say it's been present for at least a few months.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I went to a physio as I had a little bit of ulnar nerve twinges in my left elbow/tricep after working out. He then worked on my neck 'to relieve pressure'. His techniques were kind of pulling on my head from behind (when I was lying down) and poking in the neck area.

Unfortunately in the week after this I had pain in both arms and some tingling in my right little finger. He'd obviously caused a lot of irritation to the ulnar nerve where it originates in the neck.

I've just had 4 weeks off all exercise and am feeling better, although the pain in my neck is still there and is a bit worse than before thanks to the physio (but again only when tilting my head back).

I went to another physio and he just said that my nervous system was extremely irritable (thanks to what the other guy had done) and it should calm down after a couple of weeks. It's a week later and I'm feeling much better from a nerve point of view, but the pain in my upper spine/neck is concerning.

Does anyone know what this could be? How to get rid of it? Who would be the best person to see for treatment?

My experience is that physical therapists are pretty much useless unless used for rehab/sports injuries etc, it's just trial and error for anything else. Doctors are clueless and just send you for scans, and I don't think a scan would reveal anything as I'm fine doing everything else apart from tilting my head back. I'm also a bit dubious of chiropractors as they are the same as physios and from my recent experiences I don't want to risk having manual therapy to make things worse again. I realise this doesn't leave many options left but any first hand experience or advise would be appreciated.

[Crissy12345]

I have a simler problem. It changes a bit everyday actually. The pain feels like soarnes. But I have no reason to be sore. I haven't been working out (lazyness). The pain is in my shoulders, back, and neck. It gets a lot worse at night, which is very annoying. When I tilt my head down the feeling is simler to pulling of hamstrings. I don't understand what's wrong since I'm only 14.

[Crissy12345]

I have a simler problem. It changes a bit everyday actually. The pain feels like soarnes. But I have no reason to be sore. I haven't been working out (lazyness). The pain is in my shoulders, back, and neck. It gets a lot worse at night, which is very annoying. When I tilt my head down the feeling is simler to pulling of hamstrings. I don't understand what's wrong since I'm only 14.

[jazzy532]

I was dusting the overhead fan, I tilted my head back and had the biggest badest headache in the world, and it went behind both my eyes what on earth is happening, I fell in my bathroom last year and cracked my head on the cabinet it took weeks to get better and now this.
is this related in any way?

[cb710]

I have the same problem also. pain just wont go away took advil, ty, aleve. still
didn't work for me. So one day I visit my mom she said what's wrong with you, then she said go see your dad which he's a doctor. buster. j/k. so I went to see my dad and he just says lay down front forward and acupuncture me told me to come back every week same day i was there. so it worked  NO MORE PAIN. So try it see if it works for you. never trusted my dad so now i do. took me 7 years. don't wait. so don't be going and getting surging done to your neck or spinal cord in till you find out what it is. or you're regret it

[amp281]

I had many of the symptoms described here and had occult tethered cord.  It took 3 years to get the diagnosis and I did a lot of physical therapy, massage, and chiropractic/osteopathic manipulations with no results.  Was told it was a muscoskeletal issue or a whiplash injury or a mental illness.  Nothing explained how it moved from being a shoulder problem to a full body problem.  

I had full body spasms when I tilted my head back or look down.  I still have it to a lesser degree as I am 2 months post op and theres still much healing to do (nerves heal slow).  So anyone in here, with clean cervical MRI but still have neck pain, try a thoracic and lumbar mri to see if you have a tumor or tether or any other progressive disease!

[amp281]

You could have a Cervical Herniated Disk, chiari, or a tethered spinal cord.  Get an MRI!