Sleepless in wherever...

Hi there. Sorry to hear things aren't going well for you. Your symptoms are familiar to me. I'm wondering...how is your pillow? I had a horrible time once when I got a new pillow. It caused my neck pain to worsen and I would wake up in the middle of the night with a headache that raged at the back of my head. The formed foam pillows were the worst for me. Full fluffy pillows are a close second. Luckily, I hadn't thrown out my old flattened pillow yet and was able to just go back to using that.

This may not be the case for you, but it just might be.

I also have more troubles and pain if I've been grinding my teeth, which I've found myself doing again lately due to stress. While awake, I grab a piece of gum. I may have to get a mouth guard if I continue I my sleep. For me, ibuprophen helps more than naproxen, heat helps more than ice, massage helps more than anything. I hope you find what works for you.

Well I have to say that many of us sleep in recliners if we sleep at all and probably the rest that sleep in beds has a trusty recliner for those nights sleep just evades them. Unless your fortunate enough to be able to get your hands on the sleep number beds a recliner is second best to aligning your back to a position that relieves the most amount of pressure in all the right places. I have not slept in a bed in about 10 years even the RV has a recliner for me and if I travel it's my first question to the motel followed by a pool,spa or hot tub.

Nothing much new here. Still seeing the surgeon tomorrow. My wife brought up replacing the chair we have in out room and I jumped at the opportunity to suggest a recliner/love seat with recliners. She liked the idea so we are just waiting for the money to be right. I checked out a couple today that I liked.

I've been sleeping a bit better. Maybe the PT is helping. I spent 9 hours in the car this weekend. Not fun as this is definitely hard for me. But I made it through without any major complications.

Hi country dad Susie's right I do sing the praises of the adjustable bed! I slept in a recliner for well over ten years then this new furniture store came to town and had a huge sale well I started looking at adjustable beds, and yes they are kind of expensive but they had a deal going on (like an interest free loan ) you pay so much a month and if you pay it off in 18 months you didn't pay any interest at all! Anyway that's how I got mine, I have two extra long twin beds side by side in a California king sleigh bed frame. Each comes with its own wireless remote. I can't lay flat so I sleep in a fowlers position, and often durning the night I will grab the remote and tweak the bed a little by either adjusting the head or foot of the bed, or both, up or down just to get a bit more comfortable! In my opinion it beats sleeping in a recliner hands down! Just no comparison! it was one of the best investments I've ever made!

I still have my recliner, it is a big heavy duty over sized one, and is one piece of furniture I insisted on keeping! But after the divorce and my move, I needed some more furniture so I got a new couch and a love seat and they are all recliners too! ( I got the same type of deal that I got with the adjustable beds 18 months to pay it off with no interest )Anyway when your sitting down, in my house I firmly believe everyone should be able to put their feet and legs up and just relax and be comfortable!

I hope your appointment with the surgeon goes well for you! Hopefully he might be able to help you??? Good luck to you!

White Beard

Best wishes on your appointment with the new doctor. Driving and being on the computer wreck my neck too. No curve in the cervical spine (military neck) and 2 rear end collisions with whiplash don't help matters!

As for beds, I asked my chiropractor what kind he had. He uses a sleep number bed although he'd rather have a tempurpedic but they are 'too hot'. I used to have a name brand 'pillow top' but it was 'soft' and after 10 years I was being rolled into the other person in my bed! My back was a nightmare from that! Now that I have replaced it with a memory foam type of bed, the rolling doesn't happen. It is wonderful for my shoulder issues, but I wake up with my lower back on fire! The good news is, once I'm up and moving around, the fire is quenched! I hope you find just what you need. I'm only 4'11" tall and most recliners cause me more problems than good but a lumbar support in a straight backed chair helps me the most. You'll figure it out.

I have a leggit & platt adjustable base for my current bed. And on really bad nights the recliner works wonders. You could try a message cushion for the car or a lumbar support cushion...or a small travel pillows, with cars it can be difficult to get comfortible...frequent breaks when you drive might help, I used to drive from south Houston to above little Rock Arkansas, now its hard just getting around Houston and very uncomfortable...
I hope you find something that helps...beds nowadays are not built to last and if you need to replace a sleep number the expensiveiness of those beds...
You might also consider a sleep study...
Many well wishes...

Good luck on the appointment and as far as beds I wish they could figure out how to make an adjustable water bed!! I slept on full wave no baffles for many years and never had a issue that was the last time I actually"slept" good in a bed. I can't get my head elevated to a good point on them anymore and its necessary due to breathing issues when I lay flat. Sleep numbers has gotten better but still not sure it's worth the expense when there's so many adjustable beds out there these days.

As for driving frequent breaks to walk around works. We have a Toyota truck that has to be the worst riding seats I have seen. The nicest best riding seats I have found would surprise most ppl. Its a Dodge challenger,seats are wide,low and high back without a headrest and those things cause a break in support where you need it most. These are heated which I don't use here in Florida since the seats are black! They seem to support everywhere I need it. Second best was a Lexus but a expensive option to the package and not in our ballpark budget.

Look into a lumbar messaging cushions for the car and maybe ditch the pillow, the brookstone store is expensive but you can try them out and then buy it elsewhere...Sorry your doctor couldn't give you better help...

CD, well I would be thankful the dr was honest with me about someone wanting to do surgery based on what he saw. I think you are feeling a little defeated at the moment but don't let this get you down. My question is, do you feel he spent enough time with you to go over everything enough to give you a truthful answer? I always respect a surgeon that tells me he doesn't think surgery is the way to go. Doing surgery is where their payday is at & when one passes up the chance to collect that pay day I have to respect him.

Robaxin is a muscle relaxer. Do you feel like it helps you at all? There are newer ones out there that help a lot of people & will not mess with the gut causing heartburn & indigestion. Have you ever taken Zanaflex or Baclofen? Because of the crohns you should avoid Ibuprofen, any NSAID for that matter. Ibuprofen works wonders for me but it causes too many gi problems. Do you get flare ups of crohns arthritis? Didn't you just start Humira recently? Humira much like Remicade helped my joint pain a great deal.

It may well be time to go back to the dr that is managing your pain & just tell him what he is doing for you is not helping & he needs to come up with a different plan. If he starts mumbling then its time to move on & find someone in pain mgt that will help you.

Take care.

CD, how long have you been on Humira? For some reason I was thinking you have not been on it all that long.

A thought I will run by you is, have you ever had an ablation done to the nerve endings in your neck? Its not a cure of course, but for some these procedures like this can give us relief. The dr that does it must do a diagnostic block to see if you are a candidate for the procedure or not. I would tell my current PM dr that you belong to an online support group & some of the people have had pain relief with this done & ask him if he does these or can he refer you out to a dr that does them, to see if you are a candidate for it.

You can use our search feature here & type in either radio frequency ablation or RFA to read about it. Something to consider.