u/Sad_Purchase_9819

Hi everyone,

I'm a 26-year-old male and I've been dealing with constant neck pain every day for the past 16 months after a workplace injury.

The pain is mainly at the very top of my neck, right under the base of my skull, and extends down through the back of my neck. I also have constant tightness in my upper trapezius muscles, shoulders, and sometimes between my shoulder blades. The muscles feel like they're permanently tense and never fully relax.

The pain is worse with:

• Sitting for long periods
• Driving
• Looking up
• Holding my head in one position for too long

I recently had a cervical MRI. From what I've been told, it showed only mild degenerative changes and no significant spinal cord or nerve root compression. Because of that, I've been told the MRI doesn't fully explain why I'm in constant pain.

What I'm struggling to understand is how I can have pain that's severe enough to affect my everyday life when the MRI findings appear relatively mild.

Has anyone else had an MRI that looked fairly normal or only showed mild changes, but still had significant daily neck pain?

Some questions I have are:

• Can mild MRI findings still be responsible for severe symptoms?
• Has anyone had constant muscle tightness that turned out to be coming from the cervical facet joints?
• Did your MRI miss something that was later identified through other tests or diagnostic injections?
• If your MRI didn't explain your pain, what eventually led to a diagnosis?

I've since had additional investigations, but I'm mainly interested in hearing from people whose MRI didn't seem to match the amount of pain they were experiencing.

I'd really appreciate hearing about anyone's experience, especially if your pain started at the base of your skull and spread into your neck and shoulders like mine.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 26-year-old male and I've been dealing with constant neck pain for over 16 months after a workplace injury. The pain has been there every single day since the injury and hasn't gone away.

The pain is mainly on the right side of my neck, right underneath the base of my skull (where the head meets the neck). When I got injured I felt a pinch in this area and ever since then the pain hasn't gone away. I feel the most pain in this area however the pain extends across my whole neck and down to my shoulders and shoulder blades as well as causing pain in my lower back.

The pain is usually a deep ache almost crushing feeling with a lot of muscle tightness and stiffness. It feels like my neck is constantly "guarding" itself. Looking up, sitting at a desk, driving, or staying in one position all make it worse. I'm basically always in pain and never comfortable due to this injury, exercise only aggrevates my neck pain as well as the surrounding muscles.

My cervical MRI only showed relatively mild degenerative changes and no nerve or spinal cord compression, so it didn't really explain why I've been in so much pain.

Because of that, I had a SPECT/CT bone scan, which showed slightly active right C4/5 and left C7/T1 facet joint arthritis, with no other significant abnormalities.

What confuses me is that my worst pain is much higher up, right under the base of my skull, whereas the increased uptake on the bone scan is lower in my neck.

My pain specialist believes the muscles are contributing significantly and I'm scheduled for trigger point injections. At the same time, I'm wondering whether the facet joints could still be the underlying pain generator that's causing the surrounding muscles to stay tight.

One thing I've noticed is that the pain feels like it starts deep near the joints at the top of my neck, and then the muscles around my neck and shoulders become extremely aching and painful. I've read that irritated facet joints can cause secondary muscle guarding, which could be what I'm experiencing.

At the moment the plan is to have trigger point injections, but I'm wondering whether I should also be asking about diagnostic medial branch blocks to rule in or out the facet joints.

Has anyone here had:

• Constant pain at the base of the skull/top of the neck?
• Tight upper traps and neck muscles that never seem to relax?
• Trigger point injections that only partially helped?
• Facet joint pain that was eventually confirmed with medial branch blocks?
• Radiofrequency ablation that significantly improved this type of pain?

I'd really love to hear from anyone who has had a similar pattern because after 16 months it's becoming incredibly frustrating. Before this injury I was very active (gym, running, basketball, soccer), and now I can't exercise without hurting my neck and surrounding muscles.

Thanks in advance for any advice or similar experiences.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 26-year-old male and I've been dealing with constant neck pain for over 16 months after a workplace injury. The pain has been there every single day since the injury and hasn't gone away.

The pain is mainly on the right side of my neck, right underneath the base of my skull (where the head meets the neck). When I got injured I felt a pinch in this area and ever since then the pain hasn't gone away. I feel the most pain in this area however the pain extends across my whole neck and down to my shoulders and shoulder blades as well as causing pain in my lower back.

The pain is usually a deep ache almost crushing feeling with a lot of muscle tightness and stiffness. It feels like my neck is constantly "guarding" itself. Looking up, sitting at a desk, driving, or staying in one position all make it worse. I'm basically always in pain and never comfortable due to this injury, exercise only aggrevates my neck pain as well as the surrounding muscles.

My cervical MRI only showed relatively mild degenerative changes and no nerve or spinal cord compression, so it didn't really explain why I've been in so much pain.

Because of that, I had a SPECT/CT bone scan, which showed slightly active right C4/5 and left C7/T1 facet joint arthritis, with no other significant abnormalities.

What confuses me is that my worst pain is much higher up, right under the base of my skull, whereas the increased uptake on the bone scan is lower in my neck.

My pain specialist believes the muscles are contributing significantly and I'm scheduled for trigger point injections. At the same time, I'm wondering whether the facet joints could still be the underlying pain generator that's causing the surrounding muscles to stay tight.

One thing I've noticed is that the pain feels like it starts deep near the joints at the top of my neck, and then the muscles around my neck and shoulders become extremely aching and painful. I've read that irritated facet joints can cause secondary muscle guarding, which could be what I'm experiencing.

At the moment the plan is to have trigger point injections, but I'm wondering whether I should also be asking about diagnostic medial branch blocks to rule in or out the facet joints.

Has anyone here had:

• Constant pain at the base of the skull/top of the neck?
• Tight upper traps and neck muscles that never seem to relax?
• Trigger point injections that only partially helped?
• Facet joint pain that was eventually confirmed with medial branch blocks?
• Radiofrequency ablation that significantly improved this type of pain?

I'd really love to hear from anyone who has had a similar pattern because after 16 months it's becoming incredibly frustrating. Before this injury I was very active (gym, running, basketball, soccer), and now I can't exercise without hurting my neck and surrounding muscles.

Thanks in advance for any advice or similar experiences.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 26-year-old male and I've been dealing with constant neck pain for over 16 months after a workplace injury. The pain has been there every single day since the injury and hasn't gone away.

The pain is mainly on the right side of my neck, right underneath the base of my skull (where the head meets the neck). When I got injured I felt a pinch in this area and ever since then the pain hasn't gone away. I feel the most pain in this area however the pain extends across my whole neck and down to my shoulders and shoulder blades as well as causing pain in my lower back.

The pain is usually a deep ache almost crushing feeling with a lot of muscle tightness and stiffness. It feels like my neck is constantly "guarding" itself. Looking up, sitting at a desk, driving, or staying in one position all make it worse. I'm basically always in pain and never comfortable due to this injury, exercise only aggrevates my neck pain as well as the surrounding muscles.

My cervical MRI only showed relatively mild degenerative changes and no nerve or spinal cord compression, so it didn't really explain why I've been in so much pain.

Because of that, I had a SPECT/CT bone scan, which showed slightly active right C4/5 and left C7/T1 facet joint arthritis, with no other significant abnormalities.

What confuses me is that my worst pain is much higher up, right under the base of my skull, whereas the increased uptake on the bone scan is lower in my neck.

My pain specialist believes the muscles are contributing significantly and I'm scheduled for trigger point injections. At the same time, I'm wondering whether the facet joints could still be the underlying pain generator that's causing the surrounding muscles to stay tight.

One thing I've noticed is that the pain feels like it starts deep near the joints at the top of my neck, and then the muscles around my neck and shoulders become extremely aching and painful. I've read that irritated facet joints can cause secondary muscle guarding, which could be what I'm experiencing.

At the moment the plan is to have trigger point injections, but I'm wondering whether I should also be asking about diagnostic medial branch blocks to rule in or out the facet joints.

Has anyone here had:

• Constant pain at the base of the skull/top of the neck?
• Tight upper traps and neck muscles that never seem to relax?
• Trigger point injections that only partially helped?
• Facet joint pain that was eventually confirmed with medial branch blocks?
• Radiofrequency ablation that significantly improved this type of pain?

I'd really love to hear from anyone who has had a similar pattern because after 16 months it's becoming incredibly frustrating. Before this injury I was very active (gym, running, basketball, soccer), and now I can't exercise without hurting my neck and surrounding muscles.

Thanks in advance for any advice or similar experiences.