u/Substantial-Debt2325

All started when I was watching a TV show with my little brother. I tried to crack my neck like always and ended up feeling a strange pop in my neck around my right hyoid bone, a little under it. This was followed by some ringing ears and some lightheaded feelings. The next day I had a terrible pain in my throat on the right side when I swallowed. Then over a week or so I started to develop nerve tingling in my face and my hands. Then my right SCM began to tighten. I saw a neurologist my MRI’s were clean other than some inflammation in some areas, he gave me a trigger point injection that didn’t really help in my occipital area. This didn’t help, and he then sent me to physical therapy. I formed a knot in my throat around the same area under my hyoid bone, and the nerve pain went away at this point after a month.

PT helped my SCM release, which released plenty of my muscle pains. However, over months the right SCM would just retighten over and over again. Eventually other muscles starting taking its place and role. Including my right masseter, and my right scalene. Then fast forward 8 months of this cycle happening. Some periods where all I’d have is pain in my throat, and a cough without any sinuses with only one of those mentioned muscles being tight. Then this summer it went from tightness in my right middle scalene to hot inflammatory pain in my throat around my hyoid bone. Then it exploded into nerve pain that would have extreme cross-talk between my trigeminal nerves and my great Auricular nerve and my transverse nerves on my right SCM. Along with plenty of cross-talk between my right throat nerves and both the SCM nerves and my trigeminal nerves at times. It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced; tingling, numbness, shooting, and muscle tightness.

Over this summer through plenty of rest in bed, good sleep, eating much better, and doing only light leg workouts I have had a strange process. The stages formed a pattern that I think I’ve had many times, but also I think it indicates the ability to heal, hopefully. First, my nerve flare ups calmed down slowly. Then my muscles have all stoped guarding for over a month now, except for my middle scalene which remains tight but specifically when I standup or sit-up. However, once my muscles all stopped guarding my nerve pain continued with flare ups. The nerve pain and flare ups have sort of platesued but it’s improved significantly from the a month ago. Many nights I experience hot pains now and inflammation along my scalene and in my throat around my right hyoid. I’ve also had some jaw pain and jaw numbness before, but both have significantly calmed down. Along with the inflammation, my right hyoid muscles seem to be highly overreactive when I try to swallow or flex them. To the point where it’s hard for me to flex the left muscles around my hyoid. Also some nights recently they have tightened around the right hyoid bone area and felt like they were guarding something. Point is that I don’t know what popped originally but it is interwoven with my nerves and muscular structure in a complex way. My MRI’s, CT scans, and my blood tests all come back clear. My current hypothesis is that it has to be something dynamic and/or deep. Something like a deep micro-tear in the longus colli muscle or the anterior longitudinal ligament. Which has led to the compression and interference with my sympathetic nerve trunk and cervical spine that a static MRI or CT scan wouldn’t catch with me laying down. Either way I experience nerve irritation daily and it’s very interconnected no matter where it starts.

All started when I was watching a TV show with my little brother. I tried to crack my neck like always and ended up feeling a strange pop in my neck around my right hyoid bone, a little under it. This was followed by some ringing ears and some lightheaded feelings. The next day I had a terrible pain in my throat on the right side when I swallowed. Then over a week or so I started to develop nerve tingling in my face and my hands. Then my right SCM began to tighten. I saw a neurologist my MRI’s were clean other than some inflammation in some areas, he gave me a trigger point injection that didn’t really help in my occipital area. This didn’t help, and he then sent me to physical therapy. I formed a knot in my throat around the same area under my hyoid bone, and the nerve pain went away at this point after a month.

PT helped my SCM release, which released plenty of my muscle pains. However, over months the right SCM would just retighten over and over again. Eventually other muscles starting taking its place and role. Including my right masseter, and my right scalene. Then fast forward 8 months of this cycle happening. Some periods where all I’d have is pain in my throat, and a cough without any sinuses with only one of those mentioned muscles being tight. Then this summer it went from tightness in my right middle scalene to hot inflammatory pain in my throat around my hyoid bone. Then it exploded into nerve pain that would have extreme cross-talk between my trigeminal nerves and my great Auricular nerve and my transverse nerves on my right SCM. Along with plenty of cross-talk between my right throat nerves and both the SCM nerves and my trigeminal nerves at times. It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced; tingling, numbness, shooting, and muscle tightness.

Over this summer through plenty of rest in bed, good sleep, eating much better, and doing only light leg workouts I have had a strange process. The stages formed a pattern that I think I’ve had many times, but also I think it indicates the ability to heal, hopefully. First, my nerve flare ups calmed down slowly. Then my muscles have all stoped guarding for over a month now, except for my middle scalene which remains tight but specifically when I standup or sit-up. However, once my muscles all stopped guarding my nerve pain continued with flare ups. The nerve pain and flare ups have sort of platesued but it’s improved significantly from the a month ago. Many nights I experience hot pains now and inflammation along my scalene and in my throat around my right hyoid. I’ve also had some jaw pain and jaw numbness before, but both have significantly calmed down. Along with the inflammation, my right hyoid muscles seem to be highly overreactive when I try to swallow or flex them. To the point where it’s hard for me to flex the left muscles around my hyoid. Also some nights recently they have tightened around the right hyoid bone area and felt like they were guarding something. Point is that I don’t know what popped originally but it is interwoven with my nerves and muscular structure in a complex way. My MRI’s, CT scans, and my blood tests all come back clear. My current hypothesis is that it has to be something dynamic and/or deep. Something like a deep micro-tear in the longus colli muscle or the anterior longitudinal ligament. Which has led to the compression and interference with my sympathetic nerve trunk and cervical spine that a static MRI or CT scan wouldn’t catch with me laying down. Either way I experience nerve irritation daily and it’s very interconnected no matter where it starts.