My last few weeks have been dominated by the revival of my old swimming injury – a trapped nerve in my neck. It came, it was really quite painful and disabling and unnerving.
What have I learned?
This begins when I do too much. My shoulders get all tied up, and sooner or later there is a little crunch. The crunch get a little inflamed, and amid the tension, the inflammation catches fire. I get pains across my shoulders and then in a spiralling pattern down the outside of the arm around and across the elbow down to the hand and eventually fingers. Allowed to continue, in addition to the constant ‘dead-leg’ type pain I begin to get first tingling in the hand and then a loss of sensation. Cheerful, aren’t I?
Mercifully this time, I stopped it getting worse, and am almost at the point of beginning to recover. I haven’t quite lost fitness, though some has gone.
Management. For the immediate inflammation, diclofenac seems to work best for me. I have seen it said that except in certain conditions, there is little to choose between diclofenac and ibuprofen, but I know what seems to work for me. I take it as prescribed for a couple of days, and reduce it then. I have yet to take it longer than a couple of weeks.
Next (this time) – exercises designed to take away the pressure on the nerve. The most effective seems to be lying flat and supine, and then slowly pushing the back of the head further away. It is a question more of relaxing into it than anything else. Once you get used to the sensation, a similar result can be obtained when seating of supporting the back of the head, allowing the chin to drop forward, and then relaxing and lifting the head a the rear.
Last and above all, to reduce the inflammation, the use of ice. A simple way is to get a sandwich bag, put about 8 ice cubes it it, seal it and then place the ice cubed part down the back of the collar of my shirt. No doubt it looks pretty damn silly. It does, but it works.
The pain in the arm and hand persists and goes only slowly. It can be relieved a little at night by sleeping on the back, lifting the arm, and stuffing the hand down the back of the mattress.
Two stretches suggested by my physio (who was a great help) are:
Neck side stretches – supporting the head as it slowly pulls away from the painful side. Again it is a question of encouraging a relaxation extension movement rather than of pulling the head. The hand operates as a weight as much as anything.
A more complicated stretch is for the arm in pain. Stand with the arm by the side. Lift the back of the hand (arm still vertical) out and up. Rotate the hand to the rear, still with the back pointing up. Keeping the hand at the same stretched angle, the forearm is raised forward, so that the palm now faces to the sky, with the fingers pointed forward. This should maintain a twisting sensation. Turn the hand out to point away from the shoulder. Then push the hand away until the arm is in one long line from the shoulder. At all times, the palm remains flat and facing up, creating a twisting stretch.
In swimming, the pressure on the arm and nerve can be reduced by fist swimming. In any event, there are plenty of kick drills to maintain fitness.
