NEW MOM WITH NECK PAIN

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NEW MOM WITH NECK PAIN
http//www.virtualphysicaltherapists.com/
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I am a new mom with a 3-month infant. Over the
past two months, I developed severe right neck
pain and was not able to turn my head. My mom had
kidney cancer that metastasized to her spine, and
she had similar pain and loss of mobility. I
worried that I also had cancer, and the pain was
getting worse. I was having trouble even holding
my baby. I spent hours searching the internet for
the cause of my pain and cancer kept coming up.
My family doctor tried to relieve my stress when
x-rays and MRI found nothing. But no one could
alleviate my pain. I was desperate and saw an ad
on the internet for Virtual PT and decided to
give it a try. I was able to get an appointment
right away. My therapists had me move my neck and
saw that I could not turn to the right and even
found that I could not lookup. He gave me an
exercise, and I began to feel better and was able
to move a bit more. Most importantly, he
explained why I was in pain and that it was not
cancer because the movement was able to improve
my pain. He taught me what caused it what to do
to fix myself! Trish S.
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Trish, like most new mothers, spends a lot of
her time looking down, staring at her newborn,
especially when feeding. This position of neck
flexion and rotation puts stress on the soft
tissue of the neck over time. Similar to if you
bend your finger back over and over again. Trish
had a significant loss of right rotation and
extension motion and some loss of retraction. We
had Trish perform repeated retraction and
extension and retested her movement. She regained
right rotation and some extension, and the more
she did, the better she felt. We explained to
Trish that she had a soft tissue injury that
caused a disruption in the joint mechanics. It
resulted from looking down for extended periods
and corrected by the opposite movements.
Explaining the cause, eliminated Trishs fear and
she was able to get back to enjoying her
newborn. Paul Mitchell DPT, Cert. MDT
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