Neck Pain

[ehuber]

Recently I made a deep dive with my doubles rig that resulted in some significant neck and upper back pain. It's been two weeks and I'm still in significant pain. Since I dive horizontal, I suspect the injury is from looking forward --which puts my neck in a compromising position-- but I have some old football pain in my neck that could have complicated the problem.

I am fairly confident that the injury was not a result of lifting the rig.

My question is this:

Does anyone who dives horizontal with similar equipment (bp, harness, doubles) ever suffer from this problem? Anyone with a neck injury have advice about ways to prevent a recurrence?

 

[Scubakevdm]

Recently I made a deep dive with my doubles rig that resulted in some significant neck and upper back pain. It's been two weeks and I'm still in significant pain. Since I dive horizontal, I suspect the injury is from looking forward --which puts my neck in a compromising position-- but I have some old football pain in my neck that could have complicated the problem.

I am fairly confident that the injury was not a result of lifting the rig.

My question is this:

Does anyone who dives horizontal with similar equipment (bp, harness, doubles) ever suffer from this problem? Anyone with a neck injury have advice about ways to prevent a recurrence?

Well, is this the first time you've been diving horizontally in doubles? What kind of neck injury from football, is there scar tissue? You may want to give DAN a jingle and see what they think about it. Letting stuff like this go can cause lasting problems in some cases. It's better to get checked out. FWIW I do sometimes get a sore neck and lower back on long dives, doubles or not, but it goes away as soon as I relax my posture and stretch. Any kind of pain for two weeks should probably be evaluated by a doctor.

 

[ehuber]

I've been diving with this doubles rig all summer and hadn't had a problem like this before, and I always dive horizontally, so it's a bit frustrating to have neck pain for so long. Sadly, as many of the millions without health insurance I don't have the option of having my neck evaluated by a doctor...

I think I'll take your advice and buzz DAN on this one. Thx for the reply.

 

[PfcAJ]

I second the recommendation to call DAN. You said "a deep dive", which leaves me with a few obvious questions...

I'm interested to know the outcome of this.

 

[Whitelightnin]

I agree. Call DAN. Just in case.

It could just be a pinched nerve. If that is the case, a visit to the chirocopractor is in order. It happens to me every once in a while & nothing can fix it but the chiropractor.
It takes two or three days after a visit before I'm back to normal but I notice a difference pretty quickly.

 

[CameronMartz]

Necks are much more commonly injured from chin-down posture, such as from driving or typing/sitting at a desk, rather than the chin-up posture taken when diving. In fact, for the most common cervical disc issues, the chin-up can actually be therapeutic.

The wildcard, however, is the unspecified football injury you previously suffered. Whiplash-type injuries can cause all kinds of damage that will linger for life.

Even then, from a pure probability standpoint, it is still more likely that your neck was (re)injured while dynamically moving your tanks on the surface than from static posture on the dive. Remember, our shoulders/arms/hands and anything we hold with them are being supported with muscles pulling all the way up our necks to the base of our skulls. Heavy lifting can be just as hard on a neck injury as on a lumbar injury.

Certainly, the best thing to do is to see a spine specialist MD or PT. Barring that, you should consider purchasing "Treat Your Own Neck," by Robin McKenzie. It can be found for $12 at amazon.com, and it covers much of what my wife (a spine specialist PT) teaches her patients every day.

Cameron