Who are you calling torticollis?

So this past Saturday, I slept all day in preparation for the night shift. My first night of four. I woke up at 4pm, rested and ready to hit the gym before my marathon of work. However, I couldn't sit up without immense pain. I had to literally roll out of bed. I had shooting pain from my neck down to my right hand which drove me to tears. It was so freaking painful! I called Mom, and we decided I needed to call into work considering I could not move my right arm or shoulder without pain. (I'm a right hander....I need that side).

When I realized I could not even lay in bed without it hurting, I called my dear friend, Susan, who drove out to pick me up and take me to the ER. Fortunately for us, the ER was fairly slow. We were in and out in a couple hours. I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve/cervical radiculopathy. It's most likely a herniated disc in my neck(maybe c6 or c7?) that was pressing on a nerve, causing the shooting pain down my arm. I was familiar with this kind of pain because I've dealt with sciatica since I was 21 years old. Its basically the same thing except the herniated disc is lower, so the pinched nerve causes the pain to shoot down your legs instead of arms. It is Hell. I hadn't had problems with my back for a while, and it affecting my neck was new to me. (and unpleasant).

Fortunately, the treatment was to give me oral steroids, SOMA(a lovely muscle relaxer), vicodin(a lovelier pain med), and high dose Ibuprofen(anti-inflammatory). For all of Saturday night, I drifted in and out of a drugged stupor/sleep, but woke up Sunday morning already feeling a bit better. I've been able to handle the pain at work overnight, so it seems it was just a small bump in the road. I hope it does not come back again, but I will be following up with my primary care to make sure of it. It was awful. I am too young for this!!!!