Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A Literal Pain in the Neck

About seven weeks or so ago I developed this hive/burn like rash on my neck that just happened to be exactly where my necklace was.  I've been wearing this necklace since my wedding day nearly 12 1/2 years ago, so it seemed really odd.

Bryan and I tried to figure out what the problem could be.  I begrudgingly took off the necklace after Bryan suggested I see if that was the problem.  The rash still lingered, so I tried a different shampoo thinking that was the problem.  Same goes for the body wash.  It took a little while, but the rash went away.  Then I put the necklace back on and within two days the rash was back.  Arrgh!

Years ago (the day after my wedding day, to be exact) I stopped wearing all earrings because it was clear that I was allergic to silver and gold.  Anytime I put silver or gold earrings in my ears they are red and inflamed within a day or two of me putting them in.  Oddly enough, I can wear stainless steel or plastic posts, just not silver and gold.  So I simply don't bother with wearing earrings.  It doesn't bother me since I'm not really into wearing jewelry.

What does bother me is that I appear to no longer be able to tolerate wearing the necklace that Bryan gave me.  It is one of the only pieces of jewelry that I wear all of the time.  I wear that and my wedding band and engagement rings.

Over the years I've had many instances where my finger seemed like it was having and allergic reaction to my rings, but I refuse to take them off unless I'm working with power tools or my finger is swollen.  I spent several months not being able to wear my rings just before and after Katie was born and it upset me a lot.

I do wonder if it has anything to do with my now longer hair.  My hair has been pretty short for the past six or seven years.  Now it's almost to my shoulders.  I had to take the necklace off late last week and my neck still has the hive like rash.  Could the culprit be my hair and not the gold?

As if one pain in the neck isn't enough, I woke up on Friday with a sharp pain in my neck and shoulder blade.  Since then my neck has gotten worse.  I can't turn my head very easily and if I lay down for a bit my entire spine feels like it's stiff and it's difficult to move.  To make things even more interesting, I'm now getting pain down my left arm that feels a bit like sciatic pain does in my leg.  I'm wondering if one of the bulging discs I have in my neck from a car accident Bryan and I were in back in 98 is now aggravated.  I'm still hopeful that the pain will go away, but if I doesn't I'll have to get it checked out.  It's getting difficult to carry Katie when my neck hurts so badly.

On the bright side, I think I figured out the cause of my almost daily headaches that I had been having for several months.  Since eliminating my almost daily Starbucks about a month ago I have had only a small handful of headaches.  It appears that their coffee was giving me massive headaches.  And on days when I didn't grab a coffee from them I had even worse headaches.  Now if I could just find an easy solution to my neck issues I'd be set!

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