What Causes Pain In Neck, Shoulders And Chest After A Fall?

Posted on Mon, 12 Oct 2015

Question: Im a 43 year old female in relatively good shape who stays or stayed pretty active. Back in May I fell after tripping while running on grass and went head over heels and landed on my right shoulder/back. I got up quickly and while it was jarring I was ok. The next week or two I was VERY sore in my neck, shoulders and chest. It gradually felt a little better but my neck has never felt quite right since. It has worsened over the past month in a half or so to the point I cant stand it. It hurts to turn my head to the side-left and right though not as badly to the right. It hurts to look up or down. It hurts my neck to raise my left arm above my head. My neck hurts to just sit in a chair and have to hold my head up. By far the worst pain is when I wake up in the morning. It lessens some throughout the day and with Motrin but the last few weeks even that isnt really helping. Is there a possibility there is something that should be checked out or am i just getting ungracefully older? I'm not a medicine taker so if that's the only solution I'd really rather live with it. Thanks.

Answered by Dr. Swarnava Dattagupta (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Get xray or preferably MRI done; visit an orthopedician

Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query in healthcaremagic.com
This is Dr. Swarnava dattagupta answering your query.

I have gone through your query and understand your concern.
First of all, you should not have neglected your injury and visited a doctor. It can be a case of frozen shoulder, or post traumatic arthritis of neck and shoulder region as there had been no proper evaluation and treatment of the trauma. It might not be that serious also but the above causes should be ruled out.
However, if such a patient comes to me with the symptoms you have mentioned, I would suggest the following-

Xray of cervical spine and affected shoulder, preferably an MRI of cervical spine.
Avoiding heavy weight bearing.
Cervical range of motion exercises and shoulder active and passive exercises.
Blood for complete hemogram, ESR, blood sugar.
Pain killers like ibuprofen or aceclofenac alongwith antacids for pain relief.
Collagen peptides with glucosamine might be useful if taken for a month or two.

You can consult your treating or family doctor about the above, get clinically checked too. You can get back to me with the reports or consult an orthopedician in the meantime.

Hope i have answered your question.
If you have any further questions i will be happy to help.
Regards

Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T