How can a woman control neck pain and high ESR?

Question

Hello doctor,

My wife has been struggling with an increased ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) for a month. Now, she has had severe neck pain on the backside for the past two days, and she is in bed. She cannot keep her head straight. Medicines are not showing effective results.

What to do?

Please suggest.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I have gone through your query and understand your concern.

I generally see many cases like this in my clinic. I advise them to take rest, give analgesics, anti-inflammatory tablets, and an ice pack till the symptoms reduce to some extent. Then, I get an X-ray, and, if necessary, an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is done to find out the exact reason.

In this case, there are three possibilities.

The first possibility is soft tissue inflammation. There is no bony involvement, and only the soft tissues around the region might be inflamed, causing pain.
The second possibility is neuropathy. There may be a partial or complete inflammation of nerves in that region that may be the root cause of such pain.
The third possibility is disc prolapse. There may be compressed nerves in the spine that may be causing radiating pain in those regions.

I suggest you get an X-ray and an MRI done to find out the exact cause. Physiotherapy, analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and local gel application with hot fomentation can help till then.

The raised ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) count is not related to her neck pain. There is nothing to worry about. Do get back to me after the reports are ready.

I hope this answers your query.

Let me know if I need to assist you further.

Thank you.