Sorry about the neck Canuck. Having some experience with neckpain myself, have you tried the following?

- Celebrex: A non-steroidal anti-inflamatory. Some say it's hard on the stomach, can even cause stomach bleeding from prolonged use, but I haven't had that happen and it works pretty well for me. Most prescription anti-inflammatory's have potential to hurt the stomach anyway, but it's not a huge risk.

- Ice it for 10 minutes every day! (as needed)

- Relax your neck, put one hand on you head, and gently stretch it to one side toward the shoulder, and then the other. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds. If you find pulling with your hand is hard on your neck, just lean to the side and let gravity do the work; but you'll want to hold it longer in this case and let your neck gradually stretch further as the muscle stretches out.

- I'd keep down on the acetaminophen. It's bad for your liver and only blocks pain receptors, it doesn't actually help the inflammation.

- Keep your meat, potatoe, and refined sugar consumption low-moderate, since these can aggrivate inflammation.

- Eating oats, (I think) rice, and nuts can help keep the inflammation down.

- Get yourself one of those orthopedic neck pillows. I have one and the support it provides for my neck has helped a lot. I'd recommend not putting any more pillows under the neck pillow.

- Get a TENS unit. It's a device where you put pads on your muscles and it sends electrical impulses that tense and release the muscle much like a massage.
I have one called Dr.Ho designed by Dr.Ho who runs a pain clinic in Toronto (and is now making a fortune selling his devices). It has 3 types of massage settings, you can control the amount of energy output, and seems to work pretty well overal.

- If you feel, one day, that you're in so much pain you must resort to opiod analgesics, I'd suggest Tramadol since it has the least potential for addiction and pretty decent analgesia.


And just out of curiosity, does smoking weed help your pain?

Good luck to you.