3 weeks in MC.

I am glad I asked! No chiropractor!! I will ask her new doctor to check on it and see what he thinks. I was too nervous to massage anything because she seems so frail I got nervous. Like her bones seemed like bird bones they are so tiny. Thank you to everyone (again)for the advice, tips and experience sharing! You are the best!

My daughter was in a horrific car accident years ago. She experiences neck pain from time to time. She has massages occasionally and it helps.

If M strained her neck lying on a pile of shoes and books? under her pillow, it might take longer than 3 weeks for it to go away. Giving her a heat rub around her neck might be nice for both of you, and last a bit longer before you need to take it further. A pharmacist will give you a choice of heat rubs.

There are mobile images companies that will go to the MC. Ask the director there if they use one.

When my dad was dropped by a transport attendant while he was on the stretcher being carried into his home, a mobile imaging company was sent to take images then and there, right at his home. Very convenient.

Also, a LO of mine who had arthritis found relief after stroke with acupuncture, which doesn't involve meds at all. Supposedly this treated the arthritis as well as the post-stroke issue. Apparently the needles are so tiny that people don't even feel it as the acupuncturist, who in this case was an M.D., inserts them. I'd check around and see if there's one who would come to the MC for your mom.

DO NOT take her to a chiropractor. Old brittle bones can be damaged by performing a maneuver that works on younger patients, just like CPR. My friend, an herbalist and nutritionist, had her sternum broken by a chiropractor -- and she is not as old and unhealthy as your Mom. He was a large man, and she a small woman so he didn't know his own strength. She has not fully recovered from that injury.

I agree that if she cooperates, to start with imaging first to get a better idea of what's going on. People with dementia have a much hard times expressing what and where (and why) they are having pain.

Was an xray taken of moms neck? I'd get that done AT the MC if her PCP is there, it can be ordered by mobile lab tech's. If it comes back okay, I'd ask the doctor to order regularly scheduled Tylenol or ibuprofen. If that doesn't help, she needs an MRI to see what's going on. But I wouldn't take her to a chiropractor for a neck issue, that's just me. My son swears by them though, but he has no neck issues. If mom will lay still, I don't see why she couldn't go? I like Alvas suggestion of massage!

Glad she's settling down in MC, that's good news!

It could be anything, but you rightly got it checked. For me it is an very old cervical injury from whiplash that made it difficult to turn neck left and right without pain. I babied it and over time that tightened up the muscles and such and given our head is a good weight on a thin stem, esp with age, the cervical spine can get wonky and nerves can get involved, which is what happened to me. Nerve traveling from C-spine, across scapula, under arm and all the way down past elbow to fingers could make me just let go of a scissors without even realizing I dropped it. Crazy! Made me think I was having a stroke.
I do exercises from Kaiser PT consult which has virtually cured this and given me much more mobility, but I would bet if you feel along her scapula, that muscle girdle shaped like a triangle covering her shoulder, spine, and long left side, you will even see muscles there are sore, and at the top of the shoulder.
I would recommend instead of chiropracter a good massage therapist who works with the elderly (we are fragile; we cannot take a whole lot of pressing, snapping, crackling or popping). I wish you good luck. At 81 I kind of think of this time as a whole WORLD of pain. Just a matter of where is it toDAY. I don't take any pain meds. A history of diverticulitis precludes my taking my beloved ibuprofen which literally got me through my nursing career. I am kind of used to the pain now and just kind of let it talk to me, and tell me what's up with the tensions in my body.

I am so glad of this update that things are going well.
Do look on youtube for some gentle exercises that don't stress things if doc says she can do them.