Neck injury, feeling desperate for help, botox?
My TMJ/neck has gotten all sorts of relatively minor injuries in the past 4 months. First driving on a bumpy road, then someone really pinching my TMJ in an awkward hug, and now an overstretch injury from turning my head to the right too far suddenly when someone to my right called out and surprised me.
All relatively "minor". But all caused very intense muscle spasms and have created the need for me to "pop" myself to relieve pain. The pain and tension is constant, mostly on the right side. The TMJ pain has diminished mostly and I'm left with a very tense scalene muscle. What has scared me more is the pressure that radiated from this is felt behind my right eye, and it has left my vision unfocused. I'm told this is common.
I've gone to the ER 3 times for this by now because the pain was excruciating. I've been given muscle relaxers that have minimized it a lot but I don't think it will help more than it has. My baseline is still bad.
They did a CT scan to be safe and it came back "normal". So at least it's probably no intense structural damage.
But I can't live like this. I've been disabled with EDS for years but actually reached a point where I was thriving before this neck stuff in the past few months. Now, because of the spasms and pain, I can't really focus and I'm desperate for relief.
I'm considering botox to relax the painful scalene muscle but I'm terrified of the complications that some people have. I'm travelling overseas in a month (risky move as a disabled person, but I was feeling brave before things got worse) and I want things to be better before I leave. Does anyone have tips? I've tried some myofascial release, gua sha, etc.
Posted Jul 4, 2025, 1:16 AM UTC