Severe Neck and Head Pain

I’m a 31 yr old female, 56kgs/160cm short. Only regular medication is dexamfetamine.

Probably the only medical history I have that may be related to this issue is I do have scheurmanns kyphosis, a few bulging discs (although I vaguely remember them being in my lumbar spine so probably not related) and some non specific white matter lesions found on MRI, suspected IIH (I was too scared for the lumbar puncture to confirm) and probably EDS (I have a lot on in my life so have never gone and got a formal diagnosis however when I was seeing physiotherapists they did their test thing and I scored very high.) Hopefully that’s enough for the bot to not remove my post!

I have had some right sided discomfort at the base of my skull for a few months. One specific point which I was today years old when I discovered it is called the atlantoaxial joint . Normally I shove my fingers into the area to release the tension.

I’ve also had some right sided headaches stemming from that same spot. The pain often moves to the back of my skull and over and behind my right eye, my scalp becomes pretty tender and the headache is significantly worse when I move my head and bend down. I get some relief when laying down. These headaches last several days. I actually thought it might be related to CSF pressure because i also had 4-5 instances where I would bend over and a clear substance would run out of one of my nostrils without the presence of flu or runny nose. Everything seems to be episodic too.

Recently, my head has had a tendency to lean to the right side and I have had this weird involuntary head wobble (think bobble head lol.) it’s so weird when I catch myself doing it but I wasn’t sure if it was a new stim or something. I mention it as it seems to follow one of these headaches 😂

At around 10 am yesterday (so roughly 30 hrs ago) I had a very sudden onset headache (same type as above.) the pain was so severe that I was in tears and my neck was extremely irritated and sore. I managed throughout the day alternating with paracetamol and ibuprofen. When I woke this morning I instantly felt like I needed someone to come and pull my head away from my neck and crack it and all day it has felt like this would give me complete relief (I did not do this obviously). I tried several stretches but the pain was bad. It has worsened over the day, the headache has returned but compared to the discomfort in my neck it is minor. I cannot move my head in any direction without pain shooting up my neck, making the back of my skull throb. My neck feels tight and I cannot get comfortable. Paracetamol and ibuprofen are not touching it and I tried a heat pack and hot water which did absolutely nothing.

I don’t want to go to the hospital to bother the staff if it’s just a headache or waste their time with a pulled muscle, plus I live in a country town so our hospital only has skeleton staff and the only imaging available is xray (and again they have to call the staff in and I don’t wanna bother anyone on their weekend!)

Would appreciate some advice or stretches or something to help me relieve this because I cannot tolerate this pain for a minute longer.