Pain in the Neck $%^*

I am not new to sprains, but this one is special. It took me to a doc for the first time (for a sprain), it made me take a prescription pain med for the first time, it made me collapse from dizziness (not a first, but the first significant one). And it made me aware of one of my fears, which I thought I have mastery over: fear of pain.

It started slowly - may be some bad sleeping posture, may be too much computer work - but suddenly got bad when after a nice long warm shower, I stupidly gave my neck a jerk. Sleeping absolutely still probably caused the dizziness - though the doctor theorized it was the pain that did it. We agreed to disagree.

So I have been prescribed two meds - one a strong pain killer and the other a muscle relaxant.

Do you read the warnings and side effects of these meds? It's always amusing. Unless, you are a bit faint at heart, in which case, you'd probably prefer your sickness to the possible ("rare, but very serious") side effects of these chemicals.

Apart from a number of "unlikely but possible" potentially fatal side effects, my pain killer also has a couple of interesting ones: stiff neck and dark colored urine (both of which are very serious and should be brought to the doc's attention immediately). I think it'll be a bit ironical, if this med should cause me a stiff neck!

The other one, the muscle relaxant, seems a lot more tame in comparison. However, it does have one "completely harmless and temporary" side effect: green-black colored urine. That'll be a nice spectacle, unless of course, it was caused by the pain med :)