anyone found physical therapy to be helpful?

My neuro sent me to see a physical therapist and had my first appointment yesterday.....very nice man - did a very thorough evaluation. He thinks the way I hold my head (tilted up slightly) may be compressing some nerves and contributing to the occipital neuralgia pain that I experience. I am short and if I don't tilt my head up I will be staring at people's chests instead of their faces when we talk! He also told me that the kind of occipital neuralgia pain I experience (pain behind both eyes instead of just one eye) is very rare - about 1 in 100,000. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a "normal" medical condition!

Anyway, he did some traction and gave me some exercises to do at home. He called today to see how I was doing - not sure if he was hoping for some improvement in my symptoms so quickly but did tell him that I considered my first visit a success because the traction did not make things worse and it will be probably be a few weeks before I will be able to know if we are doing any good with the traction and exercises. Trying to keep my expectations low but just curious if anyone has had any success working with a pt. L

I've done physical therapy off and on for various things and my neck pain was definitely helped by PT. (I've had 4 whiplashes and have scoliosis) I don't have nearly as much pain or referred pain. It is only when I am on the computer too long without moving that I have issues now.

I hope it helps.

I also have scoliosis and had two whiplashes that have contributed a lot to my neck and shoulder problems I've had over the years. I still wonder if that wasn't behind this migraine problem?

PT did not work for me because turning my head or looking up or down was such a major trigger for me. So it mostly made it worse. If your neck is not that sensitive, you may get a better result. Good luck!

Sorry to be a downer but I went through and it didn't help me either. I was in for my knee and went several times with a migraine and the therapist noticed I was in pain. He was excited because he had a program that had helped everyone.

He had to admit defeat with me, though. I did all the exercies as instructed and while sometimes I would leave feeling a little better after he manipulated me, several of the exercises made it worse. Some I could only use a half pound weight with. Since I also have fibromyalgia, that could be messing with it. My muscles don't really get stronger, they just cramp and bunch up in knots.

I hope it helps you!

I had two rounds of PT for my neck. The exercises the therapist worked on was range of motion and decompression. It felt great while it was happening, but afterwords a big old thumper would kick in. So it really didn't fix anything.

My experience with the range of motion and stretching for the neck is you have to do it very very gradually and gently to get any benefit. If you do the full exercises like they tell you to, it just brings on a migraine (as you experienced). We are just too sensitive for exercises that may be fine for other people.

When I did very gentle stretching in yoga however it worked much better with out getting the migraines. So you might want to try kicking it back several notches and see if that works better for you.

I so appreciate all the posts - thank you. I saw the pt again today and I think the traction he is doing maybe the issue. It is now 4:00 a.m. and I cannot get the pain to chill out so I can sleep. The massage therapy he does on my tight neck muscles feels good and I think it helps but going to ask him when I see him on Friday if we can stop doing the traction.

I did okay with some physio on my neck for 6 sessions, but when the sessions stopped, so did the improvement. NHS...

I had an osteopath work on me previously and he about killed me. NEVER doing that again...

I found PT to be extremely helpful, both post surgery after an auto accident and for my neck.

Chris

I tried it for three weeks. We did massage, ultrasound therapy, some kind of electrical stimulation, and traction. No change in the migraines. It was worth a try though...and the massage was enjoyable!

I am probably going to get some more if I get to the Pain management practical sessions. But the physio lady seemed really knowledgeable and even does trigger points.....

Does it feel better when she works on your trigger points? I always find that helpful - would love to have my own personal massage therapist who could come daily and work on my head and neck!

Havent had that yet Leslie. She told me at the assessment that she is strained to, and I have a lot apparently (fibro).

If it works I will use the book I have, seems quite easy once you have an idea of how hard and how long.