When to Seek Medical Care

If your symptoms do not go away as expected or if new symptoms appear, you should seek medical attention without delay.

• Call your doctor if you experience the following symptoms:
  
  
  • Severe, unremitting neck pain
    
    
  • Neck pain unaffected by changes in position or pain that is not controlled with appropriate medication
    
    
  • Severe night neck pain
    
    
  • Severe, persistent neck muscle spasms
    
    
  • Inability to perform daily work or activities that you could do prior your illness
  
  
• In addition, symptoms suggesting possible injury to the vital structures contained in the neck should prompt early contact with your doctor. These may include the following:
  
  
  • Weakness
    
    
  • Numbness
    
    
  • Tingling or loss of function particularly in the upper extremities
    
    
  • Difficulty breathing
    
    
  • Dizziness, headache, or nausea and vomiting
    
    
  • Ringing in the ears or decreased hearing
  
  
• If you are unable to reach your doctor (or do not have one), you should go to a hospital's emergency department without delay for evaluation of any of these types of problems.
  
  
• If you get sick or reinjured while your neck pain is present, you should contact your doctor.

You must seek immediate medical attention for any symptom suggesting a problem affecting the nervous system, airway, or spinal cord.

• Examples of spinal cord injury
  
  
  • Bowel or bladder retention or incontinence, that is, inability to control the bowels or bladder
    
    
  • Inability to urinate
    
    
  • Leg weakness or any new inability to walk
    
    
  • Ataxia (loss of balance)
    
    
  • Vertigo
    
    
  • Dizziness
    
    
  • Nausea and vomiting
    
    
  • Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
    
    
  • Any other acute symptoms suggesting a nerve problem
  
  
• Evaluation by an orthopedist or neurosurgeon may be required to check for a condition requiring urgent surgical treatment.