You wrote:

"Current medical status: I got shingles on the left side of my back last August which has gone. A few weeks later I also got swollen glands and a temperature for a while and then last September my neck got so stiff I was unable to move it. It was painful to walk, look up even a little to hang the washing out or anything. I also had pains in my head and one night i couldn't even lie down for the excrutiating pain so phoned the duty doctor and he told me to call an ambulance. They gave me diazepan at the hospital which helped but then the pain came back so i was given exercises until the money ran out. I can now turn my head a bit and have changed the strong painkillers for normal ones i take every day. The Doctor said I had cervical dystonia which would get better and sent me away. I felt i was wasting his time. i've now had a stiff neck for one year and it feels like a trapped nerve in my left shoulder."


Cervical dystonia means that the tonus of the neck muscles is disturbed (too strong or too weak). Cervical dystonia is not a precise diagnosis but more likely a symptom of a precisely determined neurological disease. You'll be able to better identify a diagnosis when you request the following medical examinations: a neurological examination, electro-myo-graphy (EMG), a CT/MRI scan of the brain and spine andan X-ray image of the spine. You can consult a neurologist about your condition and for more advice.