A pain in the neck...

...literally. I'm tired of my head and neck hurting!! I woke up this morning with another one of my lovely headaches - they start in the right side of my neck and work their way up until my whole head hurts. And nothing gets rid of them. I've made myself sick a few times taking too much stuff to try to get rid of the pain. I have a couple of theories about why I get these headaches (keeping in mind that I've always been headache-prone). First, caffeine. I don't drink a ton of caffeinated beverages, but I think I"m becoming more and more sensitive to it over the years. Last week I tried and experiment - I had a cup of tea for breakfast, then limited my caffeine intake to only one soda in the afternoon. Amazingly, I didn't have any headaches. Yesterday, my plan was shot to pieces and I had THREE sodas plus my tea. So, basically double my caffeine intake. And voila, I have a headache today.

Also, my flute playing seems to be the main culprit of the neck thing. I've found that if I stand up when I practice, especially for long periods of time (2 hours or so), my neck is killing me for the rest of the day and usually the next. But if I sit down, for which I use an exercise ball, my neck is fine. A friend of mine told me about using the exercise ball, but she recommended it for breathing. These balls are wonderful for making you sit the "right" way - all aligned properly and such; but in my case, it keeps me from somehow straining my neck. I'm thinking about taking some classes in Alexander Technique, which is a body-awareness method. It teaches you how to align your body properly to avoid or correct injuries. Since the flute isn't exactly the more ergonomically designed of the musical instruments, flutists tend to be frequest students of Alexander Technique. We hurt a lot. And for me, it doesn't help either that I have a slight curvature of my spine, resulting in my left shoulder being a bit higher than my right. So my whole body is really slightly out of alignment from the get-go. I've seen a chiropractor a few times, and am considering going back, but I don't know. Having my back cracked kind of gives me the willies. But massage, now THAT'S a different story. If I could find a good massage therapist, especially one that works on musicians a lot, I'd be there probably weekly.

Or train my husband to do it....there's a thought.....