Carex Cervical Collar - Glad I bought it!

Recently I had been suffering from migraines and neck pain. The neck pain was the worst when I would get up in the morning or when I would move my head from a laying-on-my-back position to a laying-on-my-side position. It was getting so bad after a few months that I finally went to the doctor. He was nice enough to rule out meningitis, which is always good. Who's ever in the mood for a spinal tap? That's somewhere on my bucket list between colonoscopy and root canal. One of the many things that I splurged for at the drug store was a Carex Cervical Collar. This is the soft padded collar that goes around the neck that usually makes eveyone ask "What happened to you?" - as if you were in a plane crash or something. Great for sympathy points. It is also good for keeping your head and neck within certain constraints when you are trying to mimimize unnecessary movement or extension while trying to mend.

When I wore it I found out that looser was better. I could still protect my neck, without having the collar choke me. It still functioned as designed with a looser setting, in my case. I am not a doctor, or the guy who actually reads instructions, but this is what worked for me. The Carex Cervical Collar doesn't chafe necessarily, however I did notice a little bit of mild irritation on my neck. I suppose that is infinitely better however than if the neck muscles break and you become a human bobble head. That would be socially impairing. I also wore it under my winter coat while I was going out to get the mail. I'm up in New England and we just had snow. I slipped and fell backwards and fortunately no one saw me do it. I was wearing the Carex Cervical Collar at the time so I think it saved me from making my neck worse. I may have looked silly, but at least I had the protection.

I had no idea that you could actually buy a two pack when I got my first one, otherwise i would have grabbed the Carex Cervical Collar - Two Pack. I guess I was just purchasing the first one to see if it made any difference in my situation. It actually did. I've even slept with it on twice now, and I feel safe sleeping in it. I don't worry about choking, and I've had no nightmares about the Styx song "Renegade" with me as the guest of honor, so it seemed to be pretty safe at least for me. I would still check first with your doctor before trying this. I liked this device enough so that I bought a second one. I keep one at the house and the other at the office. For ten bucks you really can't go wrong, and it's there whenever you need it. Epilogue: A week later and my neck, while not pain free, is 80% better than it was. I attribute at least a portion of this success to the Carex Cervical Collar.

Thank you Carex!