This morning I got up and was going to take a hot shower. I started to take off my shirt and in so doing I must’ve bent my neck funny because I felt a sudden shooting pain near my left shoulder. After I recoiled, the initial sharp pain died down and it was replaced by a very, very intense throbbing pain. I sat down as fast as I could and tried not to yell (it was that bad).
For the first ten minutes I could concentrate on nothing else; I was paralyzed from the pain. An hour later I took an ibuprofen when it wasn’t getting better. Finally I made an appointment with my university health services. After explaining the issue to the nurse, she recommended that I take two ibuprofen every four hours and…
Take a hot shower.
I’ve had similar. Another option is to get an over-the-counter muscle relaxant at the local drugstore/pharmacy/chemist (depends on your country).
http://www.canadadrugs.com/otc/product/Robaxacet/2534/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methocarbamol
It sounds like a muscle spasm or in a worse case, a mild muscle tear.
Speaking of irony, that is funny but not funny !
@apw: It’s feeling better today so hopefully I just pulled it really bad and it just needs time to heal. BTW, I almost instinctively flagged your comment as spam when I saw the pharmacy link. Good thing I read the rest of your post too. 🙂
@nicholas: Yup, this is going to be one of those things that gets funnier over time. It was very not funny when it happened.