I have a strange neck pain in the middle back of my neck. I have never experienced this kind of pain before. It is a very sharp pain regardless which way I turn my head or put a small amount of pressure on it. I am concerned because I am usually healthy.for my age, almost 71 years old. I love to rough house with the children on the floor. I exert myself to an extreme almost every day usually caring for others, As of May my wife could no longer walk due to back problems and Friedrichs ataxia. The ataxia is usually a slow processing disease with no cure which usuall runs it course in 20 years (my wife has had it for about18 years. She also has back problems which further add to her condition. My wife and I have been married for 48 years and love each other very much . However, I am her sole caregiver All she can do all day is watch TV for a good 12 hours. She has almost become a bit belligerent over the remote as she has 99% control over the remote so if I want to watch TV it is whatever she wants...I feel a bit humiliated by that at times. The unusual activity I have taken over for the last 6 weeks is to be the main cargiver for my daughter (45)who is a divorced single mom with 2 children. I have forged the way for her in about 7 different directionsand that has been exceedingly hard...I get an occasional thank you I also get the backlash when things don t quite go her way. And then there id taking care of myself which takes a back seat to every thing else. I forgot to mention I have a son on 70% disability for PTSD/mental problem. He is now 30 and has been back from the Navy for 7 years. I have 7 children and have had continual problems with the two children I just mentioned. Theyhave drained me physically, mentally and financially. Please don t go off on a mental tangent with me because I have been under mental care for 40 years now--when I came back from Nam in 71 I subsequently learned I had prostate cancer, PTSD and a bit of mental problems. I have been under some kind of authoritative struggle as long as I can remember. Whether it was the parents, the Catholic religion (I was even in the seminary for 6 1/2) military or the not best of bosses I have to struggle through for 31 1/2 years--I have struggle the last 6 years trying to get control or reverse this respect out of fear and fear alone!!! My present psychiatric social worker and I have been working on the abnormality for 6 years now--I am very stubborn and set in my ways. So, as you can see I am a talker. Because of this I hope you haven t missed the trees for the forest (or WHATEVER). So what I am saying is: I M SCARED. I have been the patriarch of our family (to include 15 grandchildren) forever and feel like I am loosing it. I have been extremely tired (almost always), I have no desire to catch up on the work staring me in the face and I don t know how much longer I can keep going at this pace--the last 6 weeks of double sole care giving has run me down and I have been sick all week--went to VA with sore throat and ears last week (since I am a Vietnam Vet). Actually, I started out this whole damn dissertation simply wondering if the stiff and painful neck I have is just that or can it be a sign of a more complicated diagnosis which I should start pursue. My name is: Sal Tocco, my cell phone #is: YYYYYYY, and my email address is: YYYY@YYYY . I will continue to correspond later after I get some much needed sleep and help for my chronic back problems.