Case Presentation Workbook

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Patient Presentation:
35 year old female secretary to a law firm, whose job involves prolong periods of computer work (up to 3 hours without break, twice daily), answering phones and working as receptionist. She presents with low cervical and bilateral supraspinous fossa pain as her initial complaint, with headaches that come when this first pain is worse. Once the headaches are there, she finds it very difficult to ease them off without lying down with medication.
Aggravates: Working at computer, particularly as the day goes on, so that by mid-day, she almost always has a headache, making completing the day’s work very difficult. Driving long distances will provoke the neck and supraspinous pain. Sitting watching her children play sport will bring on the neck and supraspinous pain. The headaches are associated with work and the computer mostly.
Eases: Headache – lying down with medication (panadeine x 2) will lead to a reduction in the headache after about 30 minutes, so that she can continue with her home duties. Headache only completely eases with a good night’s sleep. Neck and supraspinous pain – also is reduced by lying down with the panadeine. Also eased by heat and massage.
No significant precautionary question information.
No significant psychosocial history or situation.
History: She took her present job 7 years ago when her children went to school. Gradually over the time, her workload on the computer has increased from 1-2 hours to her present load. She is always under deadline pressures with what she types and finds having to answer the phone and work on the desk distracting, putting more pressure on the deadlines. She works from a dictaphone most of the time, but one of the lawyers writes notes rather than using the d...

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