neck

A couple of times a year, I become convinced that I am dying, due to the fact that my gums get swollen and painful. Isn't this a sign of impending death?

I thought so the first few times anyway, but now I just have a moment or seven of panic before I remember that this is what happens these days when my allergies get bad: my sinuses swell into my gums. Lovely.

That's been going on this last week or so, and then I woke up on Sunday morning unable to move my head. 

I googled about, holding my phone in front of my immobile face, and discovered that the cause of this type of crick in one's neck tends to be either soft tissue or some little bone that gets out of place but would go back if the muscles weren't too tense to let it.

Which is all fine, except that it kept me from sleeping the next night, due to the precision with which I must place my head in order to be free from pain. It turns out that being the sort of person who moves about a lot in my sleep does not bode well for sleeping with my head precisely placed.

It gets better during the day - a hot shower this morning was the best thing for it - but I am very afraid of trying to sleep again, and even more afraid of my red-eye flight to the Mitten tomorrow. Why am I so frequently damaged when getting on planes?