WF Help: Cervical Disc Herniation

rusvik

rusvik

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Jan 21, 2011
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You people are usually good with real life practical advice, so I'll ask here.

Has anyone here had a cervical disc herniation and what did you do about it?

Surgery or not and what kind of surgery and where? Most of what I read makes it out like a question of worse or less worse and long term prognosis not good. Of course, in 20 years you could hope that medical science has advanced to fix it with stem cells.

What about conservative treatment with steroids?

Damn bad place for a herniated disc. That's what you get for ego lifting for years.
 


How about a little history
Age, how you hurt it, how long have you dealt with it, what have you tried and has anything helped, what are the symptoms. What is your health like, your work environment, height weight overall physical health, What makes it better/worse, it is burning, stinging, do you feel any weakness in your arm/hand. Where are the symptoms located (neck, arm, hand the whole thing), Scale of 1-10 how bad is it and has that been getting better or worse over time. Is it worse in the AM/PM. What diagnostic tests have you done and what doctors have you seen and who made the DX
 
Doc said:
How about a little history
Age, how you hurt it, how long have you dealt with it, what have you tried and has anything helped, what are the symptoms. What is your health like, your work environment, height weight overall physical health, What makes it better/worse, it is burning, stinging, do you feel any weakness in your arm/hand. Where are the symptoms located (neck, arm, hand the whole thing), Scale of 1-10 how bad is it and has that been getting better or worse over time. Is it worse in the AM/PM. What diagnostic tests have you done and what doctors have you seen and who made the DX
Click to expand...

I just turned 30.

Don't know when I hurt it, I think I have probably had a bulging disc for several years (maybe 3-4 years), because I've suffered from back of head headaches and tight muscles in shoulder area since then.

I think I herniated it during squatting a month ago had massive neck pain following and worsening of symptoms. Then had imbalance problems (mild, not visible or testable, i.e. subjective but definitely affecting how I walk, move and behave). Tightness extending into arm (mild pain in some positions), mild marginal loss of strength in hand (when opening closing fast, nothing major). Mild to moderate shoulderblade pain. Frequent occipital pain.

I work like any other webmaster, sitting down in poor posture for many hours, but otherwise in fairly good shape and active with training, though overweight. Made worse by sleeping on a bad pillow or falling asleep in certain positions. Also made worse by sitting in poor position or standing upright in some positions.

I had an MRI done but the results are in Hungarian so can't read it. Doctor recommended cortisone treatment, physio first, come back in 6 weeks, but all in all thought surgery was likely. The herniation is quite visible, no need to be a radiologist to see it. The doc is a spine doctor specialist at a well known and respected spine clinic.

I'm mostly worried about the gait/imbalance stuff and losing power/dexterity in my arm. I've learned to live with the headaches but obviously would be great to be pain free.
 
Where do you live? If you're near NYC you go to HSS. I tore a tendon in my hand in an autoracing incident and was refered to a Professor there... today its freakin normal. Currently I'm having a pinched nerve treated by them. For Anything orthopedic if are anywhere near there you go to the Hospital For Special Surgery.
 
You may need to get those vertebrae fused. By going to the vet, you could save some money.

9Rolhau.jpg
 
This is why I'll never squat heavy or deadlift at all... our spines aren't evolved for that shit. Wish you all the best getting it sorted.

Dr. Bigelow: What can I do for you?
Louie: Uh, well, I hurt my back today really bad. Uh. Can you help me with my back? I mean...
Dr. Bigelow: What's wrong with your back?
Louie: It hurts.
Dr. Bigelow: My professional diagnosis is your back hurts.
Louie: Well, what can I do about it?
Dr. Bigelow: Nothing.
Louie: Nothing?
Dr. Bigelow: The problem is you're using it wrong. The back isn't done evolving yet. You see, the spine is a row of vertebrae. It was designed to be horizontal. Then people came along and used it vertical. Wasn't meant for that. So the disks get all floppy, swollen. Pop out left, pop out right. It'll take another. I'd say 20,000 years to get straightened out. Till then, it's going to keep hurting.
Louie: So that's it?
Dr. Bigelow: It's an engineering design problem. It's a misallocation. We were given a clothesline and we're using it as a flagpole.
Louie: So what should I do?
Dr. Bigelow: Use your back as it was intended. Walk around on your hands and feet. Or accept the fact that your back is going to hurt sometimes. Be very grateful for the moments that it doesn't. Every second spent without back pain is a lucky second. String enough of those lucky seconds together, you have a lucky minute.
Louie: Okay.
Dr. Bigelow: Come see me when you have something fun like a blood disease. That's what I went to school for.
 
rusvik said:
I've also heard that HGH injections can do wonders for things like this.
Click to expand...
Ouch, not a route I'd like to go down if it would be regular, and avoidable (through surgery or otherwise).

Assuming it's injected directly into the spine, lumbar punctures aren't fun, speaking from experience. If you do go down that route, ask for lots of novocaine, made the procedure bearable for me (although needed ~160mg codeine every 4 hours for a week afterwards, not sure if you'd be likely to experience post LP headaches with HGH injections though).
 
Hope this helps, had close relative some years ago with similar prognosis...
She got no top references of treatments offered by doctors (surgery), then looked for alternatives.

Find a top chiropractor with:
- Thompson table
- knowledge about upper cervical spine
- best references about his/hers intersegmental traction techniques.

Most chiropractors are crap, look for the gems.

Ask your doctor if he can point you in some good direction,
with some luck his helping impulse will prevail over corporativism.
 
Some people may think this is stupid advice but have you tried a regular Yoga routine? I had chronic back pain around my neck, shoulders area for years (off an on, intense pain about twice a month). Yoga has seriously reduced my pain when it flares up as well as cutting the flare ups to maybe once every 3-4 months.

Note: I never saw a Doctor about it so I don't know if it was a herniated disc or just muscle pain but I do know it was debilitating until I started a regular Yoga routine.

Protip: Choose a yoga studio in a wealthy area of town and you get to stare at Milf's asses in tight pants the whole time which makes it much more tolerable/entertaining.
 
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Cervical-Traction-Device-Decompression-Herniation/dp/B00IGYL3ZI/"]Amazon.com: Cervical Traction Device - Unit Relieves Neck and Spine Pain - Best Treatment for Chronic Neck Shoulder Pain Relief - This Gentle Stretcher Helps with Vertebrae Decompression and Disc Herniation - Inflatable Air Pump Collar Brace Provides Support - Best Reliever for Pinched Nerve, Arthritis, or Injury - Better than Therapy, Pillows, Dr Bobs, and Over the Door Systems for Vertebra - Order Risk FREE Today: Health & Personal Care[/ame]
 
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