Yesterday my warp neck caused me to use my first ever sick day at my job. I hate calling in sick, so I hardly ever do. But man, when I woke up yesterday, I experienced some of the worst pain I have ever felt. I would describe it as roughly 3 times worse than giving birth to a child. OK, maybe not that bad, but it was bad.
I'm going to have to tell my chiropractor that I can't afford to go see him anymore. $45 is a good deal for one session, but the deal doesn't matter if you can't afford it. If my pain doesn't start getting better soon, then I might have to go in for an MRI, which might in turn lead to a steroid injection. I asked the doctor if I could also take some human growth hormone. My hope is that I will soon look like Barry Bonds.
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4 comments:
...so the pillow worked?
feel better soon!!
I have three bulging discs in my neck. Normally they don't bother me, but once in awhile a simple cough will cause both arms to go numb for about half a minute. It feels like someone just put a torniquet around each arm and pulled really tight. Very disconcerting. Anyway, I went to UCMed to meet with the head of neurosurgery. I had a picture in my mind that this guy and several interns had been studying my x-rays for a week and had worked out how they were going to treat me. (Obviously, I had been watching too much TV) Well, when I arrived at the clinic, the surgeon asked what I did for a living. I said I was an attorney. He said, "I don't like attorneys." When I told him I worked for a nonprofit, he said, "I like you better now!"
Then, he asked me if I had my x-rays. Flabbergasted, I said, "Don't you have them?" He got up in a huff and came back 5 minutes later and said he saw my x-rays and the problem is whenever I cough the spinal cord expands and presses against the bulging discs. This causes the numbness. When I asked what he recommended, he gave me a middleages-type torture device. It was literally a harness I was to place under my chin with a weight at the end of a rope I was supposed to throw over a door and stretch my neck. This contraption was so bizzare that I was embarassed to use it, although I did experiment with it once. I was able to suspend almost 40 lbs over the door before causing any discomfort. I would have gone for 50, but I didn't want to break the door.
After about 2 weeks I went back to the surgeon and reported that the numbess had gone away as it always did after awhile. He asked if I had used the neck stretcher. I told him I had only used it once. He said that since I used the device and I was feeling better, he would put in his report that the neck stretcher had "fixed" me and I wouldn't need surgery. So ended my medical treatment.
Ian - the pillow is helping, but is causing discomfort because it is causing my neck to bend in a way that it doesn't want to. Not all treatments are pleasant. But without the pillow, I would be in a lot more pain.
Lovey Heart - thanks for the sympathy.
Buppa H - What a crazy story! I brought my x-rays to my physician, and he didn't even bother putting them on the viewer to read them, he just held them up to the overhead fluorescent lights, and then said, "Yep, your neck is splinting." He didn't study them.
I hope I don't have to use the neck stretcher. That seems to unprofessional of the doctor to just assume that it worked, when you clearly stated that your pain went away like it always does.
At least I know that you can still live a very fruitful life even with disc-related neck pain - congratulations on your recent trip to Washington DC - I've read the transcript and I was most impressed.
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