Saturday, July 05, 2014

Bulging disc...

Xrays show long term degenerative changes in my cervical spine unrelated to BJJ... MRI shows a bulging disc impinging on my spinal cord at C5/6.  I had an epidural cortisone injection last Friday which helped with the pain, but the neuro symptoms are way worse (my arm is often painfully tingly, feels like I've grabbed an electric fence, and sometimes it hurts in my forearm, lats, and fingers).  I will go back to the doctor asap next week, and I'm considering spinal fusion surgery.  Would be interested in hearing peoples' experiences with neck injuries....

Anyway, that's why I'm not blogging.  It just hurts to have my right arm in a typing position, and I have to type all day every day for work, so there's little to none left for ya'll right now, I'm sorry :(

3 comments:

Jay Swan said...

A coworker of mine has had enormous symptom relief from acupuncture. It doesn't fix the underlying structural problems and he'll probably still need surgery eventually, but it least allows him to function normally. He's not a BJJ guy and he's considerably older than you, but he's now able to do everything he wants to do.

Bobby and Amanda said...

I still have recurring back issues. I have 2 bulging disks higher up my spine and a herniated disk way down at the bottom which gives me the most pain (uncomfortable radiating pain in my left leg). Like you I tried the steroid injections. There was some relief a couple times but no permanent pain relief. Coincidentally I ran across this article the other day: http://www.webmd.com/back-pain/news/20140702/steroid-shots-may-not-help-back-pain

I also tried physical therapy and even talked to a couple surgeons but after reviewing my MRIs, both of them said there was nothing they could operate on, that my back looked too good. Nobody could figure out why I had pain in my left leg but my herniation was on my right side.

So this is where I am now. I still have pain and it's the worst when I sit for a long period of time (like in public transport). On the other hand I'm still able to lift heavy weights and although I haven't rolled in a few months, I didn't have a lot of unmanageable pain when I did (as long as I could avoid guillitines).

Sorry I don't have some more positive information. I was also upset when my pain management doctor and the surgeons basically told me I'd have to learn to deal with it even though that's exactly what I'm doing now.

A couple of things you might want to try after physical therapy are going to a chiropractor or maybe acupuncture. I didn't try either of these since they seemed a little hippy dippy for me but they might be worth the try.

JiuJiu said...

Again, I'm late on this, but I had degenerative disc disease in my back, and it put me flat on my back. It wasn't a neck injury, but a back injury. Thankfully my back has healed/recovered, but I'm paranoid to this day of people slamming or stacking me.

Had this happened to my neck, I would tap super early on chokes.