http://variosities.com/NeckBlog/

There are a few disadvantages, mainly having to do with appearance, but I won’t have an image limit.

My chiropractic adjustment went very well. Then I ran a few errands. One was to get my imaging records to the surgeon, but there wasn’t anyone in his office, and no one answered their telephone. So I went to Imaging and asked to have the full set and reports sent to him. I’ll call their other office tomorrow and let them know. I figure this will allow the doctor to look at them at his convenience, instead of having to wait until my appointment.

That took me up to lunch time. Then I had to drive my husband to pick up some ham radio equipment. The drive was about an hour each way, and we stayed to visit about an hour. By the time we got home, my shoulder was a little sore, so I lay down for a bit. By the time supper was ready, the pain was gone.

I did have some pain in my right hip tonight on the way home from my Civil Air Patrol meeting, but it didn’t persist long after I got home.

I did manage to figure out a good way to describe the way my arm actually feels. Pain isn’t accurate enough, because there are so many types of pain. This wasn’t sharp, dull, throbbing, pulling, compressing, or any of the other “normal” types of pain. It also wasn’t a burning in the typical sense. There wasn’t any heat feeling, nor was it like an electrical burn with its underlying stiffness. Finally, yesterday afternoon I remembered what it felt like. It was almost exactly like the feeling of a dilute lye solution being sprayed on bare skin. The only difference is dilute lye stops burning as soon as it’s rinsed. This doesn’t stop until after I’ve lay down for a while.

So, generally, after I’ve been up for somewhere between 2 to 4 hours I begin having some tingling in the back of my upper left arm. Usually this is near the top. It then spreads down my arm, and sometimes over my left shoulder blade. As it spreads the lye-burn feeling begins, and sometimes the right side of my neck gets a pulled-muscle type pain.

If I don’t lie down at this point, the pain begins to spread into my upper back. It usually doesn’t go far below my bra line, but occasionally goes as low as the bottom of my ribcage. If I continue to ignore it, the feelings begin to extend to the right side and down the right arm. Once in a while I get pain/tingling as far as my wrists, and also occasionally my elbows feel as if they’ve banged on something. This funny-bone feeling can happen anytime, and does not seem to be related to the other symptoms. The other feeling I occasionally get is as if someone is holding my left arm right above the elbow. Not tightly, but completely surrounding in a ring about 2 inches wide.

Feel free to comment. I will try to answer any questions.

Healthy profile MRI
http://www.spine-health.com/fig-1-sagittal-view-cervical-spine

Herniated Disk profile MRI
http://www.spine-health.com/fig-2-cervical-spine-disc-herniation

Here’s another profile of a c-spine
Sagittal T2-weighted image with signal abnormality in posterior columns (arrows).
http://www.medscape.com/content/2003/00/46/48/464850/art-ar464850.fig1a.jpg

This image is looking down the neck
Axial gradient-echo sequence confirms posterior column signal abnormality (arrow).
http://www.medscape.com/content/2003/00/46/48/464850/art-ar464850.fig1c.jpg

Here are three of my c-spine images. In the one in profile, near the midline, you can see the disks bulging into the spinal chord. My doctor says the C-5/6/7 area is the worst, but the C-7/T-1 is ok.

The first axial image shows the spinal cord well buffered by spinal fluid. This is near the top of my neck.

The second is further down, and it’s easy to see that the spinal cord has been squashed and pushed a little to one side.

Then something happened the afternoon after my re-evaluation, and I started having a tingling pain in my left upper arm. Sometimes the pain also radiated down my back. So the next day I told my doctor about it. He sent me for an MRI.

The MRI showed three bulging disks, and a lot of the places where the nerve roots connect were rough and narrower than they should be. This may be because the spaces between the vertebrae are reduced. The doctor said there was a lot of arthritis related problems and that the C-5/6/7 group was particularly bad. He referred me to a surgeon, and I have an appointment on December 29.

For about two weeks I wasn’t able to be up for more than a few hours at a time. The pain would become so bad that I had to lie flat on my back anywhere from half an hour to two hours. I kept a “pain diary” for a while, but as the symptoms reduced, the diary became a hassle. During this time I went to the chiropractor three times a week.

Things seemed to be going ok. I could stay up longer and needed shorter breaks. Then last Wednesday evening the pain came back, and even lying flat didn’t help much. This lasted through Thursday. Friday morning wasn’t so bad, but after I’d been up for about three hours I had to lie flat for an hour. I was able to get up and do a few things during the afternoon, but wasn’t pain free.

The pain is back up around 6 again, so I’m going to post this and will try to put some images up this weekend.

The doctor sent me to a physical therapist, and the treatments were beginning to help when my daughter and I were in an auto accident.

As we came up the hill toward the intersection I noticed that the light was red. As the car slowed, preparing to stop at the light, I saw a black pick-up truck, which had been stopped at the back of the line of traffic, begin to move into the left turn lane. The light turned green, and I felt the car begin to accelerate. The pick-up truck appeared to be slowing for a moment, but then sped up again. There was still plenty of time for him to stop before completing the turn, but instead of pulling straight into the intersection, he tried to make the turn in front of us.

Our car turned to try to avoid the accident. I felt the car slow and swerve to the left, and hoped we would be able to go behind the truck. The front passenger corner of my daughter’s car hit the rear passenger wheel well of the truck.

At first I didn’t hurt, and after someone helped me get the door open I was able to get out. My daughter’s door wasn’t damaged, but she had banged her head on something and her neck was hurting. She was able to move, and after a few minutes she got out of the car. Two of the employees at the Dairy Queen came over to help us until the ambulance arrived.

EMT’s put collars on both of us, and strapped us to back boards. My daughter was on the gurney but they walked me to the ambulance and strapped me to a board after I was inside. At the hospital we were x-rayed, examined, given lists of warning signs for problems, and sent home.

I asked my doctor about continuing the physical therapy, and he said I would probably be ok. I told the physical therapist about the accident, and she modified my course slightly, but we continued the therapy for my arm problem.

I had also been going to my chiropractor for treatment on the arm, but after the accident he changed his focus to the neck and upper back. About a week after the accident I began having pain in my neck and upper back. I also had occasional tingling pain down the back of my left arm and my elbows occasionally felt as if someone had rapped them. So I went to the doctor, and he decided to change the focus of my therapy to the neck. My physical therapist did an exit evaluation of my arm that documented that there had been some improvement, then began a routine to relieve the pinched nerve problems.

I remember lying flat on my back, unable to move, or even feel anything. I couldn’t even blink. I don’t know how long it was, but it seemed like an eternity. As feeling began to return, the teacher had the other students roll me off the trampoline, get me on my feet, and walk me over toward the wall of the gym. I couldn’t control my leg or arm movements yet, so they leaned me to one side and swung the other leg forward – just like those “walker” dolls that were popular in the ’60′s.

When I was able to talk, I asked the teacher to send for the nurse, but she refused. By the end of the class I was able to move enough to go down the stairs to the locker and pull my slacks on over my gymnastics outfit. I went to my last class of the day, told that teacher what had happened, and asked to be allowed to go to the nurse. He also refused. I ended up having to ride the bus home, and since our busses were overcrowded and I couldn’t move fast enough to be one of the first people on, I ended up without a seat.

My mom took me to see her back doctor, and he had some x-rays taken. He also did a little manipulative therapy – similar to chiropractic, but more gentle. The x-rays didn’t show any broken bones, so I was put on pain killers and muscle relaxants and excused from all phys-ed classes through the end of the year.

Through that summer I recovered most of the way, but there was still significant loss of coordination on my left side. Prior to the injury, I had been completely ambidextrous. One of my favorite tricks was to switch hands when playing tennis, and do a forehand return when my opponent expected a backhand. After the accident I didn’t even have enough left side coordination to operate a clutch in a manual transmission car.

I had also lost some right side coordination, and could no longer use any type of sports equipment that wasn’t directly in my hand. I could play volley ball, and even ping-pong, but not tennis, badminton, lacrosse, or any bat-and-ball games.

Since that time I have occasionally had back pain, headaches, and pinched nerve symptoms – mainly in my left arm. The headaches felt as if someone was squeezing the back of my head. Back in the mid 90′s I was rear-ended at a stop sign. A few hours after the accident I developed back pain and shooting tingling/pain along my left arm. An x-ray showed a healed fracture in my c-spine. The healed injury was so bad, the head of radiology couldn’t believe I could walk.

Until about four or five years ago, I only had intermittent problems, which chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy was able to manage. Then I began noticing a slow deterioration in the amount of weight I could lift and carry, especially on my left side. At the same time I noticed that I was no longer getting the tension headaches. My chiropractor took an x-ray and told me that C-4/5/6 had fused, and C-1/2/3 were compensating for the lack of curvature.

Chiropractic treatments, augmented occasionally with muscle relaxants and pain medicines, still helped, but the frequency that I needed them increased. Earlier this year I had some neck and back pain, and the doctor sent me for x-rays of my neck and lower spine. These showed some narrowing of the C-6/7 space and some scoliosis in my lower back. As with prior episodes, this one was treated with muscle relaxants, pain medication, and chiropractic adjustment.

The original injury occurred in 1974. Since then I’ve had occasional problems. If I did too much or moved “wrong” I sometimes had pain in my neck, back, or shoulders. Sometimes I also had headaches that felt as if someone was squeezing the back of my head.

About 4 years ago I noticed the headaches had stopped. My chiropractor took x-rays and told me that C-4/5/6 had fused. It was nice not to have so much pain. I still, occasonally had neck and back pain, and once in a while my left arm tingled or my elbows felt as if someone had hit them. I also started having difficulty lifting some things.