I have been awful at not posting lately! In my defense, ever since we got home from Mexico (which was awesome and I'll cover in another post!) my life has been a disaster.
About a week after we got home my neck and shoulder started acting up again. I tried to get in with my normal chiro and it's a blessing in disguise he's out of office. I ended up seeing Dr. Webb and I've never been happier switching practices. I immediately liked him and the entire staff.
I saw a massage therapist who insisted my shoulder was one of the tightest she has worked on in awhile. After some stem and traction I saw Dr. Webb who asked how I managed to make it through the day waiting on an appointment! He promised it would feel better after a couple of visits and I set up another appointment for the following Monday.
Same on Monday, saw a therapist and did stem and traction, but when I saw Dr. Webb he asked if I'd be willing to get an MRI. He said all that tightness wasn't compatible with Cervical Torticollis (my first diagnosis a year prior). Dr. Webb said the worst he thought it would be is a bulge on my disk. I reluctantly agreed and had an MRI on Tuesday. Don't ever get an MRI if you don't need one. I'm not claustrophobic and I wanted to die. It was awful.
Wednesday I met with Dr. Webb to get my results and the first thing he said was, "Well the good news is we got some great shots of you neck." Um, that's the good news?? "The bad news is it's worse than I anticipated." Turns out I have an extruded c5 disk. In short it means it's herniated and blown out and pinching my nerves and bulging into the spinal canal. Oh, the fun never ends, does it?
Dr. Webb referred me to Dr. Oliver-Smith, a neurosurgeon. Since we all know I'm Type A, I called a neurosurgeon in Washington who agreed to see me without a referral. I met with him this Monday. After reviewing my charts, MRI, X-rays, etc. Dr. Prostko said it is highly unlikely my body will repair the disk itself. Normally if a disk will be repaired by the body, it will happen 4-6 weeks after the first incident. My first incident was 14 months ago.
So now I'm left in limbo until I get a second option from Oliver-Smith at the end of the month. My options are surgery or a life of pain killers and muscle relaxants until one day it's so bad I won't have a choice but to do surgery. I have an appointment in early November with Prostko to make a decision (unless Oliver-Smith agrees those are the only two paths and then I would need to decide on a surgeon) and until then I am doing pre-op treatment twice a week. Basically it's building muscle strength around the disk so my post surgery therapy time is diminished.
Please keep me in your thoughts for the upcoming weeks. This decision is weighing heavily on my mind and I'm extremely nervous for mostly likely an impending surgery.
