bone, drugs & disharmony
This was me last week. Actually, only the x-rays are me. The guy is Dr William Chan and he's showing me the error of my ways. Okay, no. I'm just being dramatic. I was in no way responsible for my own pain.
I got up some weeks ago with a stiff neck. Since I've had stiff neck for as long as I remember, I didn't think much of it cos this kind of stuff usually just goes away on its own. But no. Not this time. After almost a week of pain trying to turn my head, I had the miserable shitty feeling that I was not getting better. And as though I'm not suffering enough, I win a bonus pain in my arm as well.
As it turns out, I have bone spurs on my spine. These are nasty little buggers that grow out of your bones due to wear and tear. For some reason, that has caused one of my discs (that's the rubber jelly washer thing between my cervical vertebrae C5 & C6) to swell a bit. This has cause it to pinch my nerves, which leads to a whole world of pain in my right arm at the bicep-tricep area. This brings fresh meaning to the phrase "getting on my nerves".
I get a week off. Yay. And medicine for 10 days. Boo. And I go back for some comforting therapy. Yay. Which costs RM60 a pop. Boo. But I get goof off at home. Yah. But I gotta do the exercises for my neck. Boo.
So yeah, it's been a roller coaster ride for me.
Anyway, the medicine is long gone. I have also stopped going for the therapy. But it still hurts. And yet, I've decided not to see him again, at least until I can stands it no mores! Doc did hint at other forms of diagnosis and treatment, involving an MRI scan, injection into the spine, surgery, and other painful sounding procedures.
I hate getting old.
Got get second opinion boh.. pain is a way that the body is telling you EVERYTHING IS NOT RIGHT!
ReplyDeleteSo you better not play the fool, man! Take care, mate!
Sorry to hear that. Hope the pain will go away soon. Maybe you should get a second opinion?
ReplyDeleteyes there is such thing as spinal cord getting twisted and there are ppl doing this therapy for RM60 per session. Alot of ppl are having minor spinal cord twisted but they didnt know abt it but in ur case it have been painful.
ReplyDeleteAll my second opinions come from my wife or her mom, Gina. Wahahaahah!
ReplyDeleteAnn, it's mostly gone now.
So, does that mean we should just go for random spinal cord untwisting, Phoenix? :D
..oh james, im glad that its mostly gone now!!!
ReplyDeleteu lay down on ur front on the bed and asked mae to look at your spinal cord to see if its strait or run away much and
put ur leg straight by laying down on ur back and put ur legs close together and measure ur foot heels to see if the twisted spinal cord had cost ur legs length to be uneven.
and loose some weight if ur overweight cos its one of the cause for twisted spinal cord. since u have this problem, sleep straight and sit straight and have good posture all the time if possible.
ReplyDeleteI think you should do exercises for your neck. And also exercises for everything from your neck downwards..
ReplyDeleteThanks Phoenix. Working on losing some weight. Heheheh!
ReplyDeleteStevo: Shaddup. Doc says no exercise, other than for the neck.
I have a nerve prob on my left arm too. The entire left arm feels eternally numbish... and my left hand, err fingers feels needle-ly... like pins and needles. And its all day all night. When I sneeze, sometimes a sharp pain hits my left shoulder and a bolt of 'electricity' runs down my left arm. I'll fell kinda semi-paralyzed for a few secs cos of the pain.
ReplyDeleteOne doc said I gotta go check my neck discs. Could be early symptoms of degeneration. An MRI will send me to bankrupcy, so the doc said get into the government hospital. So I did.
The gomen doc said I was weird. She then referred me to a Family Med Specialist. Gets more interesting. The Specialist did an X-Ray (duhh)... which showed nothing OF COURSE. So he enrolled me in physio for the next six months. I'm still mid way thru. The physio said its unlikely my neck discs are dysfunctional cos I can do great spins with my head. hahaa. The nerve thingy... well he did some simple stretches to my body and instantly discovered my joints and nerves are way too stiff. It was painful mind you and it was only simple stretches. Just to note... I've never been able to stretch for my toes standing or sittin straight... like even since I was young. Condition is like I'm aredi in my 50s... but since I'm only in my 30s I have to do mega stretches to loosen all nerves and joints or I'll age 'permaturely'. I asked my physiologist today... so how my condition? Really got nothing wrong with my discs? He said very likely its not the discs, its just I'm too bloody stiff..hahaa... well he din say 'bloody' la. If I don't do these stretches, my flexibility will continue to decrease even more. If nothing changes after 6 months, then its to the Specialist, then Orthopaedics, then MRI... then?? then Glory be to God in the Highest.
So far there's some slight improvement altho the numbness is still there. All I gotta say is... get into the gomen hospital for free treatments bro. I'm in Melaka and its been real cool cos its almost free. Plus, this forces you to exercise and stretch during the physio which we're too lazy to do at home.