I have a herniated disk in my neck and the pain in the back of my head and down to my shoulder blade is pain.?
Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at
9:56 pm
i have tried physical therapy, chiropractor,and pain clinic for injections. what else is there?
It is the C5-6 disc.
Filed under: Shoulder Blade Pain
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1. Traction. Get a head strap and stretch the area once a day and before bed.
2. Vitamin C. 10,000mg daily of vitamin C will accelerate the formation of cartilage which will partially repair the disk damage.
3. Take some of the standard arthritis vitamins (glucosamine, chondroitin, etc etc etc because the vertebrae is a joint also and these vitamins will assist healing. Basically anything good for joints is good for the damaged disk.
4. Take some natural anti-inflamatories like curcumin etc. Avoid foods that inflame, like sugar.
5. Loose weight and this will take pressure off the disk.
6. Get a bar and start doing twists every day. If you hold the bar horizontal and then twist at the waist, allow your head to follow the twisting motion and look as far as possible to the right and then reverse the motion and look to to the left as far as possible. This will stretch the neck sinews taking pressure off.
7. There is a product called Injuv. This is hyaluronic acid and this is what the disk is made of. There are many claims of success with this. However it is more expensive than regular vitamins.
Fusion surgery
In many cases, manual adjustment of the spine brings relief, but not permanent. If it is realy bad then it’s an operation. The discs are melted and cemented together. A couple of weeks in a cylinder, on youre back with your head locked in a brace to prevent movement. Not a nice experience but it works, eaving you with a fixed neck.
My husband had the same thing this past fall. He had C6 and C7 that were both herniated. After trying the same things you did, he ended up having to have surgery. He is a professional fire fighter and unfortunately for him, (he didn’t want surgery) he had to have it to get his job back.
It was a very simple procedure really. They went in through the right side of his neck, very small incision, not even an inch, and corrected the herniated disks by cutting some of the swollen tissue out, sculpting it back the way it should be, and then adding a very small plate to keep them that way. Overall, the surgery has worked great for him. One night stay in the hospital, out the next morning. He had about an 8wk recovery time for his job, and then was light duty for another 2 wks. Of course, 8wks for him was because of the strenuous job duties, if you don’t have a job like that, I wouldn’t expect it that long. Everyone is different when it comes to recovery. The pain during recovery is really hard in the beginning. He is not one to take pain pills but he was definitely asking for them for the first two weeks. He also had to wear a neck brace for two weeks, just like if you get whiplash, the same kind. This helped him keep the weight of his head off the neck, without the pressure of your head, it hurts less and doesn’t aggravate the incision or the disks. He is completely back to normal now, with an occasional ache if rainy weather is coming in, nothing he can’t handle. The incision place has healed beautifully, very little scar, barely noticeable. I would recommend staying out of the sun until the cut has healed well, and getting some Mederma Scar Treatment (most drug stores has it), apply this twice a day and it really helps.
My best advice, talk to your doctor about getting this done. It might be the only other option you have. Good Luck
Need to know which vertebra is involved!