Cervical Spondylosis

[ghammer]

Hello There,

been having a nasty pain on my neck, and by tilting it back i can numb my right arm. This past summer it became wicked bad, so I went to the doc. I feared a herniated disc or nerve compression, but the diagnosis is Cervical Spondylosis, which is a fancy name for neck arthritis.

I cannot put in words how much this sucks. It usually sets in on older folks (55+), but active folks can have it too. I'm 45, btw - very healthy, active, lean, handsome, etc. Thing is, this is a bitch of a pain, it does not hamper riding (lucky), but it hurts while doing stupidly simple things, like washing dishes, driving, mowing the lawn. Old people issues, I'd say, expect that aside from needing new glasses, I don't feel old.

Question: anyone out there with similar issues? what was your experience? Am taking Naproxen for pain, which helps *a lot*, but i know it's not the healthiest course of action. A healthy round of PT is forthcoming, but if I could have tips from riders out there who have had it, and what to do, etc., would be awesome.

thanks,

G

[Ozz]

Sorry, I have different type of neck pain, but similar symptoms (my thumbs are *tingly* most of the time).

Go thru the PT and stick with the exercises. Pay attention to posture / how you hold your head/neck. I found decompression helps a lot...they should do that during PT and give you some exercises for it.

You are luck it is not (yet) affecting your cycling.

Good luck.

[glepore]

BTDT. Pt. More pt. Learn to cope. I brought mine to a head by falling off a fast motorcycle and landing on my head, which resulted in surgery to relieve my paralysis. I would not recommend this course of action, but my neck no longer hurts.

The permanent neuropathic pain in my arms, though, is a drag.

Make sure that your bike position isn't an aggravating factor. The endorphins when riding are the best pain drugs at my disposal, so it may not be immediately apparent while riding.

[cmg]

try taking the million and one kind of drugs for knee pain. Pain is pain, the neck doesn't know it's for the knee. I take some over the counter thing with D3 and it seems to work. yea, I know, it's bs, heard it but the over the counters are somewhat affordable. give it a try. I got neck pain writing this, does it spread electronically?

[DRZRM]

Hey you are in Boston, lucky you. Long story, but the Boston part may be key. I didn't know it had such a cool name, but I suspect we suffer from a pretty similar thing. So I had a low speed crash on my CX bike down some stone steps in the Arboretum in JP. Landed mostly on my left arm but gave my neck a jolt too. Saw urgent care, got an x-ray (I think) nothing visible, got some pain killers, went on my way. Everything improved, but never really fixed itself. Couple months later I realized that not only did my neck still hurt, but I was having tingling down my left arm. See my doc, he notices I have very little strength lifting or rotating out with my left hand. First guess, rotator cuff injury, of for an MRI and I start what will be ages of PT. See shoulder guy, no rotator cuff injury, guesses first rib injury (I didn't even know I had one) next specialist, and continue PT, which starts to help some with recovering shoulder strength, but not the pain. I can hardly turn my neck to look over my shoulder (I think it was left I could not turn towards) but the stretching helps some. Next specialist excludes first rib, now I'm off to the neck guy, because they think I must have broken my neck (:eek:). First x-ray on my neck, then MRI, where it turns out (I was about 45 then) that I have neck arthritis, or as I now know it, Cervical Spondylosis.

So here's the potentially interesting thing for you. He says that lots of people have mild to moderate neck arthritis and never know it or get tested for it. He feels that the injury exacerbated the problem, and if I could get the neck trauma treated I might have long term or even permanent relief. So I see a doctor at Brigham and Women's (he is there in JP maybe once a month, but he has clinics at several offices throughout greater Boston) who is one a a very small number of doctors nationally who administers cortisone shots directly into the spine/neck. He does it by strapping you into a large x-ray machine, and then making sure that the injection is going exactly where he wants it. He said about third of his patients recover from a single injection and need no additional treatment, another third need a follow up injection 6 months to a year later, most of the rest come back every year or two, and some small number don't get much relief. I walked out of that office pain free for the first time in a year. Started getting some pain 8 months later, much lower level pain but I had a follow up injection. That was about 4 years ago. My neck is generally sorer than it used to be but on the whole my pain level is like a 0-2 on a scale to 10, I no longer take pain pills regularly, or for my neck at all. When I do the PT neck stretching exercises I'm entirely pain free.

I'm traveling out of the country for another week, but if you send me a PM I can dig through my old papers (I don't live in Boston anymore) and find his name and that of the procedure. Though I imagine your doctor can track it down by description if he thinks it would help. Even if you have much more advanced arthritis I assume you're likely to get some relief--hopefully longterm--from these shots.

[buddybikes]

Also recommend NE Baptist, they have specialists that can handle this cortisone if needed. Also if you do need surgery, there is a fusion technique now that is basically on flexible hinge so not hard fuse like lower back.