On 4/22/2010 10:59 PM, Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> > wrote in message
> ...
>> On 4/22/2010 8:33 AM, Nunya Bidnits wrote:
>>> > wrote in message
>>> news >>>> In >,
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> I'll second that book recommendation. The exercises in it will help
>>>>>> take a
>>>>>> lot of stress off of nerve bundles that are getting irritated or
>>>>>> pinched.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've had a ruptured disk at c-5/c-6 which almost put me into surgery
>>>>>> three
>>>>>> different times, probably would have if I hadn't been so resistant to
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> medieval concept of cutting up my backbone and shoving in pieces of
>>>>>> cadaver
>>>>>> bone. Being careful of posture, rearranging things I use frequently to
>>>>>> avoid
>>>>>> encouraging bad posture (computer monitor height, for example), and
>>>>>> doing
>>>>>> the kinds of exercises found in that book are what kept me from being
>>>>>> cut. I
>>>>>> also found that a good muscle relaxant at night along with moist heat
>>>>>> goes a
>>>>>> lot further towards waking up without pain than any narcotic-type
>>>>>> painkillers. I'm now 20 years past the precipitating event which
>>>>>> caused
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> damage, and I can manage the situation and control it before it gets
>>>>>> out of
>>>>>> hand, and I still haven't been cut.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> MartyB
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Ditto the moist heat, and...Doanes Pills...Walgreens has a cheaper
>>>>> store
>>>>> brand. Dunno why they work, but they do.
>>>>
>>>> Traction (decompression) therapy is also a good thing. My Ortho' told me
>>>> that that and the McKenzie exercises were my best bet to avoid surgery.
>>>> The neck steroid injections were administered by a pain specialist. MD
>>>> surgeon/anesthesiologist.
>>>>
>>>> Not as bad as they sound. He was generous with the Lidocaine, and they
>>>> do offer sedation if you want it. I didn't.
>>>> --
>>>
>>> I had traction but not the injections. I got onto the moist heat thing
>>> when
>>> I realized how much the hot pack treatments helped during PT. You can't
>>> beat
>>> those hot wet sandbags they use for deep heat therapy.
>>>
>>> The best muscle relaxant IMO, if your doc will fork it over, is valium,
>>> just
>>> for long enough to get things settled down, i.e., 3-6 weeks. Fortunately
>>> I
>>> haven't had a bout that severe in ten years. Now if it starts to flare, a
>>> couple days of cyclobenzaprine and some hot wet towels will do the trick.
>>>
>>> I was told by the first neuro I saw that the body will heal itself in
>>> many
>>> cases if you can tolerate and manage the pain while it happens, and that
>>> many of the surgeries are done to relieve pain more than to prevent
>>> serious
>>> damage. Quote "I'd like to stay out of your neck." It's hard to accept
>>> when
>>> you're dealing with raw nerve pain shooting through your shoulder and
>>> down
>>> through your arm and elbow, but in hindsight it was the wisest thing
>>> anyone
>>> told me in nearly 20 years of dealing with it.
>>>
>>> I can't say it's completely healed but it's certainly not anywhere near
>>> the
>>> problem it used to be. It was so bad I couldn't even ride in a car
>>> without
>>> cringing in pain every time it hit a small bump.
>>>
>>> I figure it will probably go bad again sooner or later, but I'm betting
>>> on a
>>> less medieval surgical option being available by that time. They have a
>>> less
>>> invasive laproscopic procedure with much less chance of post surgical
>>> complications, but they wouldn't consider using it in the C vertebrae
>>> because of the close proximity to the spinal cord. Hopefully if I have to
>>> get cut someday, they will have refined this procedure. I know they
>>> already
>>> have an artificial material to replace the cadaver bone insertion but I
>>> don't know much more about it than that.
>>>
>>> MartyB
>>>
>>>
>> Hydrocodone is a Godsend, but it puts me clean out to sleep.
>>
>> Ymmv.
>
> Been there, done that. I finally figured out that in knocked me out to the
> point that I got all scrunched up in my sleep and didn't care. So I would
> wake up in the AM with everything already in an uproar.

Wow, that's a reverse gear for sure.
>
> The muscle relaxant doesn't knock you out nearly as much. One thing that
> really helps is to be able to just lay flat on my back with the moist heat
> underneath, and maintain that posture in my sleep if possible. That position
> is the most pain free anyway, especially with the arm on the bad side up
> over my head. That's where there is the least pressure on the nerve root.
> With the muscle relaxants and feweer pain meds, eventually none, there was
> just enough of an edge left to the pain if I moved around that I seemed to
> maintain that position all night.
>
> MartyB

Can we get a factory recall on the back please ;-)