This is written for anyone experiencing bulging disc problems in their neck. When I looked for these types of answers, I couldn’t find them on the internet. I hope that through my story others may find relief. My Timeline: Mid-February 2006 – Bulging Disc Late-February – Started steroids and PT March through Mid-April – PT End of April through Mid-May – No therapy Mid-May – End of June – Steroid treatment and PT (round 2) June 30th – Bike wreck July through Mid-August – No therapy Mid-August through Mid-September – PT Early September – Cortisone shot in shoulder Late September 2006 – Back to athletic activity My Story: I am an athlete (rock climber) that recently has experienced bulging disc problems. Eight months ago, I was standing in my kitchen looking down at a piece of paper when I felt a fluid-like release sensation in my neck. It felt like I had pulled my neck but worse than any neck pull I had ever known. The next morning I woke up withering in pain in my neck. X-rays looked fine but an MRI showed a bulging disc in C5-6. I was immediately put on a week-long steroid treatment and started physical therapy. At PT I received traction therapy, ultra-sound, and slight hands-on manipulation. During the week I was on steroids, I felt great! I even climbed in our home gym and estimated my recovery time to be a month max. However, the day after the steroid treatment stopped, my symptoms returned so I continued on with PT for a few more weeks. One of my symptoms was pain/nerve sensations running down both arms. I stayed at a total of about a month with my physical therapist but choose to stop due to switching jobs (since I had to go through a month on Cobra, I decided to pause my therapy until I was situated in my new job). During that time, I got worse. The pain in my neck was terrible and the pain in my arms evolved into my right arm only but 10 times more painful. It appeared I now had a full-on shoulder injury and couldn’t lift, push, or pull at all with that arm. One thing to mention is one of the types of pain/discomfort in my neck. When I would turn my neck to the right, it felt like someone was poking me under my right scapula in the muscle closest to my spine. My first physical therapist showed me that I could personally manipulate my vertebrae to relieve that feeling. To do this, take your left hand and hold the back of your neck with your left elbow sticking out in front of you. Then, without moving your hand, roll your fingers up while applying pressure on your neck. You should adjust your finger tips so that you feel your finger tips bordering on the sides of the vertebrae. Now, turn your head to the right and, as you turn, apply more pressure to the neck muscle just outside your vertebrae thus restricting your vertebrae to turn with your neck. In doing this, you open up the vertebrae so that the disc isn’t bulging anymore and this will relieve the discomfort in your scapula area. At least it did for me. Whereas normally I couldn’t turn to the right without feeling that pinch, when I did this, the pinch was gone. Anyway, once I began physical therapy again after 6 weeks off, I was started on a steroid therapy for the second time. It worked great and my neck and shoulder pain were greatly reduced. Additionally, this physical therapist did a lot more hands on work on me (in addition to traction) and I highly recommend that type of PT over the simple traction and ultra-sound road. We were about four weeks into the therapy and doing great until I had a bad bicycle accident and couldn’t walk for a month (this was a bad year…). By the time I got back to therapy, I was the worse I had ever been. My physical therapist thought it best to not go with the steroids again so she just worked on me twice a week. I was seeing good results in my neck but my shoulder was still terrible. After about a month, she felt convinced I had a shoulder injury and sent me to a specialist. An MRI revealed bursitis (tendonitis). The doctor explained that the neck and shoulder play against each other and when neck troubles cause shoulder/arm discomfort for prolonged periods of time, it’s possible for the muscles to fire in the incorrect order and cause problems with shoulder function. He offered me anti-inflammatory pills or a cortisone shot. Since I had been suffering for four months without being able to use my right arm, I opted for immediate relieve with the cortisone shot. The cortisone shot experience was terrible. The first 24 hours I experienced more pain in my shoulder than I ever thought possible. Luckily I had pain killers from my numerous injuries the past year because I needed them. The first night I was up every four hours popping a percocet (and I don’t take pain killers normally). The second night was about 50% better but it really took about four nights until I could sleep without pain from the shot (sleeping with a pillow under your arm will help a lot with the pain). But when the pain subsided a week later, I felt a lot better. Two weeks later, I felt about 80% better. And this is where I am today. To back up slightly, I want to talk about my neck, the source of all the problems. Throughout the entire ordeal I’ve had significant swelling on my C5-6 area. There were also times throughout my injury that I felt a lot of crunching in that area. About five weeks ago I started feeling better in my neck and the swelling and crunching were intermittent as well as the pinching in my scapula would be on-and-off too. During the good times I would run slowly upstairs on our treadmill and would hear clicking at the base of my neck like fireworks going off. It was very bizarre but not painful so I ignored it. Although my neck would feel better at times, my shoulder was so bad. Fortunately, I had just succeeded pushing through the red tape of insurance and got a home traction unit (Saunders Hometrac Deluxe). So by the time I got the cortisone shot, I was able to accompany it with home traction once a day which I feel was greatly beneficial. So here I am today. I just ran and, for the first time, I didn’t hear the fireworks sound! My neck still feels a little uncomfortable in certain sleeping positions and sitting on chairs with high head rests but I feel at least 90% healed. My shoulder is doing, as I said, about 80% better. It hurts with certain movements but I climbed today for the first time in eight months. I am limited still but am hopeful for a full recovery. I had many days of dark thoughts these past eight months, thought that I would never heal and scared I’d never climb again. But I stayed positive and did things that I feel were instrumental to healing and that’s why I’m writing this down. I want to pass on what I’ve learned so that others may have hope during their dark times. My suggestions to dealing with a neck injury: 1. Educate Yourself – Don’t listen to your doctor tell you that you need surgery. Go buy a book like “Back Pain for Dummies”. Read and learn your options. This study: http://www.orthopedictechreview.com/issues/novdec03/pg36.htm is beneficial to read. 2. Stay Healthy – Do light stretching and keep moving. Don’t be victim to your injury. Your body heals better with light activity. Try Yoga…it greatly helps back pain sufferers. 3. Find the Right Physical Therapist – Don’t just rely on traction. Ask questions and find a PT that will do deep tissue work and use a more hands-on approach. 4. Sleep Right – Learn how to sleep without hurting your neck. I went through a regular pillow, Tempurpedic pillow, down pillow, Makura Buckwheat Miracle Pillow, and many other neck pillows. Every morning I would wake up with an irritated neck. What worked for me in the end was no pillow with the Makura pillow sculpted around my head like a helmet to give me support on the sides of my head. Just keep trying different things and figure out what works for you. 5. Be Patient – My husband had a bulging disc and was diligent about Yoga and exercise and I gave him massages, sometimes two a day. He was healed in three months. I think I would’ve been healed quicker had I not had so many obstacles. If you read the statistics, people who choose conservative methods of healing are in the same spot with their health if not better off than those that choose surgery. Everyone is different but you need to be patient. You will heal. 6. Stay Positive – Don’t play the sick role. If you allow yourself to get depressed, wimp out on exercise, and/or give up on your therapy, you will only enable a slower healing path. Also, you may have to live with some discomfort for the rest of your life. Learn how to sit differently and do things that help to make the pain go away. 7. Don’t Rely on Drugs – Drugs are only a temporary relief and there are other ways to find temporary relief. Use ice and heat instead. I hope that someone is able to gain from my story. Good luck with your healing and stay positive!