Disc Bulge Between C6 and C7

I slipped and fell off the stairs to my porch onto a planter. I ruptured my C5-6 disk. It was impinging my C6 nerve. I can honestly say birth quickly became a 3-4 on the pain scale of 1-10 because the pain I felt with this neck problem put every other pain I had ever felt way down low in the numbers.

I suffered for days with this. Finally I went to my doc and he ordered a Medrol pack for me. It's a bubble pack of steroids that has, numbers are an example and may not be correct..., 6 to be taken the first day, 5 to be taken the second day, 4 to be taken the 3rd day, 3 to be taken the 4th day, 2 on the 5th day and 1 on the 6th day.

The pain was so much less on the 2nd day and it was totally gone on the 3rd day. I was feeling to wonderful by the 4th day that I thought I was healed.

What this med does is it reduces the inflammation, all over your body. The steroid goes through and just takes the irritations, swelling, feverish feelings from every little boo boo in the whole body.

I could do stretches, physical therapy is good at this point because all the tissue is at it's smallest and can slip back where it's supposed to be. BUT if you stretch this way instead of that way it could slip the wrong way.

So learning how to stretch the right way is important. I got a lot of wonderful exercises to do that I still do to this day if my neck is hurting or if I have a stress headache.

One of them is putting a pillowcase on a pillow. I would use my chin to hold the pillow while I slipped the case on the bottom. This is a good exercise. Use a think pillow and hold it under your chin. Put your shoulders down and stretch the neck and shoulder muscles while pushing down on the pillow with your chin. This stretches the muscles all the way from the back of your head to about your bra strap area. It does not need to be a hard stretch just a gentle one.

ETA

Heat makes it worse. Ice makes it better.

S.;

Sorry!! This must be painful! My sister in law had this - she ended up having surgery - they made an incision at the base of the throat (sterno cliedo - that "U" shape at the top of your breast bone) and cadaver bones were inserted. This was after several years of trying to manage the pain with medication. She's doing well now!

My brother was rear-ended HARD by a teenaged drunk driver - came close to making him a quadriplegic - he has titanium plates in his neck as well as cadaver bones to replace those that were crushed.

Once the tingling starts in your fingers and you lose feeling - the longer you wait - the harder - it at all - the feeling will come back.

Good luck!

I had problems lower down - sciatica and so forth, with the shooting pains down the leg. But I have friends with a history of disc problems like yours, with the sleep problems, headaches and more (problems driving, turning around to back up, etc.).

Have you looked into the new natural inflammatory, all food-based without drugs? There is amazing scientific research that has been going on for over 15 years and kind of "broke out" last year in the mainstream community. Lots of scientific papers, multiple researchers and academics, clinical studies, etc., so it's very well balanced. It was available in some food products for some time but now it's been isolated and concentrated, so the results are even faster. It's non-GMO and available on line from the manufacturer. That's made all the difference for my friends and for me. Sure beats surgery.

Chiropractic, ice, massage, acupuncture, craniosacral work, and nerve block injections. Took about 1.5 years to feel better.

I know this is going to sound unreal but look for a Tae Kwon Do school near you. Do some research on the instructor, check out magizines such as Black Belt. My Grand Master, now retired, helped many people overcome back injuries by teaching them exercises to stregthen the muscles surrounding the injury thus taking the pressure off the disc.

He helped me when I had a partically herniated disc in the lumbar region. No surgery no meds just exercise.

Just make sure the instructor has special knowledge of the body. I have read that TKD is one of the best exercises for anyone with back issues. In order to perform the kicks you need to have strong torso muscles. I saw many students who had back issues pain, stiffness etc improve over the years.

I had a ruptured disc at L3 and L4 with bulging discs at L4/L5 and L5/L6.

Theraputic massage helped me the best. My masseuse never actually worked on my back, but getting tension out of my muscles and unlocking trigger points in other parts of my body that were over compensating for the pain.

By the third massage I got the feeling back in my leg (it was numb from the knee down to my toes on the inside). I was told by my doctor I might never get the feeling back.

Find someone highly trained and who knows about your type on injury.

It wasn't covered by insurance but it was worth every penny!!