How long did it take for your herniated cervical disc to start feeling better?!
Question: How long did it take for your herniated cervical disc to start feeling better.?
I know everybody is different, but I am just curious. I have 2 herniated cervical disc and have had 11 physical therapy appointments so far. I am still having pain from my shoulder blade down to my finger tips, plus some tingling and numbness in my hand. My doctor said I'm not improving as much as he would like. If I'm not feeling better in a month (8 more p.t. appt's), we will be testing for nerve damage. I also started taking Mobic last night (anti-inflammatory) and it's not helping. I'm already taking Vicodin for the pain and Robaxyn for muscle spasms.
What has your experience been like.?Health Question & Answer
What has your experience been like.?Health Question & Answer
Answers:
Everyone is different. No two injuries to the same area react the same for everyone. You don't state your age, weight, height, degree of shape that you are in, posture, nor career. All of those are points that make up what is going to happen and how long recovery is. If you smoke the recovery time is greatly increased. The number of appointments may or may not be enough depending on who is doing the therapy with you. There are many techniques that will hasten the relief but that will depend upon the practitioners experience. Talk this over with the therapist and explain how you feel if they are good they should modify the program and hopefully what they are doing is hands on work and not the use of modalities. The fluid material of the disc is more like a yogurt than water and it will move but more slowly than that of water. You sort of have to influence that material away from the nerves. Posture is so important in this as when you are not in proper posture it definitely influences the material to flow towards the nerves. also poor posture is stretching the muscles making them more irritated and that also caused pain. Some people are lucky in that within a few visits the pain starts to recede while others it takes a while. Surgery is not something that you would want as it is risky and the failure rate is around fifty percent. Work with your therapist and if therapy consists of just modalities such as ultrasound, electric stimulation, heat or ice then if that is all they are going to do find another therapist that will work with you hands on without the other stuff.Health Question & Answer
As someone who is certified in mechanical diagnosis and therapy, I can tell you that failure for the pain to centralize within 3-5 visits is a sign of a poor outcome. I would not necessarily say your case is destined to fail, but I do highly recommend someone who does have this certification. The reliability and predictability of this highly researched method will prevent you from wasting time on treatment that may or may not work.
If you were not feeling signficantly better in two weeks from the start of PT and are still experiencing symptoms to the fingers, it's time to move on. However, consider the MDT certified provider before you commit to any further invasive or expensive treatments. Go to http://www.mckenziemdt.org
Massage and modalities will not help this type of problem.Health Question & Answer
If you were not feeling signficantly better in two weeks from the start of PT and are still experiencing symptoms to the fingers, it's time to move on. However, consider the MDT certified provider before you commit to any further invasive or expensive treatments. Go to http://www.mckenziemdt.org
Massage and modalities will not help this type of problem.Health Question & Answer