Oh what a pain in the neck!

For the past 6 weeks the pain in my neck and shoulder has persisted.  Anyway the MRI pictures show the problem very well (unfortunately).

I have a herniated disc between C5 & C6 vertebrae which is resulting in my C6 nerve being trapped and causing pain down my right arm and numbness in my thumb and forefinger.  Classic symptoms as it appears from a quick Google search!

The process now is a little unknown but I have been taking steroids for 13 days to reduce the swelling – no improvement yet!  Sport is pretty much out of the question so I am walking the dog at 5am with the girls I used to go running with and trying to dragged myself to the gym to spend time on an elliptical that stops any sort of jarring on my neck. 

Next week I have an appointment with a spine doctor to decide what to do next.  From the MRI report I can see my disc is bulging 4.8mm – which I am assured is pretty bad and is described as ‘severe right lateral recess stenosis’.

here are some of my images I took while at the doctors office.  The lower two clearly show the issue!!

Stuart was excited to see I have a brain though on the images.  Bill just commented on the size of my tongue!!