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Hi. After Seeing A PT Six Weeks Ago Who Manipulated
Question: Hi. After seeing a PT six weeks ago who manipulated my neck, I have had severe neck and upper back pain that only goes away when I lie down for a while. The pain is centered on my spine. It does not radiate down the arms. Oral steroids and cervical epidurals have not helped much. My pain in the upper back is at the very top of my back and feels like a sprain. My MRI shows mild degeneration of three discs (same as four years ago when I had zero pain) and the top Cervical doctor in the area says the discs have plenty of room and cannot explain why I am not better. Another doctor offered to replace the three discs. My question is does this sound like disc pain or like a sprain of some sort, or both? If a sprain, how do I heal it? It just does not seem to get any better. Oh and I suspected EDS a few years back for an unrelated problem and saw a geneticist who said I did not have enough markers of that disease to do genetic testing. Gentle PT and acupuncture do not seem to be helping the neck either... I am at a loss! A neurologist said I had no neurological issues. I am afraid my neck is Hypermobile but I just do not know how to fix it as it just seems to be getting worse and I am afraid that it will get so bad that I will be unable to work (I am an Attorney) as it is very painful and hard to concentrate.
Brief Answer:
Could be a sprain.
Detailed Answer:
hi
this would be a sprain or it could be part of the damaged discs that you have described. the pain may become better with some Physiotherapy techniques like fomentation or massage apart from that as far as medication is concerned anti-inflammatory drugs or muscle relaxants might help but sometimes these things may take time and you will have to be patient because the next step after that could only be surgery and we would like to wait before we go in for that. yes definitely hypermobility increases the chances of getting these type of strains so maybe some medications which help with nerve pain like Pregabalin or gabapentin may be used if they are giving some benefit and you are tolerating the drug then they may also be continued along with the anti-inflammatory agent .gentle exercises can be continued in the meanwhile until then. regards
Could be a sprain.
Detailed Answer:
hi
this would be a sprain or it could be part of the damaged discs that you have described. the pain may become better with some Physiotherapy techniques like fomentation or massage apart from that as far as medication is concerned anti-inflammatory drugs or muscle relaxants might help but sometimes these things may take time and you will have to be patient because the next step after that could only be surgery and we would like to wait before we go in for that. yes definitely hypermobility increases the chances of getting these type of strains so maybe some medications which help with nerve pain like Pregabalin or gabapentin may be used if they are giving some benefit and you are tolerating the drug then they may also be continued along with the anti-inflammatory agent .gentle exercises can be continued in the meanwhile until then. regards
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Kampana
Thanks for your quick response. Is there any way to tell whether the pain is due to a sprain (connected likely to my Hypermobility issues), or due to the three mildly degenerated cervical discs? Also what is fomentation?
Brief Answer:
That will be difficult to ascertain
Detailed Answer:
hi,that will be difficult to tell that exactly pain is due to sprain or degenerated discs, the good part is that the treatment more or less remains the same. in the case of a degenerated disc or whether it is a sprain so start with the medication that I have advised along with exercises and that should take care of it . generally if the discs are severely degenerated or if they are causing severe nerve compression then there are other symptoms apart from pain like severe numbness or difficulty in moving the limbs or some bladder bowel dysfunction . fomentation is basically applying heat or cold packs to the affected area in order to give it relief.
That will be difficult to ascertain
Detailed Answer:
hi,that will be difficult to tell that exactly pain is due to sprain or degenerated discs, the good part is that the treatment more or less remains the same. in the case of a degenerated disc or whether it is a sprain so start with the medication that I have advised along with exercises and that should take care of it . generally if the discs are severely degenerated or if they are causing severe nerve compression then there are other symptoms apart from pain like severe numbness or difficulty in moving the limbs or some bladder bowel dysfunction . fomentation is basically applying heat or cold packs to the affected area in order to give it relief.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Remy Koshy
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