Ig,

I had C6-C7 with classic symptoms that I figured out from a gross anatomy chart. Went to my GP and she sent me for MRI, confirmed my self-diagnosis, gave me a cortisone derivative, muscle relaxer and some great dope and then sent me along to the neurosurgeon. Before she did, she recommended that I try just about any form of therapy short of quackery I could think of before surgery.

Neurosurgeon said I wa a prime candidate for surgery. I told him I was a reluctant warrior and he suggested trying a P.T. and if that didn't work, a chiropractor. If neither worked, then acupuncture. If none of that worked, come back and see him. Oh yeah, it was a work-related injury--I tried to lift a trailored airboat onto the ball hitch because I was impatient with a co-worker's back-n-forth ineptitude backing. Impatience never seems to work for me.

I went to the P.T. At this point I was stoned witless all day or incapacitated with pain, sometimes both. The P.T. said I'd probably need surgery but he'd give it two weeks of one-hour per day. Thank God for great insurance.

In two weeks I no longer needed the drug. In three weeks I had almost no pain. He gave me a series of stretches that I'm supposed to do daily (I used to...). His theory was that the herniation and calcification was irritating the nerve root. The nerve root always has friction but your nervous system has a sort of high-pass filter system that blanks-out sensations below what's needed for proprioception ( the sense of body positioning). His therapy worked on loosening my muscles, training them to relax to the pain. The stretching trained the nerve root to ignore the friction of the herniation and calcification.

For all I know, that's completely bogus. I don't care. It worked. No knife. No drugs for over two years (with the exception of a couple of times in which I took the muscle relaxer-pain killer combo for a few days and willed myself to relax my neck/back muscles).

Good luck to you. It hurts like hell, but take your time and make the right decision for you.

Botnst