# Sidelined by pinched nerve



## bluekey88 (Feb 20, 2009)

Hey gang, This post is part rant (to relieve frustration) with a a question to anyone who is familiar with what has happened to me for useful advice.

Sooo...Three weeks ago I decided it was time to take a week or so off of training at the gym (Continued with my TKD and BBT practice)...let my body recover.  I also decided to schedule a wellness visit with my doctor to get  some advice on nutrition (and perhaps a referrall to a good nutritionist) and talk some about my fitness and training goals for the year.  At the end of the week, I found myself with a rare situation where I had a Saturday morning without anything scheduled.  It was such a luxury that I chose to sleep in an extra coupel of hours and just chill.

When I woke up, I had a bit of a crick in my neck.  Didn;t think much of it.  However, the crick got worse and I started feeling some numbness in my thumb and some loss of grip strength in my hand.  I knew at that point I had a muscle spasm pinching a nerve.  As I had the doctor's visit scheduled in a couple of days I figured he could look at it then.  Over the course of that time, my range of motion in my nek steadily decreased until I was practically looking at my feet all the time.  IT was bad.

Anyway, the doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer and sent me for x-rays.  He also had me schedule with a eprsonal trainer/physical therapist (to work on fitness/nutrition) and a chiropractor to check out what was going on with my neck/shoulder.

So, according to the x-rays, my neck is severely out of alignment (causing the muscle spasms and nerve pinch).  The curvature is literally reversed from what it should be.  I am now on the don't do anything, 3x a week chiro adjustments with physical therapy and massage therapy follow up in a month plan.  Currently, I have my range of motion back but the thumb is still numb and the arm is still a little weak.  

I'm being good.  Following Dr's orders but am really frustrated with my inability to train.

Can any of you relate?

Thanks for letting me vent.

Peace,
Erik


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## CoryKS (Feb 20, 2009)

Boy, can I!  My right thumb has been numb for the last two weeks, and if I raise my arm the right way it feels like I touched a power line.  I may have to follow your lead and get it checked out.  Hope your therapy works out.


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## MJS (Feb 20, 2009)

Yes, I can relate to this.  The week before Thanksgiving, I was working some focus pad drills with one of my teachers.  During the bob/weave portion, something popped in my lower back on the right side.  Went to the chiropractor and as it turns out, this was something that had been there for a while, but it was that motion during class, that really set it off.

As time went on, the lower back felt much better, however, the Sciatic nerve was affected.  It hurt like hell to sit for extended periods of time.  My job requires that I sit, so that didn't help the situation any.  

The thing with the nerves, as I'm told, is that it can vary from person to person.  Fortunately, at this time, I'm pretty much back to 100%.   I still go to the chiro 2 times a week.  My regular doc. had given me some pills for the pain as well as a muscle relaxer, however, its the treatment from the docs that really makes the difference, as the pills just provide a temporary relief.  

My advise...follow what the doctors say.  It sucks not being able to train, and I wasn't able to do much for a while myself.  It'll take time, but before you know it, you'll be back on the mats. 

Mike


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## bluekey88 (Feb 20, 2009)

Thanks. I'm being good and doing what the doctors tell me to do. The Chiro seems to think the numbness and wekaness will the last things to go away...that sucks the worst. I went to pull a chair out the other day and it just slipped out of my fingers. I'm not used to this weak feelign in my dominant arm. 

Also, I wish I'd actually been doing something like trainign or sparring when this happened.  As it happens now, when asked what happeend....I get to answer "I was sleeping"...feels beyond sheepish 

Ah well, c'est la vie.

Peace,
Erik


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## Brian R. VanCise (Feb 20, 2009)

I can relate to this myself as I have a pinched nerve that comes and goes in my neck as well.  Eighty percent of the time I feel fantastic and twenty percent of the time I have that numbness and pain associated with a pinched nerve.  My doc (my wife) has me doing heat therapy as well as some medication.  So far it is getting better.  Now how did I get it.  Well I was wearing a heavy winter coat with a firearm under neath my arm pit.  Unfortunately my body just did not like it and compensated and walla here I am with a pinched nerve.


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## jkembry (Feb 20, 2009)

bluekey88 said:


> Thanks. I'm being good and doing what the doctors tell me to do. The Chiro seems to think the numbness and wekaness will the last things to go away...that sucks the worst. I went to pull a chair out the other day and it just slipped out of my fingers. I'm not used to this weak feelign in my dominant arm.
> 
> Also, I wish I'd actually been doing something like trainign or sparring when this happened. As it happens now, when asked what happeend....I get to answer "I was sleeping"...feels beyond sheepish
> 
> ...


 
Erik....just keep on doing what the docs recommend.  Don't do what I did last year.  I got back to training when things felt good.  The problem was that the injury had not healed completely.  That set me back another almost two months.

Chill and make the most of the down time and you be back at it before you know it.


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## Drac (Feb 20, 2009)

I feel your angush...Still recovering from a back injury, ruptured discs pressing against a nerve and my employer is fighting the claim..I can go to class and sit there, but that's like going to the pool and putting on a swimsuit and not being allowed in the water...


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## Flea (Feb 24, 2009)

I think I found myself on some Vulcan's spit-list.  Last summer I was totally incapacitated with sciatica - I could barely even sit on the toilet.  I lost 6 weeks at my desk job.  I tried everything - physical therapy, all kinds of drugs, you name it.  Finally I had a CT-scan confirm what it was.  A pain specialist wanted to give me an epidural; I think the very idea of a needle anywhere near my spinal column scared me straight and I made a miracle recovery.  

Since then, it acts up when I get really stressed out.  When my grandfather passed in November.  His memorial service a couple weeks ago.  And of course this week.  My instructor does Ortho-bionomy as his day job and he's very nice about working on our twinges at the end of class.  Otherwise, I swim at the Y.  Swimming seems to be my cure-all.  I try to avoid medication as much as I realistically can.

Best of wishess to everyone!  I wish I had a better answer.


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## bluekey88 (Feb 24, 2009)

Welp, slow progress here. Better range of motion, slight decrease in pain most days (not complete though)...no change in weakness and numbness.

I'll see the doc on 3/4 for a follow up...keeping fingers crossed.

Flea, I slipped a disc in my back awhile ago...pinched the sciatic nerve.  I remember how bad that sucked.  I did end up getting a cortisone shot in my spine....perhaps the most unfun thing I've ever expereinced.  However, it did clear up the swelling and speed recovery.

Peace,
Erik


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## terryl965 (Feb 24, 2009)

Erik we can all relate it is always best to do what the Doctor says and move forward slowly


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## harold (Feb 26, 2009)

I can relate. I started getting pain in my rhomboid area accompanied by numbness in my thumb. I went to see my Dr. and was told it was due to BAD POSTURE!!!. I began doing some different stretches, and got me a portable traction device. I also became more conscious of how I sit, stand, and walk. Years of typing on computers,and not paying attention to the basics of posture caught up with me.
Take it slow, and I hope things get better for you.


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## bluekey88 (Mar 6, 2009)

Update:  After over amonth of agressive chiropractic treatment and little improvement, I was sent for an MRI.  Just got a fcall for the doctor...I'm scheduled to come in to speak with him Monday afternoon...apparently I have some sort of cyst.  fun.

I'll update ya'll once I know more.

Peace,
Erik


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## Kembudo-Kai Kempoka (Mar 9, 2009)

bluekey88 said:


> Update: After over amonth of agressive chiropractic treatment and little improvement, I was sent for an MRI. Just got a fcall for the doctor...I'm scheduled to come in to speak with him Monday afternoon...apparently I have some sort of cyst. fun.
> 
> I'll update ya'll once I know more.
> 
> ...


 
I AM a chiropractor, and reading the first post, thought, "it's not the misalignments causing the pain and spasm, but the other way around". But if a chiro tells you that, he doesn't get paid. 

My second thought was...considering the time of year...viral torticollis: The body gets a virus, makes some specialized antibodies to attack it, and those antibodies incorrectly identify the nerve sheaths in your neck as "bad guys" related to the viruses, and attack them. Cracking don't help; you just gotta wait out the bodies defensive response to the virus.

Then, reading that you got some motion back, but not thumb, I thought "I bet there's a slow-growth space occupying lesion that finally just had enough....he should get an MRI". Then read that you got one: Good call. 

Sometimes cysts can be scary monstors, such as cancer, and sometimes they can just be obnoxious balls of fat or nerve sheath that grew where they shouldn't have. Either way, if it were me, until I had all the details from your doc (who will probably order a biopsy of the cyst to see what it's made of), I would avoid any further aggressive chiropractic thrusts. If it's a bad thing, thrusts into it and the surrounding area can increase the local fluid pressures in the cyst, and squirt out scary cells from the lesion, sending them on thier way to cause problems elsewhere in the body.

If it isn't a scary monstor, and just something mundane like a happy little crew of fat cells that decided to grow for kicks and giggles, adjusting can be a microtrauma to the area. Not such a big deal, but one of the bodies reactions to trauma is swelling. And the fluid from inflammation can join the fat ball or whatever to take up more space, and cause more problems.

D.


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## bluekey88 (Mar 10, 2009)

Ok, so I talked to the MD yesterday to go over the results of the MRI.  the possible cyst (retrophsryngeal cystic legion) is actually nowhere near my shoulder/spine...more to the froin tof my neck.  Going to the ENT to get that checked.  Doc seems to think it's not a big deal.  

The MRI also showed serious misalignment of my neck, smaller spaces where the nerves come out around c4-c6...mostly c5 (which would seem to account for my symptoms.

While I do not have any herniated discs, there is some degeneration and teh c5 diisc is moderately bulging and impinging on the nerve and spine.

So, I'm due for my one month re-eval wioth the chiropractor Friday.  I need to see if there is anythign mre we can do at this point.  Although I am back to some light training...that's something.

Peace,
Erik


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