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Not sure if anybody can help me here but I'm beginning to get desperate for relief from discomfort in my neck I have been going through over the course of the past 5 months.
Background: I played football ages 10-21 never, in high school used to get your basic stinger stemming from my neck traveling into my right forearm. Never had any issues throughout my college career with my neck. I am now 26 and about 5 months ago following a heavy leg day well heavy relatively speaking to some of the monsters on this board. Did about 6 reps of 315 and I'm 5'10 175. Not sure if any of that is relevant just thought I'd put in some details concerning my frame. Anyways never had any issues training heavy and the only thing I did differently that day was pounded on the heavy bag a little bit after my workout. The next day I had an extremely uncomfortable stiffness and ache throughout my cervical spine preventing me to go into extension without significant discomfort. Now it has become an incredibly uncomfortable situation that has me rotating my whole body to rotate my neck to both the left and the right, along with pain radiation during a chin tuck into my left shoulder, this has also caused me to compensate for the pain and I've started walking around with the resemblance of a turtle. It's been like waking up with a stiff neck and it not going away for 5 months, with some nerve irritation on top of it.
I have already seen endless amounts of doctors, I saw a neurologist who ordered an MRI and xrays, I went to physical therapy for 6 weeks engaging in your typical modalities (heat, stim, ultrasound, stretching, strengthening etc.) Then I went to rheumatoid specialists whom I thought might have some better insight as to what I could do to alleviate some of the discomfort, he put me on some sulfazine an anti inflammatory which I wasn't thrilled about, but nothing.
Then I was sent to a spine specialist whom felt that an epidural shot is just what the dr ordered but sure enough, nothing. This more then anything is wearing on me mentally I just wanna train like I always have without walking around feeling like Frankenstein. I will be following up with this Dr. Tomorrow which will mark the 3rd week removed from the first shot.
RESULTS OF MRI: A scoliosis in the thoracic spine, convexity to the left is noted, associated with straightening of the cervical lordosis. At the c3-4 level, there are asymmetric hypertrophic degenerative changes about the uncovertabral joints, more marked on the left, resulting in asymmetric narrowing of the left C3-4 neural foramen. The remainder of the neural foramina appear free of compromise. There are no definite disc herniations or areas of stenosis of the canal demonstrated throughout. Intradurally, the spinal cord appears intrinsically within normal limits and there are no intradural abnormalities noted. the craniocervical junction is unremarkable. There are no fractures or destructive osseous lesions demonstrated. There are no paravertebral soft tissue masses noted.
Sorry for the lengthy post just wanted to give a detailed description of the ailment and the background.
I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions or advice to help me work through this and get back to living a normal lifestyle of a healthy 26 year old! Thanks.
Background: I played football ages 10-21 never, in high school used to get your basic stinger stemming from my neck traveling into my right forearm. Never had any issues throughout my college career with my neck. I am now 26 and about 5 months ago following a heavy leg day well heavy relatively speaking to some of the monsters on this board. Did about 6 reps of 315 and I'm 5'10 175. Not sure if any of that is relevant just thought I'd put in some details concerning my frame. Anyways never had any issues training heavy and the only thing I did differently that day was pounded on the heavy bag a little bit after my workout. The next day I had an extremely uncomfortable stiffness and ache throughout my cervical spine preventing me to go into extension without significant discomfort. Now it has become an incredibly uncomfortable situation that has me rotating my whole body to rotate my neck to both the left and the right, along with pain radiation during a chin tuck into my left shoulder, this has also caused me to compensate for the pain and I've started walking around with the resemblance of a turtle. It's been like waking up with a stiff neck and it not going away for 5 months, with some nerve irritation on top of it.
I have already seen endless amounts of doctors, I saw a neurologist who ordered an MRI and xrays, I went to physical therapy for 6 weeks engaging in your typical modalities (heat, stim, ultrasound, stretching, strengthening etc.) Then I went to rheumatoid specialists whom I thought might have some better insight as to what I could do to alleviate some of the discomfort, he put me on some sulfazine an anti inflammatory which I wasn't thrilled about, but nothing.
Then I was sent to a spine specialist whom felt that an epidural shot is just what the dr ordered but sure enough, nothing. This more then anything is wearing on me mentally I just wanna train like I always have without walking around feeling like Frankenstein. I will be following up with this Dr. Tomorrow which will mark the 3rd week removed from the first shot.
RESULTS OF MRI: A scoliosis in the thoracic spine, convexity to the left is noted, associated with straightening of the cervical lordosis. At the c3-4 level, there are asymmetric hypertrophic degenerative changes about the uncovertabral joints, more marked on the left, resulting in asymmetric narrowing of the left C3-4 neural foramen. The remainder of the neural foramina appear free of compromise. There are no definite disc herniations or areas of stenosis of the canal demonstrated throughout. Intradurally, the spinal cord appears intrinsically within normal limits and there are no intradural abnormalities noted. the craniocervical junction is unremarkable. There are no fractures or destructive osseous lesions demonstrated. There are no paravertebral soft tissue masses noted.
Sorry for the lengthy post just wanted to give a detailed description of the ailment and the background.
I would GREATLY appreciate any suggestions or advice to help me work through this and get back to living a normal lifestyle of a healthy 26 year old! Thanks.
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