Cervical spine degenerative disc disease

i have just been informed that i have degenerative disc disease in my neck...cervical spine...c4, c5, c6 and it is recommended that i go to a physical therapist...has anyone been thru this that can give me some light on what is to happen besides some exercises to hopefully make the pain go away?  i mean i know there is no getting better just surgery...any help is appreciated...thanks

[April2]

Well, I'm just getting started myself so I don't know how much help I can give you. I saw the PT only once so far.
I wouldn't say surgery is for certain. It's true that you can't go back but you can go forward and strengthen things and try and keep it from getting worse.
Let us know how the PT goes! I'll let you know too. I go see him tomorrow. I'm also considering going to a gym and maybe hiring a trainer to help me with some exercises. We'll see how things goes.
Mine are C5-6 and C6-7. It says there's moderate narrowing of the discs spaces. Still not sure if I understand what all that means but oh well! I'll go to the PT appointments and see if they help.
Keep in touch and let us know how you're doing!
TTYL,
April

[April2]

How did your first PT appointment go?

[wonder45]

I am gald to be a part of this. Maybe someone will help me, and I may help someone. I have had a lot of pain in my middle back for about 6 mo. I was told that I had ddd. well I have started pt and they feel really great. But the next day it is right the way it was. I have only been 3 times. Is there a day when things will look up?

[April2]

My PT told me that I might feel a little worse before I feel better. He said it would gradually get better though as I get stronger. Three times doesn't seem like much. I'd give it some more time. It could take a couple of months. I'm scheduled out three months. Hang in there!

[wonder45]

You have to go for 3 mo? I have ask how long this would take and all I am told is that it will not be that long.( how long is that?) What kind of things do you get. They do alot of heat and popping, my job bothers me the most, I sew in a factory and that really gets me down. What kind of work do you do? How many days a week do you go? thank for talking to me.......

[April2]

I guess it would depend on how bad your DDD is. Right now I'm just getting the PT. I've been going once a week. I don't know what the heat and popping is.
I'm a CNA but only work part time 4 nights a week. I also watch a baby at my home 3 days a week.

[diddydid]

i just found out i have DDC also in c4 5 and 6....I see a specialist next Wed.   I was told not to lift over 10 lbs...why is that?  also sometimes the pain is unbearable and other times not so bad...my left arm is alo weak and my thumb and forefinger are numb...any ideas why?   I am taking a muscle relaxant at night and ibuprofen thru the day .

[jolara]

I'm far from an expert, but I too suffer from CDDD, Cervical arthritis, cervical spondylitic disease and a bulging disk ( All between disks C3-C7). I was recently diagnosed so I feel your pain! (chronic 'kink' in neck, shoulder pain, left arm pain/weakness, chronic headache that bands across the lower back of my head from ear to ear.)
I do know that when I lift heavy items or become more physically active than usual my ligaments become inflamed and  I wake up the next morning feeling terrible due to the aggrevation my actions did the day before. I'm guessing you were told not to lift over 10lbs so as not to induce more pain and irritation until you and your therapist can come up with a pain relief plan for you to follow.
Day by day I am learning my capabilities and limitations and how to deal with them proactively so that I am able to deal with the repercussions of my actions before they keep me down for a week while I recover. I'm only 38 and I have 2 teen girls at home along with a very active family life so lying in bed or on the couch for days at a time just isn't an option for me.
I haven't seen the pain specialist yet (next week) but in the meantime I use ice, heat, motrin and the Darvocet & Soma that I was prescribed for pain management. None of the pain meds touch my headaches and they vaguely dull my muscle pain but I am also learning to not do as much as I used to so as not to aggrevate the situation.
I went to bed last night with terrible neck pain and my third ever in my lifetime migrane (migraine) headache due to a very physical weekend. (Volunteered at a fund raiser Sat. & Sun. and I'm feeling it now!) I found that rolling up a towel and placing it behind my neck while lying on my back (no pillow...but it worked great covering my eyes and ears from any light & sound) really helped my neck and head pain.
I hope you all feel better soon. Please continue to post updates regarding the physical therapy. I'm anxious to hear if it offers you all any relief as I am completely against surgery for myself at this point (my situation isn't currently bad enough for surgery) as I have heard so many suffer from the same if not more problems afterwards. :0(

[k2626]

I was just dx with DDD and compression on the ventral surface of c4/5. I have had buzzing in my feet, muscle twitches and pains in my extremities (toe, ankle, fingers) --also headaches. Funny enough-no neck pain!

Hoping this is the cause for it all, wont see NS till Nov

[April2]

I'm doing a lot better since the PT. How's everyone else doing?

[Brndnsdad]

I've was diagnosed with CDDD C4-C7,  with radiculopathy, cervical arthritis and nerve damage nearly three years ago now. The initial onset was severe pain in my neck, shooting down into my right shoulder, right arm an hand. I initially had six sessions of PT that helped alleviate the worst of the pain and got me back to work. PT didn't get rid of the pain and only eased it enough to be able to function temporarily. Long term treatment took a while for me to figure out and took  me on a search of the right doctors to work with. Surgery, although an option, did not have the success rate I would hope for to make it worth taking the chance. One prominent local neorsurgeon referred me to a pain management specialist who treated me with facet injections of cortisone. These worked much better than the cervical epidurals I had tried earlier, but still did not last for more than a month or two, and I can only have a maximum of six a year. He referred me to another member of his group that is  rehabilitation specialist. He did an in office precedure that in\volves injecting lidocaine into inflamed neck muscles and inserting acupuncture needles with an electrical stimulus. This combined with the facet injections leave me 90 percent pain free for 5 - 6 months between treatments. I can live with that! It took me a year and a half to find this combination of two doctors whose treatments work well for me. Other doctors only wanted to prescribe pain medications or do cervical epidurals, and many people on these boards seem to find the same thing. But if you are not satisfied with your results, keep looking for those doctors that are willing to try new things specific for your condition.

[Fisherman_Rocco]

I have DDD OA with Carpel Tunnel in both wrists, I have "Issues" with my back. Every disk has an issue in some sort or another. I didn't miss any... lol I gotta laugh, it hurts to much to cry...  :D

I Captained commercial fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico, for 20 something years on boats to 41 feet. My work platform hit back in rough seas. I spent the 6 years before that as a Small Boat  Search and Rescue Coxswain for the US Coast Guard. My teen and pre-teen summers were spent clamming the back of the local harbors for a couple of dozen clams for a buck a dozen....

I have numbs and tingling in both hands left grater then right. I wake at night from fire pain in both forearms and hands. Like someone is banging on my not so funny bone with an icepick.
Lower back keeps both thigh regions pretty much numb, but not painfull. No creepy crawly leg pain. just fire down the outside of both legs to the little and next toe, both sides..  I am a mess as my Doctor so told me from the beating I took offshore... O -well

I use pain management meds to help with the pain. I started two years ago and have pretty much settled in with morphine three time a day. 30MG SA's I have gone with four a day, but that didn't help much so I and my doctor had me drop it back down to three a day.  Dealing with pain is one's own management. The meds help and not only the morphine. I take 800MG's of gabapenten  3 or 4 times a day. Ranitidine 300MG twice a day for my stomach. I perfed a stomach ulcer while I was 80 miles offshore commercial fishing. Helo ride to the hospital and had a little under 1/3 of my stomach removed. My excersize take's the form of walking during the day at a cafeteria for 6 hours a day. Standing up helps, alot, and keeping my hands moving at work is a blessing. Sleep is still kinda tough, I wake with random pain in the legs or hands, I have gotten the thought of pain free out of my mind when I go to sleep and hope for at least 5 or 6 good hours before I awake form the pain.
I get busted smoking pot at most every test and All I tell them is it helps more then anything for both my stomach and my nerve pain. I dont smoke every day nor every week. Just every once in a while I loose all thoughts of food and "remember to eat" when I start to feel light headed. I need a stimulant that works, I am looking for a prescription,for THC in any form they chose, tho I have not a chance in hell of getting one.Ask your doctors thoughts on the subject and if he can provide any information on the subject.