C5-6 disc protrusion - what are my prospects?

[frankyd]

Greetings folks. Hoping to hear from people who have had similar experiences, and/or folks in the know about what my prospects for recovery are... Some background on me - 33 years old male in otherwise very good health condition - phyiscally fit and weight under control (although i was quite overweight throughout childhood into early adulthood).

On 3/31/09 while weightlifting, i noticed my left shoulder/upper back had become quite sore, very quickly. Over the next few days, I developed shooting sharp pains down my entire left arm with only the slightest movements, or even while sitting still. When i sat at my desk at work, the arm would go almost completely numb in 5 minutes. I also noticed persistent loss of sensation (slight numbness/tingling) in my thumb, and my left arm had become noticably weaker than my right arm overnight.

I seeked medical help with my primary health care doc initially misdiagnosing as a pulled muscle, and treated it as such for a few weeks. After a few  more visits, he finally had me see a sports medicine specialist, who had me get an MRI and an EMG. The MRI result: Cervical radiculopathy with C5-6 disc protrusion. The EMG then came up abnormal along several of the muscle groups along the path. I am currently in physical therapy, where i'm doing exercises like chin tucks, certain stretching, and even have a home cervical traction device which i use twice a day for 15 minutes each time.

Anyways - after a few weeks, the pain gradually diminished, to the point where currently there is only moderate pain if I apply pressure to a few spots on my left arm, or make sudden movements, etc. HOWEVER - the numbness/tingling in my thumb, as well as the weakness of most of the arm, remain and are persistent. The sports medicine and the neurologist who did my EMG both seemed to think I would need surgery, so they had me see an orthopedic surgeon, but upon finding out my main symptom was not pain, he told me the disc will heal and just keep doing PT (and quite honestly, seemed like he couldn't wait to move right on to his next patient...)

As I am now well into my 4th month with this condition, and perhaps only slight improvement in these areas at best, I've recently been growing increasingly frustrated. Anyone experience anything like this? Did you improve on your own eventually or did you need surgery? When did your strength return? In other words, when did you get YOUR LIFE BACK??

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Thanks!!

Frank

[frankyd]

Tony,

My strength has partially improved in my left arm, to about two-thirds of that in my right. It's still weaker and annoying, and I still have some numbness tingling in my left thumb. I have seen another sports medicine specialist who has told me that a disc replacement or fusion could be beneficial, but there are risks as well. Considering the risks, I've decided to live with the situation unless it takes a turn for the worse (ie. pain comes back, numbness/weakness get worse, etc).

Interesting about the recommendation you got - i've heard of microdiscectomy but it was recommended to me - is this the procedure where they basically try to just take out the part of the disc that's bulging into the spine? what are the advantages?

[TonyDisc]

Hey frankyd,

did you end up getting the surgery?  I am in the exact same situation at you, and microdiscectomy has been recommended.  Please let me know if you went through with it and how it went.

[richmill1]

if you have continued numbness/pain in your arm or hand..time to see the neurologist-
if the shots/pt don't work it might be wise to consider surgery..I got my life back
with fusion surgery..good luck

[frankyd]

kittyluv1,

thanks for the info. to be fair though, i should have noted that although the condition is in it's 4th month, i've really only been doing physical therapy for about 7 weeks now - started at the end of May but stopped while awaiting MRI results, as per advice from sports med doc - then started up again. Twice-a-day cervical traction has only been happening for the past 3 weeks.

Interesting how you mention you had multiple disc problems. My MRI showed two very slight disc problems on the right side, but i have no symptoms there, etc (I believe he called it degenerative disc disease, with some arthritis (!), etc). I've been correcting my sitting posture lately, which admittedly has been bad, bordering on terrible, for many years now, so hopefully that will mitigate any additional problems...

The surgeon told me that the epidural steroid injections were mostly to deal with pain, and would not do anything for the weakness etc. So it looks like my only options are to continue with PT and the passage of time and hope for the best, otherwise maybe surgical options. Really hoping to avoid that though, because compared with a lot of the stuff i've been reading, my symptoms seem more moderate...

Anyone else have similar experiences??

[kittyluv1]

Considering you are into your 4th month of physiotherapy with only slight improvement in your neurological symptoms, surgery may be the better alternative for you to achieve optimal results.  If the disc problems are confined to the one level as noted, a microdiscectomy might be appropriate.  (The type of surgery is very much dependent on the extent of nerve compromise created by the protruding disc)

I had very similar symptoms and my MRI results showed multiple disc problems at several levels of my cervical spine in addition to spinal stenosis.  Surgery was my only option.
I am now six months post anterior cervical fusion C4-C7 and have no significant residuals.
I also do not have any specific restrictions or limitations in my activity level (although I probably would not pursue weightlifting!)   You may be able to return to your prior activity level with perhaps a few modifications --- depending on the recovery time needed.

You might want to seek a second opinion from another orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon.  There are additional conservative measures that could be utilized such as epidural steroid injections to more effectively reduce the inflammatory reaction of both the nerve tissue and surrounding muscles.  

My personal preference was surgery.  You need to evaluate the potential risks if surgery is delayed or not elected.

Best wishes and I hope you find a resolution soon.