What the heck is it?

[Deb12]

I had accident in January..had concussion, bulging disks in neck and lower back. The symptoms of muscle weakness, tingling, aches in arms and legs, have not subsided.  New doctor thinks its a spinal cord injury, and he is re-doing mri of cervical. Also said there were spots and something is definately going on..might not be related to the accident..but the old mri was not a clear image so he recommended another mri.

1.  When i called the next day, the assistant said his notes were written that i might have a spinal cord sprain?? No such thing right?

2.  She said he thought that because of the neuro exam which included Hyper tendon reflex (i remember him checking out my left leg and noting a bigger reflex when he hit it).

3.  This may sound crazy, but i told him my face feels numb  mostly left side of face and under chin. 2 doctors told me its probably anxiety..If i have a bulge at c3/4, c4/5 and c5/6, could it be related to the disks? No way of knowing if this is nerve related?

[RainBow Child]

Please do u r self a favor and go to the "chiropractor" they are not going to cut on you, You could try it and see, No drugs no knife. I love them they really help me.  Make sure they have    "Electric pull machine," i really don't no the name of it, But that is what it does to u r muscles It pulls u r muscles and it really makes the difference when they go to adjust you.  Hope it helps you, It did me. The DR's wanted to do surgery. I fell better and No "under the knife"

[CCF Neuro[P]-M.D.-RPS]

Dear Debz:

Sorry to hear about your symptoms. Many people have disc bulges and not spinal cord symptoms.  The patients who have symptoms usually have spinal cord copression from the disc bulges.  Since you do not note this, likely your cord is not copromized by the disc bulging and not a source of your problems.  The areas of bulging do not correspond to all of the areas your describing as problems.  I have never heard of a spinal strain, except during my course in osteopathic manipulation.  This was a technique to balance the muscle stress on the column.  The bulging of your discs would not cause a hyper-reflexia on one side at the levels you have described based on the description of just the bulging discs.  You are correct, the levels you are describing would not effect the face.  

Sincerely

CCF Neuro MD