Bulging C6 Disc

[Kookie]

The client in question is a 32 year old male in otherwise great health. The disc was likely injured while sledding.

He has had consistent pain for about a month on the right side of his body from the lateral neck down to the mid forearm with numbness in the medial upper arm between the shoulder and elbow. At times the pain has been debilitating and he can't even lay on his back.

He's been using Icy Hot cream, ice, and occasionally a tennis ball up against a wall to put pressure on the upper back (around supra and infraspinatus). Until recently he was taking Ibruprofen every few hours but just finished a week's worth of Vicodin (which only took the edge off the pain). In the past few days the pain has been feeling less intense.

His mother, a doctor, has diagnosed him with a C6 bulging disc via some manual tests and is recommending surgery. He will be seeing another doctor and getting an MRI soon.

Advise on how to best serve him with massage? I have heard conflicting reviews on how to incorporate massage with healing disc issues.

Also, maybe this is just my "natural medicine" side talking, but isn't surgery usually recommended at a last resort for a bulging disc? It just feels premature to me to make that recommendation at this point, given that he hasn't had an MRI.

Thanks.

 

[buildermantn]

Bulging C6 Disc

His mother, a doctor, has diagnosed him with a C6 bulging disc via some manual tests and is recommending surgery. He will be seeing another doctor and getting an MRI soon.

Okay then. :shock: Nice that the "expert" is making such a diagnosis, without doing the differential. :?

Very good that he's following through for the MRI. I agree with you 100% about the prematurity of the diagnosis.

On the treatment issues, do whatever you do best to relieve muscle tension/imbalance on anything that attaches to that area. Poor guy. Hope he's better soon.

 

[jeff rockout]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the surgery bit was premature.

I found out that she herself dealt with years of chronic pain from supposedly the same condition before having surgery. Perhaps that colored her diagnosis.

 

[Kat :D]

I have a client with very similar symptoms. She came to me with pain in the lateral aspect of her upper arm accompanied with (how she terms) "knots" in the region of her brachialis/anterior border of triceps. Numbing, shooting pain occasionally down her arm to fingers (pinky and fourth finger) and pain in her lateral neck.

As an aside, she's been seeing physio (on medical insurance) for about 8 weeks who told her she had a cricked neck (client's words) and has been doing some dry needling (not sure where, client was vague), massage on the arm and attaching a vibrating machine (client's words) to various points of the shoulder and arm... unfortunately to no effect.

She came to see me (paying for it herself) 3 weeks ago and over 3 sessions (one per week) I focused on all the main thoracic outlet syndrome perpetrators, some MFR on the cubittal tunnel and work on all the muscles (did my homework) whose trigger points refer to the upper arm and lateral neck. Just my luck, by her 3rd session (2 days ago) she reviewed her lateral neck pain and numbing/shooting-down-the-arm pain reduced by 70%.

HOWEVER! When she came for her 3rd session the region in her upper arm (as described above) was still very tender and (she reviewed) still occasionally painful. To palpate it, it almost seems spasmed. I've come across this type of painful or tender spasm in that region before and I was wondering if anyone had any insights into whether TOS, a herniating cervical disc or anything else can cause this type of palpable spasm in the upper lateral aspect of the arm?

Hope I've explained myself clearly. Much appreciated.

x

Henry