Instead of starting a new thread, I found this one and decided to add to it with a question for anyone with experience in herniated discs.
Four weeks ago I woke up with a pretty bad crick in my neck. I remember rolling to my left side during the night when sleeping. I normally sleep on my back so that was odd. As the day went on the pain lessened to almost none. I went to bed that evening and woke up on Thursday morning with the crick again. Same story. Then on Friday morning, I had taken the day off so there was no urgency to get up early but when I did wake up I could hardly move. Getting out of bed was torturously painful. All day long I was in extreme pain which began to radiate into my shoulder and down into my shoulder blade. The next 3 weeks I was in absolute misery. I went to a chiropractor on Monday the 22nd of May and then went back on Tuesday. He wasn't giving me any relief so I decided to find another. I went to Chiro #2 on Wednesday and again Thursday morning. No relief. So when I left her office I decided to go back to Chiro #1. Drove straight to his office and they were closed. So for the next hour I drove around town looking for a chiro that could help. I called one before going to their office and the receptionist told me, "I"m sorry but we don't have any slots for you to come in." I decided that if I am in their office they couldn't turn me away so I went there. When I went in the receptionist again told me they wouldn't be able to help. So I started looking for another and finally found one, Chiro #3. This guy was very concerned and took several x-rays, put me in traction to try and decompress the nerve, and finished with a pretty good adjustment. He told me to come back later that afternoon. I did and then visited him daily again Friday and every day the next three weeks. I also decided to go to a medical clinic and ask for a script for some muscle relaxers. They called in the script and I started taking them just about bedtime. They let me get almost a full night's sleep.
I was able to get an appointment for yesterday (Monday, the 12th) to see a neurosurgeon. He looked at the MRI report that I had sent to him (I also had to pay out of pocket for the MRI because my insurance denied the request) and when he came into the room he told me that my C3-C4 disk was in bad shape and needs to be repaired as was my C5-C6 disk which was actually worse. He said that my C4-C5 disk looks good but because of the one above and below were both bad that I would also need to "repair" it as it would just be a matter of time before it herniated. He said that he would suggest implanting the M6-C Artificial Cervical disc made by Orthofix Corporation.
Has anyone here had any experience with the prosthetic cervical discs? I can't find any bad reports about them other than there are so far only 2 that have failed to date.
