Question
I am 58 years old, working as Attache in the High Commission of India, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.I was hospitalised for 8 days(from 26th April to 3rd May)in Tanzania for vomitting and giddiness. MRI procedure was done for Multiplanar and multisequential images acquired through cervical spine without IV gadolinium contrast. Following was the MRI findings:
1. Reversal of cervical lordosis identified.
2. Decreased intervertebral disc height of C5/C6 noted alongwith decrease vertebral body height of C5 and C6.
3. At C5-C6, postocentral disc protrusion seen with slight inferior migration causing moderate right and mild left neural foramina stenosis alongwith moderate anterior dural sac identation.
4. At C6-C7 posterolateral discosteophytes complex seen causing bilateral mild neural formanina stenosis alongwith mild anterior dural sac identation.
5. At C4-C5, posterolateral discosteophytes complex seen causing moderate anterior dural sac identation without significant radicular compression.

Now, I have been sent by the Indian High Commision to India for this treatment. I have been taking treatment by specialist orthopaedic doctor in India since 5th May (17 days) and taking medicines only. There is no improvement and the pain in my right hand is not subsidizing.
I am experiencing weakness, numbness in last two fingers of my right hand and a sense of burning in my hand.I consulted a neurosurgeon and he told me that neck operation has to be done if there is no relief within 6 weeks of taking medicines.

I shall be grateful if you give me your opinion whether neck operation is a viable option for this problem? Could you recommend the further course of action and Whether physiotherapy exercise is helpful in my case? How many days it will take to cure this disease ?

Answer

Hanna somatic educatio Hello, Pawan.

Avoid surgery.  It misses the point.

Your neck muscles are highly contracted, causing reversal of the normal neck curve, disc compression, nerve impingement (hand pain), and the growth of bone spurs (osteophytes) at muscular attachment points.  Surgery can't correct muscular contractions, and neither can any medicine.  It's a brain conditioning problem.

You need somatic training to free yourself from those contractions; it's a movement training process that normalizes the brain conditioning that controls muscular function.

For your neck step, I recommend you read my article on neck pain:

http://somatics.com/whiplash.htm

We can communicate more, after you've read the article.

regard,
Lawrence Gold