cervical spine problems c4-5

lianna · Silver Member Joined: 31 Aug 2001 Posts: 272

Hello! For the last six months I have been having reoccurring pain in the neck area. Sometimes my arm would hurt as well. I would usually take diclofenac and the pain would go away but return shortly after. I also notice that the pain I felt in my arm would go away when I would lift it behind my head. But I couldn’t walk like this, could I? Anyway, I finally went to see what is causing my pain. A doctor run some tests and sent me to a neurosurgeon for further evaluation. I was found to have herniated cervical disk c4-5. I didn’t get the full story, so I was wondering if there was anybody who could explain this to me. What does it mean to have herniated disks?

jewel · Silver Member Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 285

I know very well what it means and how it feels to have herniated disk. I don’t know if you know anything about the spine, so I will start from there. The spine consists of vertebraes and these vertebrae are separated with soft disks that play a role of shoch absorbers. They are made of flexible fibrous tissue. When herniation occurs, the nucleus tissue located in the center of the disk is forced out of position. The pressure on the core of the disk is usually so strong that a part of the nucleus ruptures out of the outer layer of the disk. Then, the herniated disk presses against spinal nerve roots or against the entire spinal cord and causes pain. This is what we are going through.

cervical spine problems c4-5

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