PCD recovery

Hi Guys,

I had a Posterior Cervical Discectomy C3/C4 on Tuesday. Instead of pushing on the spinal chord, mine was pushing on the lateral nerve that innervates the neck and shoulder muscles.

I have been dealing with this pain for 3 1/2 years after i woke up with it one morning after the gym. I had tried everything from physio, massage therapy, accupuncture to osteopathy. If i failed to see anyone for pain management, all the muscles would seize up to a point where i couldn't move my neck to the right hand side at all. By far and away, the best management i received was through Osteopathy. This was improving me relatively well, however within a week i would be back to the same as pre-visit. With Osteo and the use of Nurofen, i was living a reasonably normal life with only the occasional unbearable day. Unfortunately my improvement had plateaued with Osteo, and it was just temporary relief rather than a cure. So therefore i started looking elsewhere, my Osteo sent me to get an MRI, and i wish i had this done originally, im guessing it would have saved a lot of time and money. The MRI showed that the nerve was impinged and therefore constantly firing and causing the muscles to contract.

So i am now 1 week into recovery and already the tightness in the back is gone, however i am experiencing a lot of pain and headaches at the incision site. I will wait it out and see how the recovery process goes, but i have been told it should be relatively quick as i am a very fit 26 year old tennis player/coach, we will see. Will keep you guys posted on my recovery, seems you may need a positive viewpoint compared to most of the negative ones on here who i feel really sorry for. For those thinking of the surgery, reading this site alone shouldnt be your only source as most that are compelled to post will be the ones still experiencing problems.

All the best guys,

Chris Lee
Australia