In addition to the whole hand impalement thing, my neck is acting up again. A couple months ago I went to the ER with horrible neck pain, they said I had a “muscle spazm”. While I tried to tell the ER folks that I could hear the joints in my neck making noise & that it has to be more than just some sore muscle they disregarded it, gave me some muscle relaxers & sent me home.

Fast forward to this last weekend, had a camp out with the guys, slept with a good pillow, but probably should have used two. Woke up with mild neck pain & by Sunday night I couldn’t even roll myself out of bed to go to the bathroom. Went to my normal doctor (Dr. Christopher Hayes great guy) and he immediately recommended an MRI after seeing the pain I was in & hearing the snap crackle pop of my neck while listening to my deep breaths with a stethoscope.

Now its Thursday, been in horrible pain for 5 days, still in a neck brace. Every time I make a slight movement at night it shocks me awake. Exhausted & tired of hurting. MRI is scheduled for 12:30 this afternoon. Will update later with results.

MRI results: disc protrusion (bulging disc) between C5 & C6 (see example picture below) on the INSIDE of the spinal column so that it’s putting pressure on the left side of my spinal cord & pedicle nerve off-shoots from the main spinal cord.. That explains the numb/tingly left arm & shaky left leg thing. Treatment is to continue taking anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxer & steroid pack till pain goes away, then to take it nice & easy as to not damage it again to where it bulges out real bad again. For the long term if it continues to be a problem and doesn’t completely go away there is some other steroidal treatment that will be done with a specialist.

I’ll try to get copies of the MRI scans & put em up.

(not my neck, just an example. bulging disc is between C5 & C6)