Hello everyone. This is my first post. I'm a 43 year old female. I was rear ended a couple of weeks ago and I felt ear pain and general headaches but nothing too bad. ER CT of brain showed "nothing remarkable" and I felt pain in between my shoulders so they did a thoracic xray and it showed "nothing remarkable". Then my Dr sent me for an MRI for the cervical spine. It's two weeks later and I still have left ear pain. It is like an ear ache like when you are in a plane with air pressure. Left neck and shoulder pain and shoulder blade pain.

Cervical MRI shows:
"C5-6 Disc level: dehydrated, bulging disc is seen with 4mm focal left paracentral disc protrusion with moderate lateral recess narrowing on the left."
and,
"C6-7 Disc level: Desiccated, bulging disc is seen with osteophyte and 4mm left paracentral disc protrusion with moderate canal stenosis and moderate lateral recess narrowing on the left"

I am a person who runs and exercises to relieve stress and keep my weight down. It's really the only hobby I have; working out, because I sit in a desk job all day so running 3 miles and kickboxing is my only enjoyment.

My Dr advised not to run, no kickboxing, nothing jarring. I also work at a computer all day so my head is looking up and down all day and I have computer neck or forward head posture to begin with.

Can someone please advise just how bad this MRI is, what the findings mean?

Can someone please advise if this will heal? Will I ever be able to run again? Will I potentially have problems the rest of my life? What exercises can I do for my neck? Can this get worse?

Thank you.