Hi Jennifer. I am new to this site as well. Just found it, actually. I have had a herniated cervical disc (c-6/c-7) since March 2007. Initially, I did 6 wks of PT, but it only worsened my condition. I would leave PT in excrutiating pain and barely be able to drive myself home. After several months of horrible pain and numbness shooting down my right arm, I was prescribed Relafen (NSAID). After several weeks on this, I started feeling better. I stayed on it for 3 months, got back to being 95%, and then went off of it. I never got back to 100%, but I was pretty good for about 1 1/2 years. I had a constant stiff neck, almost daily headaches, and occasional pain and numbness in right arm, but it was managable. Until Feb of this year, that is. Well, I have had a flare up and all the original symptoms (excrutiating pain/numbness) are back. The only thing that will touch the pain is percocet and even that is spotty. I went for an epidural injection a week ago today and it did absolutely nothing for me, except make the pain worse for several days afterwards. Well, I started back on the Relafen Monday night and so far I think it is helping a little. The idea behind the NSAIDs are that over a period of several weeks, they gradually bring down the inflammation in the injured area, thereby reducing some or all of the pain. That's the theory, at least.

The point is, what works for one person may not work for others. Some people swear by the injections. Me, nothing. Some swear by PT. Me, nothing. For me, it's looking like I get some relief from a prescription strentgh anti-inflammatory. Maybe not 100% relief, but I'll take 90 or 95%. I didn't see you mention that you tried any NSAIDs. If not, it may be worth a try for you. Maybe you can get some relief from them. They don't work overnight, though. They generally take 3-6 days to be in a steady state in your system and can take up to 2 weeks to get the full anti-inflammatory effect from them. Good luck and feel better!