need advice
 

Hello everyone, Im New and hoping someone can help me out. I was diagnosed with disc herniations at c3-4, c5-6, c6-7 about 2 months ago. I have seen a neurosurgeon and he wanted to try PT for 6 weeks to see if it helped any. I am in my 3rd week of therapy and things are getting worse. I had profound weakness, numbness, and severe pain before, but all of that has worsened since I started. The weakness is so bad that I cant even grip a can of soda. The numbness has got to the point where I have lost almost all feeling in my arm. the pain has become even more unbearable. I cant make it through the day without pain killers. The question I have is if I should stop PT and call my doc or just push through and give it more time. The bad thing is all of this is in my left side and my left arm is my dominant arm. Im just tired of all this. Im having trouble doing the simplest of things, like putting on a shirt by myself. Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Brent

Hi Brent, Welcome.

I've gone through this myself more than once. Call both your doctor and physical therapist and tell them what's going on. IME, the problem may be that the PT is too aggressive, and needs to be backed off of somewhat. They may want you to discontinue for a time, or continue at a slower/less aggressive pace. In the long run, however, PT has as good an improvement rate as surgery without being invasive or having the same complications, so I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. Also, once the course of PT is over (it's usually only covered for x weeks) it might not be a bad idea (ask doctor & therapist) to continue on your own (I've done this also, and go back to it from time to time as symptoms suggest).

Hope this helps,

Doc