I posted on here awhile back looking for advice on how to deal with hand tingling/numbness/pain caused by a cervical herniation caused by a car wreck in March. After being bounced around between several doctors and a terrible neurologist (not terrible knowledge, just zero people skills), I have finally landed in the hands of a spine specialist that I like. She brought my MRI to a surgeon who said I'm very borderline on the nerve impingement and its a hard call for surgery. The spine lady says she hates the surgeries personally and for my age, 24, she thinks it might cause more harm in the long run.

The herniations are at C5/6 and to a lesser degree C4/5. I've been in physical therapy since May, so 2+ months. All muscle tension and surface neck pain is gone. I've gotten some strength back in my right hand, but my thumb and pointer still have little. The PT is ending soon and I really feel like we have hit a wall there. I know the stretches/exercises, etc. and do those at home. The pain/tingling just hasn't changed much at all, most days its a 7 for pain and some mornings I wake up and it feels like a 10 until the meds kick in. The spine lady put me on Gabapentrin about 4 weeks ago and some days it seems like it helps a handful of days, but usually not. Mostly it just kind of keeps me in a fog. I also got a TENS unit a few weeks ago and that helps while using it, but the relief is extremely short lived. I was told to mull over the thought of spinal injections.

I was wondering what others experiences were with injections? The spine lady scared the crap out of me when explaining the potential risks and it didn't help when she jabbed her pen into the spine model, yikes! I'm getting desperate for some relief, but don't want to go through with them if they don't help at all.