Tuesday before X-mas I woke up with moderate to severe pain in my neck, shoulder and left arm. Monday, he day after Xmas I went to Doctor who prescribed vicodine and a muscle relaxant, plus ordered x-rays - neck.

Yesterday I get a phone call from Doctor's Office saying that I have a slipped disk from he x-rays.

My "research" on the net comes back with "Herniated intervertebral disk (slipped disk)"

Am I wrong to assume that these are different injuries?

My research was to find out what may happen.

BTW I have another Doctor's appointment set for Tuesday 10 Jan.

Presently my left arm and hand is partially numb, plus occasional "pins and needles" feeling (like my arm has gone asleep and just woke up - ouch) and various aches and pains along the neck, shoulder and arm (muscular??? - feels like the muscles).

On my last visit my Doctor told me to do what ever I can – being the non-stubborn person that I am, I of course have been forcing my regular routine. My research on the net suggests limited activities.

My questions are:

1. What are the treatments for this?

2. Is slipped disk and ‘Herniated intervertebral disk’ the same thing?

3. What is limited activities? I honestly have no clue. I am the kind of person who “forces” himself to do things, like when I have a fever and chills I will still go outside and rake up the leaves (2 acres of trees to tend), or the next day after knee surgery I’m sweating copper plumbing pipe – you know “minor” activities.

slipped and herniated are the same thing. (Actually what almost always happens is that the central part of the disc, which is sort of like the jelly in a jelly-filled donut (without the hole), squeezes out and then presses on a nerve, and/or causes irritation and inflammation of the nerve. The treatment in most cases is time, with "rest" meaning avoiding those things that make it hurt more. Along with time, anti-inflammatory meds usually work best; that may include the usual suspects like ibuprofen, sometimes a blast of steroids. "Muscle relaxers" are mostly useless. Also, it's not really possible positively to diagnose herniated disc on plain xrays, because you can't see the material. It takes a CT scan or MRI to be definitive. However, given symptoms, physical findings, and nothing surprising on neck xrays, a process of elimination arriving at the diagnosis, in your case, sounds pretty sensible. Having awakened with the symptoms, it's also possible that sleeping in a weird position caused muscle strain, which caused distortion of the neck alignment and pinching of a nerve. Local heat to the neck might help some, too. If it's not responding, MRI might be needed to be sure what's going on. In some cases, local steroid injection is done (the neck is trickier than doing it in the back) and rarely surgery is needed. Time will nearly always do it, if the symptoms are tolerable enough while waiting. If there's weakness in your hand or arm, seeing a specialist (probably starting with a physiatrist) would be a good idea.

Ok.

Is a physiatrist the person at Physical Therapy?

Sometimes: a physiatrist is an MD, trained in diagnosis and treatment of musculo-skeletal injuries and diseases. Physical therapy places may be run by physiatrists, but often are not.

Well my doctor told me today that he is going to send to my insurance for authorization for MRI, and he promised me that a nerve test will be done.

He told me depending on what is wrong will depend on if he sends me over to the specialist offices (were my orthopedics doctor is. I assume that he meant a physiatrist.

Thanks Sid for you help.

an orthopedist would be a good choice, too. In my community, most orthopedists don't see such patients until they've seen a physiatrist and it's been decided that they might need surgery. But many orthopedists see "non-surgical" neck and back problems as well.

Still waiting...

Yesterday the doctor's office called to inform me that now they are sending me to a neurosurgeon.

I'm still waiting for the EMG test = which I found out that twice the doctor’s office has given them somebody else's phone number (David Stewart is a common enough name). So again they have to send to the Insurance folk a request to do the test.

My MRI finally came back (a week later than it was supposed to I guess) and it appears that I have a disk bulging against the spinal cord.

Last week I got a phone call from the office and was told that my test was positive and that I have carpal tunnel. I accepted that information assuming that test was the MRI (because I was expecting to hear about that) – They were referring me to a specialist then (according to the nice lady). This week I find out that that specialist is the EMG test folk who are supposed to call me (I’m not allowed to call them I guess).

Around and around it goes – again…. I think I went through this last year with the knees.