Life dilemma
Having a life dilemma need some other opinions than those around me. I have had a neck problem for 2-3 years now and it causes severe pain so I can't sit by a regular chair. Always have to rest my neck and it still bothers me, also sucks to stand.
I can either live with this which will be very hard once I start working by a desk all day, or I can do a surgery this January. problem with the surgery is that the doc said there was a high risk at getting some problems that may cause nerve disorders in other body parts, or it can make me paralysis but less chance for that. And of course there are some other risks but these are the worse ones.
Not sure if I should take the surgery or try to live with this, any good arguments for either part? Would be appreciated. Also for the record I am 20 years old.
Thanks.
what's the cause of the neck pain - an accident? underlying health issue like scoliosis? bad posture?
have you gotten a 2nd opinion
does anyone else in your family have this issue and if so, what's been their experience?
I do not think you should rush into surgery without giving it a lot of thought, and neck surgery is absolutely serious. the way I'd approach it is this - if you've done every other non-surgical intervention possible, gotten 2nd opinions that mostly say you should get surgery, and have come to the conclusion you cannot continue living the way you're living, get the surgery. otherwise, I'd personally wait.
I don't know what the issue is, so this just may be a red herring, but for example, people with sciatica often times would do well to do nothing, the body tends to heal itself over time (assuming you remove the cause of the underlying issue), making some surgeries lucrative for the doc but not necessarily beneficial for the patient.
I'm going to reiterate this, OP. Perhaps you've already explored this route, but "being in pain forever" and "a risky surgery that may paralyze you" are the type of options that would make me look for a third.
I will say too that doing nothing at the moment - picking "no surgery...for now" if you will - could be a legitimate strategy. Medical science is miraculous and who knows if the surgery options 5, 10, 15, etc. years from now will be the same as today. It could be an easier fix in the future.
Finally, and I get the irony here, but I'd say to be very cautious of medical or life advice on a finance website where a majority of posters are 18-20 years old. You're not going to get the right perspective here, overall.
We’re like the wal mart of message boards. You can get everything you want here but you gotta avoid some of the idiots in the cheese whiz section.
The neck is due to my genes my body's spine was growing wrong, my other issue were kyphosis in the upper back. Just had a surgery for that this summer. Dont think others in my family got this. And yes I think you are right even though I just cant stand living like this I think I should not rush into this.
I have had neck issues from training too hard and cycling too much.
The key is exercising your neck to be strong enough to do the activity. My main exercises are Yes’s, No’s, and Ear to Shoulder.
Have you tried these exercises or physical therapy?
Yes I have done therapy for the past years and exercising my neck for a long time, it does get better but to a certain point. And I will look into the massage devices. Thanks
Have you tried the Iron Neck? I've been using one for a few months and it's great.
I’ve actually heard good things about it. It looks pretty good.
Also, you might want to look into massage devices for your neck.
I was in a car accident that resulted in some pretty severe spinal and neck injuries back when I was in my teens and the pain persisted till I was a little older than you. I was faced with similar options which included a slower therapy treatment route, which I ended up opting for. It took a lot of physical therapy but it eventually sorted itself out a few years back, but it doesn't sound like it's quite the same situation you're dealing with unfortunately. I would reiterate thebrofessor's point about seeking out a 2nd and possibly even 3rd opinion on this. Try to get stats from multiple surgeons about the number of times they've performed this procedure on people in a similar situation as you and how frequently the results have been positive vs resulted in negative side effects. If you can get a decent sample size for that then the decision is really ultimately up to you. Personally, if the odds were >75% that I would come out of the procedure with a positive prognosis and it were my only option for complete relief I would take it. If not, it might be worth looking into some ergonomic chairs to see if that helps you avoid the pain when working in combination with something like CBD or another painkiller. Chronic pain is a bitch and a half but if you've made it this far I'm sure you'll make it even further, Godspeed.
Damn sounds like you went through some bad shit, good that therapy was the key for you. Yes I talked with my doc regarding stats and he said he had did the surgery 15 times and had 3 people with some issues and 1 of these 3 got some pretty bad nerve problems in his arm. I will ask him if my chances will be better with another doc, but the one I have should be one of the best in this field in my reach. Thanks for the chair tips and yeah fucking chronic pain, yes I will never let it keep me down. Thanks for the vise words.
out of curiosity, what did you do for PT? legit curious on specific exercises you can do yourself.
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