Herniated disk touching on nerve?

ive had terrible pain in my cervial spine due to a large herniated disc that is pushing on the nerve. The pain can be horrible at times and most of the time. But lately its been on and off. My doctor had recommended surgery but know i am doughting myself. Should i live with the pain on and off or should i get the surgery. surgery scares me and i think that i am going to be worse after surgery. Any help , please!

i did have mri's 2 of them. the first one wasn't too bad then a year later its touching on the nerve. Tes i did have physical therapy and it aggrivated it even more.

don't do the surgery, there are some exercises that can be done to alleviate the situation. see a rehab person at the hospital.

have you have a MRI? if the MRI shows it's a pinching nerve and the dr has told you surgery is your best option, i would get a second opinion.

i had surgery on my L5-S1 seems like its worse now........try water therapy it helps me....

Yahoo will not allow me to post a link and you do not accept e-mail, so if you want an alternative to suffering or the knife let me know.

Did the docotr advised you to undergo an MRI? If yes, you should have one, to check he severity of your condition. If not, consult a physiatrist, they will be checking on your neck and how worse the problem is. Usually there are a series of physical therapy protocols that they recommend for you to undergo. I had handled patients with the same problem as yours. Although conservative treatment is the nearest option that you can take as of now, snce you are scared of the surgery. Try ging to a Physical Therapist first. If no significant improvement happens , i think surgery will be the best option.

The neck is a tricky area. You need to get a second opinion from a surgeon that is a cervical spine specialist. Without seeing your MRI it is tough to say how bad your case actually is. But I will say that 'large' disc herniations would be expected to cause constant pain. Some disc herniations improve with time and/or physical therapy. It may be time for a repeat MRI to see if things have changed.

The risks are on both sides. If you don't get the surgery you may risk permanent damage to your spinal cord if the herniation is large enough. So you need the second opinion.

One thing I would ask the surgeon about is spinal decompression therapy. I have seen some chiropractors advertise this as being FDA approved. I do not know if it is safe or effective, which is why you should get the green light from a surgeon before trying any non-surgical therapies. Also ask about physical therapy if you end up not going for surgery.

i had cervical spine fusion on c4c5c6c7 in 2004. it worked fine.out of pain and numbness. try a doctor for the spine at the hospital for special surgeries.
good luck.

You may want to try epederal steroid injections,make an appointment with a "good" pain clinic,your doctor can recomend one and take your MRIs with you for your consult.Physical theropy can really aggravate the nerve,you may want to try water theropy as your not straining so much I know it helps my pain allot ,but they keep the water temp at 97 degrees.I imagine you are on some heavy duty pain meds you could take Advil or Aleve for imflamation which help me at times.If your pain becomes unbearable despite your efforts you will have to have the surgery.I know others who had great success just get the best nuerosurgeon you can find.Good luck and God Bless.

I have had the cervical spine fusion operation twice. I am still disabled and have to take pain medication daily but I am able to do so much more than I was before the operations.
It takes a long time to heal so take it slow but know it will get better.

Before the operation I couldn't even reach in my back pocket or raise my arms high enough to put on a shirt.
After I have much more mobility and far less of the severe nerve pains.

If I could do it all over again I would definitely still have the operation. The main plus it had for me is that I never got any worse.

Research and get a good Orthopedic surgeon and have faith in him. I strongly recommend UCSD Hospital