Pain In The Neck

I finally saw a back doctor. He said I have a slipped disk that's pinching a nerve. Tell me something I didn't know already. He said it would probably get better eventually on it's own, but it might take a year or two. Physical therapy might help, but who knows. Maybe shots in my back would help, but I don't know if they would actually make my back better or just mask the pain. It seems worth a shot. Get it, worth a shot? I'm such a comedian.

The thing he seemed most psyched about was doing a little cutting. He said spine surgery's a good thing. Most people that go through with it notice improvement as soon as they come to. But that's most. You still have to consider surgery in general has a certain degree of risk. Even taking out your wisdom teeth isn't as safe as you think.

What really surprised me was he said if I do go for surgery it would be from the front of my neck, not the back. Most of the muscles in your neck are in the back, so it's easier to just slice through the front and push all the squishy neck pieces out of the way. Then you suck out the gooey disk and pop in an extra piece of bone (He never explained where that's supposed to come from.) to hold the two pieces of vertebra together. Then what do you know, no more pinched nerve.

Kind of creepy if you ask me. I don't know what to think. I know I don't want anybody slicing up my neck like Freddy Kruger, but I'm sick to death of feeling like this. I'm sick of taking all these pills. I'm sick of not being able to work. I'm sick of having to sleep on my back because almost any other position makes me sick to my stomach. I'm going to the shot doctor tomorrow. Maybe that will cure me. Or maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and let the back doctor do his snipping.