How I Caused 2 Bulging Discs In My Neck And How I Fixed Them
by: Manny Aragon
In December of 2011 I got an intriguing offer from a close family friend. He invited me on a private mountain bike ride on the Irvine Company’s private open space preserve (for those not from Orange County, CA, the Irvine Co. was a former land grant ranch bought by the Irvine family ages ago. Much of the land has been developed into the city of Irvine, parts of Newport Beach, and parts of surrounding cities but some of the land has been left as open space to conserve the feeling of the land – anyhow its undeveloped land that is closed to the public).
My friend is a docent for the Irvine Conservency and leads mountain bike rides on the land – its free to the public but not many know about the opportunity so I was excited to go discover some of the local open space that I had not yet explore. I was excited to go and set a date for the next ride available.
Problem was, I no longer had a mountain bike since I had stopped mountain biking about 20 years ago during my college years. Luckily, my friend had an extra full suspension bike to loan me for the ride. I’m game- I ride on the road several times a week and couldn’t wait to see what skills had stayed with me.
Turns out- going down rocky drop offs still scares me and I went over the bars, landing with straight arms with the bike falling on top of me…Typical rookie mistake. The rest of the ride was fun and uneventful and that was what I thought was that.
But there was a new weakness in my left shoulder- a weakness that I chalked up to possibly tearing a supra spinatus muscle (the muscle on top of the scapula). Instead of the usual busy treatment of herbal anti inflammatories, rubbing my magic liniment 3x a day, and increased dietary protein, branch chain amino acids, and green veggies to promote healing, I pretty much ignored it.
Fast forward to 6 months later. One night I’m sitting on the couch exhausted and I start to doze, sliding lower and lower on the couch until my chin was touching my chest. I sat there for awhile and then went to bed. The next night I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t get comfortable in any position and by the time morning rolled around my neck hurt- really bad- in a way that I had never felt before and in a way that felt seriously wrong. I pretty much knew that I had a bulging disc.
Not having a fellow Rolfer readily available, I consulted with a trusted colleague and local sports chiropractor who I have known for some time and respect immensely. Long story short- he wouldn’t touch me without an MRI of my neck- which I got and which confirmed that I had 2 bulging discs in my neck C 4/5 an C 5/6.
The C 4/5 bulge had some bone spurring and we figured out I had likely done that with my fall from the bike 6 months earlier. That fall had set up the situation for the current trauma to occur. I am not one for medication but in this case I went with my colleagues advice – Medrol pack (6 day steroidal anti inflammatory regimen) and then spinal decompression.
Let me just say that I have newfound respect for the Medrol Pack. It just works. Pain- GONE. With the inflammation gone we began the spinal decompression- all told 30 sessions over 2 months. It worked and I have been fine ever since.
Couple notes: Doc said that success was likely dependent on a couple of factors:
1) I am very fit and fairly healthy
2) We caught and treated this early without waiting.
Second note is that If I had a clone of myself I could have treated it far more inexpensively (even at my professional rate- likely half as much as I spent) and did so with a client who showed up at my doorstep within 6 months after my own experience.
Third note: this was a problem that was postural in origin. Since I have been training in triathlon for the past 3+ years I have abandoned my personal yoga practice and my posture has suffered. This was a real wake up call for me to take my body and my health back.
Fourth note: there was a nutritional component to my healing process which I will outline in next weeks email.