Herniated cervical disc - Oh my!
A couple of blog posts ago I mentioned the results of recent MRIs of my neck and brain ( What do The Tough do when they get ANOTHER ICI diagnosis (or two*) ? ). Last month I had an appointment with a spine specialist to see what might be done about the herniated cervical disc diagnosis that was made from the MRI of my neck. This doctor seemed like a nice guy, and after about 10 minutes and $280 he had me convinced that my next step should be to have the herniated disc replaced with an artificial one. He started rattling off information after we exchanged pleasantries; lucky for me I knew to have pen and paper handy, and I can translate rattle into scribble pretty well. To his credit, he used mostly words that I could understand, or at least spell. He did a short exam on my hands and arms and said good - no loss of strength. Then he told me about something called "anterior cervical discectomy", an operation performed on the upper spine to relieve pressure on one or more ner...