Bone spurs in neck, PT - Anyone ever deal with this?

[Higus]

I saw an orthopedist recently because I've been having chronic neck and shoulder stiffness. Recently, that stiffness has turned into a tingling sensation and occasional throbbing pain that goes down my arm. The doc did an x-ray and diagnosed that I had bone spurs in my neck which were affecting the nerves that go down my back and arm. Among other things he recommended that I start going to physical therapy.
I'm 32 and in decent shape, and I've never been to PT before, so I'm unsure of what to expect when I get there. I have some questions for anyone that has dealt with this before:
Were you prescribed PT? If not, what did you do instead?
What was it like?
Was it effective?
Were you able to make a recovery? How long did it take?

 

[Seano]

I actually have symptoms like yours but have never had it diagnosed. Makes me wonder if I have the same thing.

Sometimes the entire right side of my upper back just basically locks up. I can't turn my head properly, backing out of my driveway is a chore. I get the same odd pain in the arm too.

I'll go months at a time with no problem and then just all of a sudden, bam, discomfort and low mobility for a week.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Can't comment on neck/spine/back issues, but I've had PT for recovering after ankle surgery, and then shoulder surgery

I've always been dissapointed with it. Nothing they've had me do isn't stuff I wouldn't have prescribed myself sitting down for 15 minutes on google and seeing what stretches/strength rehab work it'd reccomend. And they move you so goddamn slow. I understand not wanting you to push yourself and reinjure anything, but other people told me PT on my shoulder after a labrum tear would be a grind. The stretchy band exercises they had me do were a boring joke. At week 16, PT finally says "Ok, now let's see if you can do a pushup from your knees. It's ok if you can't." I was able to bust out 30 normal ones.

 

[HockeyBjj]

I actually have symptoms like yours but have never had it diagnosed. Makes me wonder if I have the same thing.

Sometimes the entire right side of my upper back just basically locks up. I can't turn my head properly, backing out of my driveway is a chore. I get the same odd pain in the arm too.

I'll go months at a time with no problem and then just all of a sudden, bam, discomfort and low mobility for a week.

saw your post after I posted. I had something similarish, maybe it's something to look into. Twice, my neck would just utterly seize up. Can't move it, excruciating pain when I'd try. The jostling from walking around would bring a knee buckling zap of pain through my neck every 20-30 steps even

Had to have a shot of muscle relaxants from the ER each time. 5 minutes later, it was 90% gone each time, and then finished clearing out in the next 3ish. If yours maybe didn't seize as bad as mine, it could be that. Appartently something caused one of the veritcal muscles in my neck to overlap the one next to it, then the muscles freaked out and contracted, and then there wasn't any room for it to fix itself.

 

[zeeriffic]

I've done PT after for knee surgeries, two corrective repair torn rotator cuff repairs and one broken neck (3 broken peticles) and every single time it starts out hard and becomes easy within weeks... I would like to think they pushed me at the beginning and the rest was easy. If you have a good therapist it's very beneficial.

That's my take at least.

 

[ralphc1]

I have bone spurs in my neck. The physical therapist just shows you how to stretch your neck and roll it around to loosen the bone spurs and keep them from forming.

 

[Dogstarman]

Can't comment on neck/spine/back issues, but I've had PT for recovering after ankle surgery, and then shoulder surgery

I've always been dissapointed with it. Nothing they've had me do isn't stuff I wouldn't have prescribed myself sitting down for 15 minutes on google and seeing what stretches/strength rehab work it'd reccomend. And they move you so goddamn slow. I understand not wanting you to push yourself and reinjure anything, but other people told me PT on my shoulder after a labrum tear would be a grind. The stretchy band exercises they had me do were a boring joke. At week 16, PT finally says "Ok, now let's see if you can do a pushup from your knees. It's ok if you can't." I was able to bust out 30 normal ones.

Depends on the pt. You can also ask them to be more aggressive also. I had one that was great. Hands on. He worked trigger points and did dry needling on top of the stretching and exercises he had me do.

 

[Higus]

I have bone spurs in my neck. The physical therapist just shows you how to stretch your neck and roll it around to loosen the bone spurs and keep them from forming.

Did it help? If that's all they do, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.

 

[TrippleOG]

I had a bone spur in my humerus bone, cause a small tear in my supraspantis had RC surgery. 6 months of rehab/pt, couldnt lift for over a year and half. Still hurts and have to stretch warmup before everything.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR SHOULDERS PEOPLE~!

 

[ralphc1]

Did it help? If that's all they do, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.

It works well if you do it often. You can keep going back but it's something you can do by yourself. You don't need someone to tell you to do it.

 

[ralphc1]

This is what the therapy is:

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[Swoliosis]

I used to work as a PT aide and can say from experience bone spurs are usually a bitch to work with because there isn't much you can do about them. As far a C-Spine shit you'll probably be doing a lot of stretches to 'deviate' the spur from any nearby nerves, but thats about it. There are surgeries for it but they are usually a last resort due to having to cut through healthy muscle tissue to get to the spur.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Depends on the pt. You can also ask them to be more aggressive also. I had one that was great. Hands on. He worked trigger points and did dry needling on top of the stretching and exercises he had me do.

I did. He kept saying he had to stick to the protocol or it would get injured. Then suddenly they tell me I'm good for anything, just stop if it hurts. Wtf

I have no doubt others are better. I've just had relatively useless experiences with my two. I wish they had worked with me and found the specific weak spots and worked to strengthen them

 

[Dogstarman]

I did. He kept saying he had to stick to the protocol or it would get injured. Then suddenly they tell me I'm good for anything, just stop if it hurts. Wtf

I have no doubt others are better. I've just had relatively useless experiences with my two. I wish they had worked with me and found the specific weak spots and worked to strengthen them

That's to bad. I had one like yours. Just made me stretch and put heat on the injury. Then told me after 6 weeks that I'm better and never do back squats or overhead presses.

I found went to this other guy and he really worked with me. Said I was athletic and my treatment would be different than a sedentary person.

 

[ralphc1]

I did. He kept saying he had to stick to the protocol or it would get injured. Then suddenly they tell me I'm good for anything, just stop if it hurts. Wtf

I have no doubt others are better. I've just had relatively useless experiences with my two. I wish they had worked with me and found the specific weak spots and worked to strengthen them

Your insurance probably wouldn't pay for any more.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Your insurance probably wouldn't pay for any more.

Insurance was fine. $25 co pay each session I went in up to a year. This was about month 5.

He just followed it so by the book the first 4 months (citing soft tissue risks, even if the muscles were strong enough) that by the time he could finally maybe do something for me, he didn't have anything I couldn't do so that to him meant all clear, onto next patient. Guy just really had no idea how to work with an athlete I feel, despite saying multiple times throughout he understood

 

[Tookie]

The reason why your doctor prescribe physical therapy is because it is a non-invasive treatment. It isnt going to cure anything but more likely delay surgery. Think about it from this standpoint, how are u going to prevent a bone spur from irritating a nerve. You need to get rid of the bone spur. If it is diagnosed correctly though. Being that u are young and functioning properly then u dont want surgery until it becomes debilitating. There are some PT that specialize with spine manipulations that can help treat some neck issues. So try out PT for a few times to see if it cant help relieve some of your symptoms, if it doesnt then stop.

For younger people with orthopedic problems, PT is more for prevention to avoid you from injuring ur surgery. Final note, there are tons of complications that even can come from simple surgeries.

If you aren't happy with your therapist either find a different clinic or just ask for a different therapist.

I'm a PT.

 

[AznTrojan]

insurance won't cover surgery until you try noninvasive stuff first..

go to PT.. they will likely give you stretching/strengthening exercises to get your pain centralized..

btw.. avoid the chiropractor.. and never get your neck manipulated by them.. i've seen plenty of their "handiwork" fucking up patients