East vs West. Battle: Inflammation.

Spanning the history of medicine, ie. forever, there has been a cultural, regional, and philosophical divide on how to manage disease processes. Having a professional background in surgical treatment of head, neck, oral and maxillofacial disorders, I nearly exclusively, side on the Western medical management. Until I was the patient.

Several months ago I noticed that I was having a lot of joint pain in my right shoulder. I wasn't that concerned, it was an annoyance and I chalked it up to doing a lot of retracting in surgery, possibly flaring up an old collar bone injury. The annoying ache that usually went away with some over the counter meds and rest was getting increasingly more achy, keeping me up at night. Fast forward just a few more days and that ache ran down my arm through my elbow, into the first three fingers on my right hand. Rapidly, the ache turned into tingliness, pins and needles, to complete numbness in those fingers.

I. Was. Freaked. Out.

Rapidly thoughts went through my mind of what could be causing the issue. How could I fix it? Was it fixable? What do I do about work?? I work with my hands. I was planning to work in a clinical capacity for the next 15 years. What the heck is going on?

I started to call all kinds of doctors. My own primary MD who I trust very much was nonchalant to my freaking out, said it was probably a pinched nerve, take some nsaids, rest the area. I called a lot of different types of physicians to get appointments, most weeks and weeks away. Finally, while on the phone with the UCSF Orthopedic Center, the woman scheduling my appointment had a cancellation pop up for that week. Finally! Something that will lead in the direction of a start to answering the questions of why I couldn't feel 3 of my fingers.

When I saw the Orthopedist - the very talented Dr. Anthony Luke -

that week he looked at the radiographs taken of my collar bone and within about 10 seconds ruled that out. After talking for a few minutes about what i did for a living, a history of the progression of the symptoms, and having me turn my head to three different angles he identified the problem exactly. He was good. The diagnosis, not so good: cervical radiculopathy of the C5 - C6 vertebra. In my case a combination of the inner material of the vertebra bulging against the disk wall as well as beginning degeneration of the disk. As I looked at him in shock, I'm young! I'm healthy! Is this forever? He recommended an amazing physical therapist; Sydney James, PT, MS, OCS, owner of Therapydia SF on Maiden Lane in San Francisco. He also told me that I could take any NSAID of my choosing, up to maximum doses each day for as long as it took to get better; months? Years? Ugh.

So I went about my way, taking tons o' NSAIDS, and scheduling the PT. The word I could use to describe my emotions on the day that I met Sydney is desperate. The pain, not sleeping, the fear of what it would take to regain my strength in my arm and feeling in my fingers. I had never undergone PT before, but Sydney was amazing at explaining what was going on in my neck, the steps that it would take to get me in working order again, and how, in time, I would get better.

Now, with physical therapy on my side I was gaining knowledge and strength. I was however, taking 16 200mg ibuprofen a day, and would occasionally throw in some acetaminophen or naprosyn. On top of all that the orthopedic surgeon prescribed me an anti- seizure medication that would help with the neuropathy I was having daily at that point.

Up next: East vs West. Battle: Inflammation - What's food got to do with it?