My husband had successful back surgery for a buldging disk in his lower back about 10 years ago. It took him nearly 6 yrs. to fully recover. He's back to work, he is a millwright, which is quite physically demanding.
I agree w/ doc, natural vitamins and minerals will help your body's defenses. I will keep you in my prayers as well that you will find the best help out there.
There is also a new kind of chiropratic care I have just recently started. It's called upper cervical (www.uppercervical.org) They adjust the "atlas" bone which is directly under the skull the brain stem enters there and ALL the nerves pass through the atlas. If this bone is tilted even 1/2 a degree it can cause many health problems as ALL your organs are affected by the nervous system. Some of the problems are: fibromyalgia, migraines epilepsy, ADD, some forms of arthritis, immune system disorders, herniated disks, neck, back, arm and feet pain, sciatica to mention a few. I have just had my first adjustment and it is very gentle, hardly felt it. My atlas apparently has been tilted 1 1/4 degree for a long time. One leg was 1/4 inch shorter than the other (that was remedied immediately). It's too soon for me to know if my shoulder pain will be irradicated but I'm goin for it.
Hi and thanks for responding. I'm terrified of chiropracty because of bone spurs very close to my spinal cord. My neurologist who took care of me when I was pregnant said that in my case, he strongly suggested I not try chiropracty because of the bone spurs and the already damaged nerves. Most people have room for a mistake by those guys, he said, but you don't. This was when my neck problems were not thought to be so severe. I know I wasn't suffering so much neuropathy after the delivery of my daughter, so I thought I was getting better and would be fine by now instead of getting much worse again.
They can't get to the spine from the "other side" and I can't imagine how a chiro. could manipulate the problem vertebrae without pushing "in" from the back. I haven't heard anything about the first cervical vertebra being off, only the C5 & C6, and some less significant problems lower in the back. But now that you bring it up I will ask them about the top one after they have my MRI films.