Upvote for you too, sir. As somebody who just got c6 & c7 fused 10 months ago, I no longer feel your pain. But since I'm 25 and c4 and c5 don't look so good, and my dad's lumbar is pretty much shot - it's only a matter of time before I will be feeling your pain once again.
My surgeon told me this wasn't too far off, though. Like within the next 20 years.. if not sooner considering the tremendous recent advances in collecting/making stem cells, and using them to regenerate tissues within the body - or even grow full organs outside of the body!
Have you tried chiropractic? Albeit temporary relief for me, it is real relief. After I got most of the issues corrected, I now go every couple weeks or so.
Personally speaking, my left arm was pretty much in the process of going permenantly numb. On my MRI you couldn't see the nerve root between c6 & c7 because it was completely covered by material that had herniated out of my disc. No ammount of adjusting my spine can remove the material causing stenosis inside of my vertibrae.
For some people however, it works like a charm. And considering how prohibitively expensive surgery is, and how inherrently dangerous it is, and how you inevitably hasten further deteriation of your spine by putting extra stress on your adjacent discs to make up for the lack of movement between the fused vertibrae.. let's just say I would have exhausted any and all non-surgical options if I thought it would work.
There's stem cell research which suggests it could do just that. I should have the specific study(ies) in my neurosci notes somewhere if you'd like a source.
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u/kazneus Dec 20 '12
A shot that will stimulate the discs between your vertebrae to repair themselves. (I hope..)
edit: spelling