I've been having numbness and tingling in the right arm for 2 weeks. I got
an MRI last Friday, and it showed that I had herniated cervical disks
(that's slipped disks in the neck in layperson-speak) at the following
levels: C3-C4, C4-C5, and C5-C6 (this last level is where it's worst). I
haven't experienced any loss of strength and coordination (yet). Based on
the advice of a friend of mine that has had the same problem, I've avoided
any exercise that could involve bending or stretching of the neck (so just
stationary cycling for now), restricted myself to lifting no more than 10
lbs. at a time, and am taking anti-inflammatory medication. I'm awaiting a
(timely) referral to a neurosurgeon.
My questions to my fellow Masters swimmers:
1. Have any of you ever experienced this problem?
2. If the answer to (1) is yes, then what sort of treatment (medical and
non-medical) did you receive?
3. Are there any specific things I should be avoiding, swimming-wise (certain strokes, drills, etc? I assume diving is out of the question) and exercise-wise?
4. Before I saw what my MRI looked like (I'm an Internal Medicine MD, so I
could see my MRI was abnormal), I had continued to swim, and actually felt
that swimming helped me feel better. Does anyone out there know if swimming can actually put you at risk for this type of injury?
Physicians, as a rule, tend to err on the side of rest and inactivity for
recovery from any injury, so if anyone has any evidence that states that I can
keep up with at least some swimming while I find out what my course of
treatment will be, I would certainly be grateful for that. I've only started
to get seriously back into swimming since last fall, and was actually
starting to feel good about my swimming, so this recent setback has me
really bummed out at present :-(
I have had cervical neck problems in the past and find it is best to have a good swimming posture, head in alignment with the spine, keeping the head down, and looking down. I found using a front mount snorkel very helpful. Along the way I found out how much breathing (or lack of) plays in stamina in swimming. I swam way farther than I ever had before and never felt winded.
The harder strokes were *** and fly because during the breathing the head is not supported by the water. A straight spine with no head bobbing or jaw thrusting to breathe is very important.
I have had cervical neck problems in the past and find it is best to have a good swimming posture, head in alignment with the spine, keeping the head down, and looking down. I found using a front mount snorkel very helpful. Along the way I found out how much breathing (or lack of) plays in stamina in swimming. I swam way farther than I ever had before and never felt winded.
The harder strokes were *** and fly because during the breathing the head is not supported by the water. A straight spine with no head bobbing or jaw thrusting to breathe is very important.
