A Medical Lesson:

I woke up a couple of days ago realising that I could not bend my neck backwards, not even to drink water from the bottom of my cup! So I decided to go to work and luckily I work with Doctors and physiotherapists, so I asked for advice.

Annular tear of the cervical spine disc is what they call it! I know it sounds horrible. Everything sounds horrible once you add the word disc and tear in one sentence. It is caused by doing constant impact sports which put pressure on the spine therefore allows the annular to rupture.

Normal vertebra is made of hard part in the outside called annulus fibrosus and more soft disc inside called nucleus pulposus. This internal part is filled with specific liquid and its role is to prevent the rubbing of two discs. Annular tear is internal disruption of the disc and this, sometimes, very small lesion allows the irritating liquid material, normally restricted to the center of the disc, to come into contact with surrounding tissue or nerves causing compression of neurons therefore pain.

So I guess all the jumping and monkeying around, all the Tae-bo and kickboxing did not help much.
Ah! but there is a solution you see: 3 months no rough play or contact sports to reduce the swelling and give a chance to the tear to heal which it would 100%, plus take anti-inflammatories. I can still cycle...once I can turn right. It helps to look both ways in order to cross the road, well that is what my mama told me. Haha, yes I am frustrated but what can I do. I will try and swim in a week or two maybe even cycle in the gym. But other than that, windsurfing, forget it! Running, forget it! But, it is not so bad. That is only for 3 months. I should consider myself lucky that it is not something permanent.





Picture taken from www.webmd.com