Someone close to me has bone spurs in their neck, often causing numbing in their hand - likely caused by looking down at phone/laptop for years. They went to several doctors that medically claim it’s not a big deal, but random hand numbness on a daily basis is pretty terrifying.
Does anyone have any recommendations of where to go? So far, they tried western-style doctor at a bigger [public] hospital similar to NTU hospital; then also a chiropractor and acupuncture. Hospital found the problem and said either “surgery or stretches”, chiropractor said once per 2 weeks, acupuncture said every day for a month then lighten the load. So far, acupuncture seems to have the best effect.
Soon, they will try some new therapy that involves an injection to the area to potentially encourage self-healing that seems pretty neat.
Any other suggestions? Anyone else have this issue?
I don’t think he did. He only mentioned it to me because he’ll be gone for a week and I am to help him run his machines so he can continue earning money.
If you are going the chiro route you can skip Dr. Mark unless you want a hard sell on a 20,000 NT package of treatment sessions (remember: everyone’s neck is injured, and if we can only ‘fix the curve’).
I’ve had a lot of good luck with 毅心健康學堂 (you can look them up on LINE). It’s a good mixture of PT + chiro.
Following this as i have severe back damage and the last year during sleep my arms and hands go numb everyday. Still no answers other than some previous injuries so wont.comment as i dont know any sollutions. But just want to.mention, check a surgeons referrences and.previous work. This is a western norm, but i find it insanely hard to discuss with taiwanese doctors as they take it as face loss rather than patients practicing due diligence. and i prefer to not piss off my surgeon even more than i prefer not to piss off the server where i am eating! If you catch my drift
once it’s got to this point, there is little option apart from surgery. Once grown, those bone spurs do not shrink!
I got mine from breaking my neck in a bike crash. After a few years of the same initial symptoms, and eventual immobility and constant pain and numbness, I eventually had an artificial disc joint inserted, and the bone spurs ground off.
Hung Kuo-Sheng, Chair of Department of Neurosurgery., Wan Fang Hospital.
As to the option of stretching: Yes, it does work if there is some disc compression, because it can increase the space between the vertebrae a little. I endured a year of twice weekly neck traction sessions before finally getting the surgery. The bone spurs grow because the two bones are touching each other, so stretching merely alleviates some of the tingling and so on from the nerve compression. It does not reverse the spur growth. The nerves will ultimately get pinched between the growing bone spurs, which will lock the neck together and prevent head movement, and could possibly also cause paralysis of the arm. It is a serious issue.
