Just another perspective on this. My issue related to cervical disc herniations, along with something called end-plate disruption (cracking of the vertebral plates). The damage to my discs would cause swelling and spasming of the surrounding muscles, which created a vicious circle of pain.
I had the same problems as you - the pinched nerve in the neck would happen every couple weeks and I wouldn't be able to function for 2-3 days. It finally got so bad that I agreed to a cervical epidural injection from my orthopaedic back guy. This is a fluoroscopy guided injection done under X-ray into the epidural area of the cervical spine. It was a breeze, just some local anaesthetic, and then mild discomfort (it takes about 20 min to do the procedure) as he works the needle to where it needs to be while looking at X-rays, and a bit more discomfort (pressure) when the corticosteroid was injected.
For me, it worked wonders. Three days of increased pain, and then things settled down dramatically. The goal of the injection is to settle things down so you can then really focus on breaking the vicious cycle of pain to focus on rehab. The injection was 3 years ago (I think), and I have yet to have a recurrence.
"A local is just a dirtbag who can't get his shit together enough to travel."
- Owl Chapman
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