I have been diagnosed with cervical spondylosis. The doctor told me not to run anymore. I will be going through physical therapy to help alleviate the symptoms. However, what I have read about this indicates it is a degenerative condition. Have any of you had this and been able to successfully return to running?
I am a 49 year old man and prior to the onset of symptoms I was running about 50 miles weekly. I started running when I was 44, but I have been very active my entire life. I have done 5 marathons in the past 2 years and had 3 more planned for this year along with numerous shorter races and several triathlons.
My symptoms started with a pain in my upper left chest. Then I started having numbness in the left side of my face, left side of neck, left shoulder, left arm and upper left side. Next my left ear has a felling of fullness (like it needs to pop), tinnitis, and an unsteady/unbalanced feeling.
Initially they checked to see if I was having heart/cardiac problems. Numerous tests including a stress echocardiogram were done and there was no indication of cardiac problems. The only thing out of the normal range was my resting pulse and it was lower than normal which was attributed to my running. Next they looked for a pinched nerve and a CT scan showed some evidence in my neck. A neurological exam found the cervical spondylosis. It is characterized by some degeneration in the C5/C6 area and some compression of the nerves. The doctor said the jarring from running was aggravating the condition.
When I had the initial symptoms my running started deteriorating. Within several weeks my pace per mile had dropped by over a minute. In a training run I was trying to test how fast I could go and running downhill with a strong wind at my back I was only able to hit a 7:45 mile. That was an all out effort. A few weeks earlier I had run much faster in an 8 mile race on hilly terrain. I was expecting my training run to be around a 6:00 pace. Since that time I did a 20K race where I struggled to average 9:30 pace, when I should have easily been capable of around 8:00. Now, with the unsteady/unbalanced feeling I have I can’t run at all.
I need to be very cautious as further compression to the nerves has the possibility of paralysis. I’m very hopeful PT will improve my symptoms to the degree where I will be able to return to running.
Try this web site. My dad has AS not sure if this is what you are refering to. In his case he has lost all mobility in his spine due the the degeneration of the cartiledge between the bone of his spine and all the bones have fused as one.
If this is not your case these folks may be able to direct you in the right direction.
I have a c5-6 disc herniation that acts up periodically and I get serious neck pain and numbness in my r hand. physical therapy has helped, and epidural steroids have worked wonders. try them. I’ve been symptom free for a few months, I’m training for IM placid.
If symptoms arise c’est la vie gotta deal with them.
There are some elements of your story that don’t entirely add up with cervical spondylosis - eg facial numbness (the nerve that provides sensation to your face doesn’t come out through your neck and is unaffected by degenerative changes in the neck.) Also, an xray / CT showing cervical spondylosis is common to the point of being normal. Unless it’s way worse than the usual, paralysis is very unusual. We don’t usually tell people to completely stop running permanently because of it - other than just during the acute flare ups. Don’t assume that you’re done with running, beacause you almost certainly are not.
Is the doctor that made the diagnosis a specialist? If not, it sounds to me like you need to see someone who sees a lot of this stuff, and can explain some of the atypical symptoms.
I am little worried about some of your symptoms, the imbalance, fullness in ear, tinnitus, numbness in face. These are not commonly associated with cervical spondylosis. Have you seen a neurologist or had an MRI of brain/cervical spine.
“I am little worried about some of your symptoms, the imbalance, fullness in ear, tinnitus, numbness in face. These are not commonly associated with cervical spondylosis. Have you seen a neurologist or had an MRI of brain/cervical spine.”
I just saw a neurologist last week who made the diagnosis. He found strong evidence of compressed nerves in the C5-C6 area. Subsequently I had an MRI Saturday to confirm and I’m still waiting to hear the results. Maybe he’ll find it is not cervical spondylosis, but just a pinched/compressed nerve. He did say the symptoms in my head were unusual, but couldn’t rule out the compressed nerves as the cause. I’m assuming the problem in my ear is causing the imbalance.
I start physical therapy tomorrow so I hope that will help alleviate my problems. At this point I just want to feel good again. Once I get back to normal I hope to be able to return to running and biking. The neurologist said I could still bike, but I think there is still some impact/jarring from the road and at this point I don’t want to make anything worse.