Is there anything I can immediately do to help a herniated disc?

C6, if it matters.

No. Sorry. Maybe take a warm shower . Or meditate with calm music. I would see a chiropractic doctor or a massage therapist. What I would do is go to bed and have a glass of pop. Or sit in a hot tub and relax.

No, no, no, @RedDeerGuy1. You don’t want to apply heat to a herniated disc. It only makes the fluid more…well…fluid.

I know you’re taking Aleve, @DrasticDreamer, but the last tooth I had pulled my old country dentist told me that a “super” pain reliever was two brown and one white. Two Advil and one Tylenol. He said there was little danger in doubling that if one dose didn’t help.

Might be worth a try. I don’t know anything else.

Muscle relaxer. I don’t mean Xanax or Valium, which some people call muscle relaxers, I mean drugs that truly are muscle relaxers. They are prescription, so if you have never been prescribed them, you might have to call your doctor, maybe he will call in a script if you want one. They will make you extremely drowsy, I hate them for that reason, but they do help quite a bit. Be sure they don’t conflict with any other drugs you are taking.

Alleve or ibuprofen is a good OTC choice. Take 600mg of the ibuprofen (prescription strength). Make sure to take with a glass of water and a little food to protect your tummy. You could add an addition Tylenol to the ibuprofen.

I don’t know the dosage for Alleve well. I think it might be ok to take two at a time, but I am not sure, double check it. Do not mix the Alleve and ibuprofen. Alleve you should protect your tummy too with a few gulps of water/liquid and a little food.

I personally would not use heat or ice. Rest as much as you can. Don’t lift anything. Support your neck well while you sleep and rest. You can roll a small towel and put it under your neck while you lie back.

I don’t have any more advice, just wanted to sympathise. I’ve had a pulled muscle in my back which was breathtakingly painful. A herniated disc sounds much worse. I wish you a speedy recovery

How are you doing? Any relief this morning? It usually takes a few days as you probably know.

I am so sorry you are going through this. I blew out my T10/T11 twice and it was beyond agony.

Two choices…do yoga. Yoga saved my life when I herniated my disc as it stretched the muscles that were affected by the herniation. It took a few weeks to get through the sheer pain event but I felt relief within days by doing gentle yoga stretches.

If you are in “lights out” pain, go get a steroid shot. I did the second time I herniated my disc and when I woke up the next day it was like nothing had happened.

Gosh I feel so bad for you and hope you get better soon.

Hey guys, thank you for the advice. I’m not in quite as much pain now as I was when I posted this, thankfully. I thought it was getting better, but now I’m not so sure. My doctor isn’t in on Fridays, so I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow. I was stubborn and didn’t want to go to urgent care for fear of catching something.

My doctor will give me muscle relaxers – she asked last time if I wanted them, but I said no. This time, I won’t refuse. Because this is the fourth time this has happened, I want to also ask her what my options are if this keeps happening. I’m getting uncomfortable with how close together it’s starting to act up – and my mom had to have surgery for the same reason. I really hope I don’t get to that point.

But thanks again, guys.

I suggest you take half a pill of the muscle relaxer the first time if it is something you can split. You can always take the other half an hour later if you think you need the rest of it.

Heat pads work well (either the electric ones or the chemical ones…also i found an invertion table very helpful.

Heat should only be applied on the advice of a qualified medical doctor, @barney22, from what I understand.
By decreasing the viscosity of the fluid in the disc, heat can actually exacerbate the problem.