Hi. I know this is quite long, but please read the whole thing before responding. I'm 22 years old and was in a car accident (not my fault, in fact, I was a passenger in a car that was hit by an oblivious old man running a red light) exactly 2.5 years ago (April 2006).

I got an X-ray after having back pain that day and was told my back was merely "strained" and given muscle relaxers and sent on my way. Nothing was broken.

Soon after I began to develop severe pain in my neck, mid-back, and lower back, and had crippling migraine-like headaches that started at the base of my skull and went all the way to my eyebrows. I had never had headaches before. I soon started chiropractic and was told I would need to stop working out in the mean time, which I did. Chiropractic provided some relief, as did ultrasound on my neck/shoulders. Nonetheless, as my chiropractor tried to slowly ween me off chiropractic care months later, I began to have all sorts of pain again and headaches. By this time, I was literally in so much pain that I would only attend school and would lay around not moving the rest of every day. I also began to miss school, never saw my friends, and never felt good enough or was in so much pain that I didn't do anything socially at all.

As a sidebar... before this car accident, I was a straight-A college student involved in about 5 committees/activities, flag football captain in intramurals (co-ed league, but I was the only girl), lifted weights/cardio 6 days a week, took 24 credit hours per semester (fairly easily), did promotional work 20 hours most weeks, was on track to graduate college 2 years early (because I took so many college classes as a high school student and when I got to college), still managed to have an active social life, did some acting/modeling on the side, and had many hobbies. I am very Type-A and like to be doing something at all times, and physical fitness and school were/(are) priorities in my life.

Moving on... my chiropractor began to blame me for my own pain, saying that I "partied too much" and "stayed up all night reading too often" and that I just needed to take it easy more. This was complete bull, as my life had basically slowed to a miserably painful crawl by this point, and being social or even reading for more than a little while would cause me crippling pain. I also took a semester off school, after already working down to 12 credit hours at school and barely scraping along to finish them on time. Sitting a chair at school and getting headaches from neck spasms made sitting in school miserable.

By then, it was exactly a year after the initial car accident (April 2007), and my doctor recommended physical therapy and tests after I came to him explaining that I was in so much pain and not getting better. An MRI revealed a bulging disc in my neck between C4-C5 (or maybe there were 2, I honestly don't remember). He sent me to a spinal rehabilitation center and I stopped chiropractic, now knowing that after months of being told that nothing was wrong with me and my pain was in my head, that something was legitimately wrong. I also started pain meds and muscle relaxers at this time as for the last year, I had refrained from them and opted to hurt all the time instead. At this time, it hurt my lower back too much for me to take my beloved dog for even 6 block walks.

Physical therapy revealed that I had all sorts of postural problems causing me pain. I started PT (2x a week) and traction treatments on a machine called the DRX (3x a week) for the first couple months. I never had another headache after starting traction. The exercises, however, that my PT gave me seemed to be helping some places (lower back) but making other worse (mid-back, a rib started to cause me quite bad pain across my chest). He pretty much ignored these symptoms for months and took me off the DRX, and a lot of my pain came back, though less severe than when I began treatments. He accused me of not doing my exercises, which yet again, was crap. Then he then moved me to James, the "PT of last resort" at the center.

I began PT with James, who is one of 15 people in the country with his certification. He travels on many weekends to teach, and only sees the most complicated patients. Since then, I have made a lot of progress. My lower back pain is almost completely eliminated, and fairly easy to fix with my home regimen. My mid-back is quite good, too. I still have the problem with my rib (T4 syndrome - it has a name) sticking out and causing pain, but that is getting better, too. I was also recently put back on DRX treatment for my neck, which seems to offer some help, but only for a short amount of time.

Basically, I've been in PT for 16 months and have had very good progress on all of my postural/spinal issues. My neck, however, seems resistant to any kind of long-term change. I've made extreme lifestyle changes, do my PT program rigorously (it takes me 1.5-2 hours a day - which I adhere to strictly), sleep on a memory foam pillow, use heat/ice/TENS/Hako-Med(at PT), and still have a lot of pain in my neck.

I've gone without exercise (other than walks) for 2.5 years, am now 2 semesters behind in college, and only work every couple weeks or so because I can't tolerate consecutive full days of promotional work. I also no longer do modeling or acting because I'm out of shape now.

It seems like because my disc(s) is/are bulging and not herniated, that I'm supposed to be in substantially less pain than I am, but I'm not. I'm in pain every day of my life in varying degrees, but enough that it still, 2.5 years later, substantially effects my ability to do things I enjoy that I'm permitted to.

I don't want to take muscle relaxers/pain relievers/anti-inflammatories for the rest of my life (I still refuse cold medication). I'm extremely needle-phobic; not as in, I don't like needles. As in, I will physically pass out and/or break out in hives (stress-related in very extreme cases with me) and ironically, have to get ANOTHER shot to control them. I do not want to get injections, and if I do, I do not want to be forced to get them for the rest of my life. I'm 22 years old and have already had to deal with another trauma-related injury (of the eye) that made me miss a year of school (from which I recovered with a scholarship to a private high school for testing better than 99% of the other applicants). After missing an entire year of school.

So basically, I feel like I literally have no other options than surgery at this point, because I'm simply not getting better. I cannot stand to be in this much pain anymore. If surgery will alleviate all or some of it, then I will definitely consider it. I have an appointment at a spine clinic next week, but I was wondering if anyone had any stories/opinions/advice on surgery for a BULGING (not herniated or degenerative) disc given my circumstances and situation.

Any help would be very greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing your stories. Please know that I had quite a high pain tolerance and am not simply trying to exaggerate a situation for any reason.

Thanks, have a lovely day.