I have pain in my left elbows and fingers and it wakes me up at night. I also have tingling and numbness in both elbows and fingers. My chiropractor said that this can be helped by adjustment on my neck. Has anybody been helped by a chiropractor for these kinds of pain?

Dear Lolavasyang:
I just had a herniated disk in my neck and had surgery (fusion C5-6) in June, 2000. If you have any type of numbness or tingling, you need to go to a doctor (not chiro) to find out exactly what is going on before you allow ANY type of adjustment on your neck. I cannot emphasize this enough because numbness and tingling could be a sign of a pinched nerve. You MUST be very careful with the neck. I had similar symptoms and found I had a herniated disk plus are large bone spur in the neck. This disk was pressing not only on the smaller nerve branches in the neck, but was pressing on the main spinal nerve that could have paralyzed me!!!!!! PLEASE, GET A PROPER DIAGNOSIS FROM YOUR MEDICAL DOCTOR BEFORE ANY NECK ADJUSTMENTS!!!! Ususally they start with a regular bone x-ray and often times they can look at the vertebra and see if anything looks "out of place". To see a herniated disk (soft tissue), you have to have an MRI or CT Scan. Take care, PatG

Hi PatG,
Thanks for the very timely advice. I already had 2 sessions with the chiro but will stop right away. I have seen the rheumatologist who diagnosed me as having orthoarthritis.I am scheduled for a chest xray and a barium swallow(esophageal,whatever that means).
Thanks so much.
Lola