Serious Neck Problems

[KnottedYet]

But the best is when the RPT works on my neck--pulls my head, turns it to the side and rubs my shoulder where the pain is. This helps my mobility quite a bit.

If something as simple as relieving the muscle tension increases your mobility, there is every reason to think your body can deal with the stenosis and bulge given the chance. Your PT should be giving you an exercise (in one direction) that uses your own motion to push the bulge back in where it belongs. Get the bulge under control and healed first. That may take a couple (or a few!) weeks of doing one motion every couple hours (pushing the bulge back over and over again), but once it's healed that part is done.

Next is working on the stenosis by teaching your body a new posture to hold the neck in. Stenosis is permanent, it's a bony change, and it happens to us all. Blame gravity! It only really causes trouble when the body doesn't adapt and adjust to the gradual bony change. Swimming didn't do that to you, it just pointed out the problem by putting you in a situation where your body didn't know what to do, and defaulted into "tighten everything up and hold on for dear life!" (bone doesn't change overnight, but soft tissue can)

Don't despair, and don't get depressed! Ask your PT to show you how to work directly on the root of the problem: how to push the bulge back into place, and how to adapt your neck posture to the stenosis.

(Right now the nerve fibers getting wolloped by the stenosis are really crabby and probably inflamed/swollen, so be patient and kind with that part. They need to calm down - which means learning how not to wollop them, what NOT to do for a while - before you'll feel a big change.)