Hi I am a 35 yr old women w/ three children one vaginal and two c-sections. I gain a lot of weight no matter what I do when I am pregnant just like my mother did:) and have always been weight concious. I have exercised since my teenage years and always continued. I was a runner for several years and worked mostly on cardio work outs. I have only been overweight during pregnancy and then wld step up my work outs to lose the weight quickly w/ a lot of abdominal work, always keeping in mind good for for worries of neck injury. About 15 mths ago,w my youngest child being 4yrs, i experienced a popping pulling sensation in pilates . Prior to this i had to give up running due my knees not being able to handle it anymore. I have always popped and cracked more then I thought was normaol when getting up etc. Well the pop of the neck in in pilates I thought was no big deal. Finished the class and was in pain afterward. The next am i could not move my neck to the left at all and was in pain. Me thinking it was just like sleeping on it wrong and it would go away after a few days however it did not. I finally saw a chiro thinking a quick adjustment wld fix the problem this was not the case and i started seeing him three xs a week. After no improvement i went to my pcp who sent me to physical therapy when finished w/ that still no improvement so i demanded an mri. The results came back showing I had an arthritic neck and three bulging disks two on the left side wl one touching the spinal chord and one on the right side w/ a slight margin btw the spinal chord and disk. My pcp sent me to pain management and after going thru epidural shots and (fuacet sp) w/ absolutely no relief, not even from the litacane I asked for another round of physical therapy, not knowing what else to do. I start that on tuesday. About 6 mths ago I started experiencing a hot spot on the right side of my spinal chord mid back and my hips going numb and hurting and aching bad while sleeping and for hours opon waking. My Dr. said we will deal with that later so I asked for a referral to a neurologist whom i saw last week and is going to perform a EMG test on me next week on both upper and lower body ( lumbar and cervical) Whatever this is seems to b progressing if it is all realted. It has changed my life drastically and that of my fiance and children. I still do everyones laundry and keep up on all the daily chores bc I feel like I have to or I am giving into whatever this is. I put great demands on myself as does my fiance w/ no compassion or empathy. I Just want it gone and to be like I use to be. I have extreme anxiety, some depression and feeling of helplessness bc idk what is going on w/ me. Any advise or recommendations wld b greatly appreciated.