<s>[INST] Spinal History: 37 years ago someone crashed into the rear of my vehicle. At that time my doctor told me that my neck was completely bent in the wrong direction (due to the accident), and that if he did surgery there was a 50/50 % chance that I would be paralyzed from the neck down. Obviously I chose to live with the pain and on/off numbness of arms/legs (as my husband and I had five children to raise). 22 years ago, I woke with neck spasms that occurred about every 3 minutes 24/7; the pain being so bad that it brought me to the ground (you could actually see the muscles in my back/neck moving). My hands were going numb, and it felt as if someone were ironing my left arm with a hot iron. (My doctor told me at that time that my entire spine was degenerating, due to the prior accident, and although I was still quite young, that I had the spine of a very, very old person. 3 weeks later, I was FINALLY referred to a neurosurgeon. He saw me at 3PM one afternoon, and immediately scheduled surgery for the next morning. He performed a nine-hour surgery, fusing sections C5/C6/C7 together with part of my hip (no titanium plates back then). Although I have not had the excruciating pain that I had before my neck fusion, I have continued to have back pain (neck, mid back, lower back - due to the degeneration of my spine). (I haven t been pain free for over 37 years.) Although MRIs clearly show narrowing, I ve been told it s not enough for surgery. In the past 10 years I have endured having electric needles stuck into several of my nerves (on two separate occasions), physical therapy, injections into my spine (injected from the base of my spine to my neck, where the injection was released), pain meds (which I refuse to take because they are addictive), and nothing is helping. Even the injections into my spine only give me a day of relief. FYI I cannot take ibuprofen (it ulcerates my stomach), or aspirin, which causes me to have hematomas. Now the fingers of my left hand are going numb, as is the inside of my left forearm. My neurosurgeon is now retired. Is it possible that the numbness is being caused by my neck (my understanding was that the nerves to my fingers were in C7). On top of that, if I bend over, sometimes I can t get straightened up right away, and then have really, really bad pain in my low back/hip area (sigh). I am a short, petite person (size 2/4), and have tried to keep myself physically fit; however, I cannot exercise without increasing the pain. Someone told me that Botox was being used to treat neck pain. Does it have lasting results? Please advise. [/INST] Hi there, it seems you have provided a detailed history of illness which is fair enough to help you with some options. Botox is not a permanent solution. As per my practice I will recommend you to try doing breathing exercises, little strengthening of your neck muscles, trapezius, triceps and deltoid muscles. Regarding your lower back and hip. Kindly strengthen the core muscles and gluteus muscles to have proper support. Focus on taking advice with a physical therapist and then onto an orthopedic specialist what are the DOS and don'ts for your condition. You will surely be helped by the grace of God. </s>