A Case of Cervical Spondylosis.
“Her Neck Hurt More in the Evenings”
She did not come, saying her neck was in pain.
She came saying she could no longer sleep on her right side.
That was the first sentence in the case.
She was in her early forties, neatly dressed, with her hair tied back without fuss. While she spoke, her left hand kept moving to the base of her neck, not seeking attention, just as one adjusts; even collars begin to feel heavy by evening.
By the time she sat across from the chair, she had already told her story. She did not lean back. She did not turn her head fully when spoken to from the side. She turned her eyes first, her shoulders next, and only then, carefully, her neck.
She said the pain had “come slowly.”
Slowly is often how the spine teaches us to listen.
Initially, it was only stiffness upon waking. She blamed the pillow. Then it began to stay through the day, settling between the shoulders like an uninvited thought. By evening, the pain would travel down the arm into the fingers, leaving a faint tingling, as if the hand had briefly forgotten itself.
She worked long hours at a desk. She looked down often at papers, at screens, at responsibilities. Her body had adapted quietly, bending forward without complaint, until one day it could not return to neutral.
There was no trauma she could recall. No single moment to blame. Only years of pain and suffering.
Upon examination, the neck resisted movement, particularly in extension and rotation. Palpation revealed tenderness along the cervical paraspinal muscles. Neurologically, she was intact, but the Spurling’s maneuver whispered what she had already been living with: nerve irritation, subtle but persistent.
The X-ray confirmed what the body had been expressing in its own language:
marginal osteophytes, and narrowing of the disc space.
Cervical spondylosis.
A word that sounds heavier than the patient feels until she understands it.
Dr. Sujit Sir explained to her that this was not a sudden disease. It was a conversation between time, posture, muscle fatigue, and gravity. That her spine had been compensating for years, and now it was asking for help.
She listened carefully.
What stayed with me was not her pain score, but her question:
“Will I be able to turn my head freely again?”
It was not about the neck. It was about ease and the functioning of the body without discomfort.
Dr. Sujit explained regarding posture, gentle movement, warmth, and medicine, not just to suppress pain but to invite healing. Considering her complaint as a whole, a well-curated treatment was given.
Over the next few weeks, the pain softened. The tingling faded. Sleep returned first. Movement followed.
At her follow-up during the 3rd month of the visit, she turned her head to look at me fully before answering. It was a small movement. It feels so good without pain
Cervical spondylosis is often called a degenerative condition. But degeneration is not decay; it is adaptation gone too far. The body does not fail suddenly. It bends, adjusts, and compensates, and only later asks us to notice.
Dr. Sujit always says we learn early that the spine carries more than nerves and discs. It carries habits. Postures. Years of looking down. Years of holding things up.
