Pinched nerve in the neck - anyone had the same?

[koatliki]

I think I previously created this question in the wrong forum. Here it goes again:

First time it happened was 2 years ago when I suddenly realized my right arm was a lot weaker than my left arm (then neck pain also developed (hurt when I turned my neck certain way)). I freaked out, when to the neurologist, had spine and brain MRI (to rule out anything else) and he told me it is a pinched nerve and told me to wait (he also referred my MRI to spine surgeon for his opinion and he said this doesn't warrant any surgeries) and see what happens and see chiropractor if I want. It went away by itself in 2 months.

A year later similar thing happened, but not as extreme. Fast-forward another year and now I have some weakness (not as bad as two years), but also pain and pins and needles radiating to the arm especially when I turn or tilt it to the right. Doctor said it is a flare up and I have another MRI this week to see if anything changed, but generally he said surgery is an option in extreme cases and that I should just do therapy.

Now I know this is partially my fault: I do brazilian jiu-jitsu which often twists my neck wrong ways and plus I did stress my neck a lot by doing bench press incorrectly over the years (by putting feet on the ground and arching my back) and I am sure dragon flies hurt my neck just as much as it boosted my ego.. (I stopped doing those about half a year ago)

The impact on my workouts is depressing: I practically wasn't able to do bench press and tricep exercises for 6 weeks and while I can see the strength coming back slowly I also noticed that even 6 weeks of not doing those exercises made my arms somewhat smaller

My question is: has anyone here experienced something similar and what kind of therapy you did and what helped you in general to get through this? This is extremely demotivational.

Reps