Bermie,
glad to hear your are better.
2.5yrs ago my wife blew out her C 4/5 disc. she was laying in bed when our, then 40lb 3 yrs old came in at 4.30am and wanted up. she reached over flat of her back and picked him up. she immediately said she hurt herself. by 6am she was in tears. we have a very good friend who is an orthopaedic physician's assistant. we went to see the OS and he thought it was a pulled muscle, prescribed meds and RICE. the next morning she was loosing feeling. she was sent for an MRI which revealed the bulge. we were scheduled for a surgical consult July 3rd and she had her surgery on July 5th, by which time she was maxing out the meds to get relief. she now is the proud owner of a carbon fiber doughnut in the space previously occupied by her disc. she still has some occasional, residual tingling from the scar tissue.
i say all of that to say these two things:
1) my friend says absolutely to stay away from chiros for cervical problems. he uses one for his lower back, but would not allow one to work on his upper back and neck. i'm not sure where he draws the line, but i know he is very insistant on this.
2) if you need back surgery, find yourself a neuro-skeletal surgeon. orthopaedist are great for knees, shoulders, hands, broken bones, etc..........but he insist that the spine should be worked on by a super-specialist.
by the way, my stereotypical male mindset had you pegged as a male!!!! it was great to learn otherwise.
i am an avid A/B level racquetball player. we have a lady who was ranked as high as #8 in the world at one time. it is always interesting to see the macho-man player, who is a visitor to the club, get on the court with her. they leave the court with their racquet between their legs. i have played the, then, number 2 ranked male player. people at that level are truely amazing.