"I felt a hard lump like a golf ball at the base of my neck. The doctor said 'just posture.' Six months later, it was bigger."
It started as a normal moment.
I was standing in front of the mirror,
applying lotion to the back of my neck.
Then my fingers touched something.
A small lump.
Hard.
Right at the base of my neck.
At first I thought it was a pimple.
But when I pressed on it,
it didn't feel like a pimple.
It was hard as bone.
And painful when touched.
I grabbed my phone,
used the selfie camera to take photos of my neck.
Turned left. Turned right.
From above. From below.
Then I scrolled through old photos.
Photo from three years ago:
Neck straight. Nothing there.
Photo from two years ago:
Seemed to be starting slightly.
Photo now:
A visible bump.
I couldn't unsee it anymore.
I spent the next three hours on Google.
"Lump at base of neck"
"Dowager's hump"
"Buffalo hump"
"Cushing's syndrome"
"Neck tumor"
The more I read, the more scared I got.
But the worst part wasn't the lump.
The worst part was realizing:
I'd been having neck pain for months.
Muscles tight.
Couldn't turn my head.
Sharp pain down my shoulder.
I kept thinking it was stress.
From sitting at work too long.
From sleeping wrong.
But now this lump explained everything.
The next morning, I made a doctor's appointment.
When my turn came,
I pointed to my neck:
"Is this... normal?"
The doctor felt it.
Frowned slightly.
Then said:
"Mostly soft tissue.
Probably from poor posture.
Here are some exercises you can do."
She handed me a printed sheet.
Five neck stretching exercises.
"Do these daily," she said.
"It should improve."
But I was still worried.
"Are you sure it's not... a tumor or something?"
"Let me check Cushing just to be safe."
Results: Negative.
Thyroid: Normal.
Blood sugar: Fine.
"Just posture," she said again.
I went home.
Did the exercises every day.
Pull chin in.
Push shoulders back.
Hold 10 seconds.
Repeat 10 times.
One month. Two months. Three months.
Nothing changed.
Actually, it got worse.
The lump got bigger.
And now every time I turned my head,
it felt like someone was pulling a nerve
from my neck down to my shoulder.
I started avoiding mirrors.
Avoiding photos.
In meetings, I'd sit so no one could see the side of my neck.
I bought turtlenecks to hide it.
And I stopped wearing my hair up.
Six months later, I went back to the doctor.
"It's not better," I said.
"Actually it's worse."
This time she sent me for an MRI.
When the results came back,
the doctor called me into the room.
She opened the image on the screen.
Zoomed in on one area.
"Here," she pointed to two vertebrae.
"Your C5 and C6.
They're compressed closer together than normal."
I stared.
"And this," she pointed to a faint spot,
"is the nerve being pinched."
"So it's not posture?" I asked.
"Posture is part of it," she said.
"But the real problem is pressure.
When the vertebrae compress,
the disc between them bulges.
It pinches the nerve.
And your body tries to protect that area
by building tissue around it.
That's the lump you're feeling."
I sat there, stunned.
"So the exercises...?"
"Exercises help muscles," she said.
"But they can't decompress the spine.
If the vertebrae are still compressed,
the nerve is still pinched,
the pain won't go away."
That night, I lay in bed,
staring at the ceiling.
Six months I'd been trying to "stand straighter."
But the problem wasn't how I was standing.
The problem was inside.
The vertebrae were compressing each other.
The nerve was being pinched.
And no exercise could "push" them apart.
I started searching.
"Cervical spine decompression"
"C5-C6 nerve compression"
"How to reduce pressure on vertebrae"
And I kept seeing one term repeated:
Cervical traction.
Controlled neck stretching,
at a specific angle,
to create space between vertebrae.
When space is created:
The disc has room to retract.
The nerve gets released.
The body stops "building a protective wall."
The lump starts to shrink.
I read dozens of stories.
"After three weeks, the lump shrank in half.
I couldn't believe it."
"First time in two years,
I could turn my head without fear."
"Exercises didn't help at all.
But this... this actually worked."
One night, I found a forum
where people were sharing about a device.
Not a regular stretching device.
But one designed to do exactly this.
Lie down for 15 minutes a day.
26-degree angle—the exact angle to decompress C5-C6.
Combines heat, massage, and EMS
to relax muscles before stretching.
I was skeptical.
I'd tried so many things already.
But I thought: "One more try won't hurt."
When it arrived, I almost laughed.
Something that looked weird,
like all the other things I'd bought.
But the first time I lay on it,
I felt something different.
It wasn't just stretching my neck.
I felt it working
right where the lump was.
There was gentle warmth spreading.
There was soft massage.
There was the feeling of muscles contracting then releasing.
And there was a gentle pulling force—
not painful—
but I felt space being created.
After 15 minutes, I stood up.
And for the first time in months,
I turned my head.
No pain.
I stood there, stunned.
Turned left. Turned right.
Looked down. Looked up.
No pain.
I kept using it every day.
Week 1: Neck pain from 8/10 to 3/10.
Week 2: My husband said:
"You look taller. Did you get new shoes?"
Week 3: I stood in front of the mirror,
touched my neck.
The lump was softer.
Week 4: I put my hair in a ponytail.
First time in half a year.
Eight weeks later, I went back to the doctor.
She took a new MRI.
When she opened the image,
she was silent for a moment.
"The space between C5 and C6... has improved,"
she said.
"The disc has retracted.
The nerve is no longer compressed."
She looked at me:
"What did you do?"
I told her about the device.
About creating space for the spine.
About letting the body self-heal.
She nodded slowly:
"That makes sense.
You addressed the cause,
not just the symptoms."
Today, four months later,
the lump is 90% gone.
But more importantly:
I can turn my head.
I can sleep.
I can live without pain.
I'm not writing this to sell anything.
I'm writing because I know how many people
are doing exercises every day,
trying to "stand straighter,"
but the pain doesn't go away.
And they think it's their fault.
But it's not your fault.
You can't exercise away
compressed vertebrae.
You can't create the space
the nerve needs to be released.
If you want to know more
about how I found this—
I'll leave the link here.
👉 Here’s what actually helped me.
Sometimes, the solution isn't trying harder.
It's doing what the body actually needs.
