Tori Spelling needs immediate spine surgery

Tori Spelling, best known for her breakout role in “Beverly Hills 90210,” has been told by doctors to have immediate surgery on her spine or risk doing permanent damage to her body. The actress, however, is in the midst of family crisis and, according to sources, has been putting her health off for the sake of tending to her marriage.

“Tori has two disintegrated discs in her neck that have been causing her extreme pain,” a source told the Daily Mail. “Tori feels a lot of pressure to bring money in right now,” said the insider. “She and Dean have been struggling, and she knows how important it is for her to keep doing her True Tori reality series and the new Mystery Girls sitcom she and her old friend Jennie Garth are doing for ABC’s Family Channel. Tori believes ratings for her reality series would suffer if the storyline is forced to center around her hospitalization and recovery, and she knows she has to keep working if the bills are going to get paid.”

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Tori Spelling and her husband have been trying to work through infidelity issues, and earlier reports indicate the actress was showing the physical repercussions of stress and depression prior to her issue with her neck. It wasn’t until she was hospitalized with migraines that doctors were able to discover what the root of her troubles really was.

Degenerative disc disease

While the source revealing Tori Spelling’s medical issues was not overly specific about the type of disc trouble the star was having, most medical experts view “disintegrated discs” as terminology referring to degenerative disc disease.

According to Spine-Health, degenerative disc disease is the most common cause of back and neck pain in the United States, and while it sounds like a progressive, chronic condition, it is simply the phrase used to describe what happens to all people’s discs over time.

As an individual ages there is wear and tear on the discs in the back. This is unpreventable, though risk factors speed up the process in some more than others. Not all individuals will exhibit signs of degenerative disc disease, but those who have experienced an injury, who smoke tobacco, who exercise excessively, people with chronic poor posture, and those who are overweight tend to show symptoms in the form of worsening pain as they age.

Medical News Today indicates degenerative disc disease occurs because as an individual ages, the fluid within the discs of the spine decreases, making the “padding” between vertebrae less and less and making the spine more sensitive to shock. Small tears also develop in the discs, allowing fluid to leak out and sometimes resulting in ruptured or bulging disc injuries.

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Though there are a number of non-surgical ways to treat degenerative disc disease, allowing the problem to go untreated, as rumor has it Tori Spelling has, eventually makes surgical intervention the only option. They type and length of surgery depends on where the injured discs are located in the spine; discs in the neck require less “down time” during recovery, as the patient doesn’t have to immobilize below the shoulders.

If Tori Spelling continues to delay her operation, she risks permanently damaging her spine and could face chronic pain, limited range of motion and even partial paralysis for the remainder of her life.