Fifty years ago, when I woke each morning, I completed a vigorous daily regimen of exercises we had done in high school gym class: push-ups, sit-ups, leg raises, burpees and squats. At the time, I incorporated about 80 push-ups into the workout. However, one morning I was up to about 70 push-ups when I heard a cloud “CRACK,” followed by excruciating pain radiating down my left arm, hand, neck and upper back.

I collapsed on the floor and soon afterwards found that my left arm and hand were without any feeling but pain. The fingers on my left hand were so numb that I could not even type with them. Since my job required typing articles almost every day of the year and since I could only type on my (vintage 1914) Underwood typewriter with my right hand, it took more than twice as long to do my job as it did previously.

My wife suggested that I visit a chiropractor, and a friend recommended a local husband and wife practice. I visited their office on Germantown Avenue four times and received treatment, but the change was minimal if at all. A neighbor then recommended a visit to a prominent specialist in sports medicine.

During my first visit, the specialist said he thought I could be helped by electronic acupuncture, which he applied with a whirring handheld machine after telling me I had a pinched nerve, which caused sharp, burning pain, a “pins and needles” feeling and occasional numbness and loss of feeling.

But after three visits, the results were almost nonexistent. On my way out of the office, when I went to pay my bill, the secretary at the front desk asked me how the treatment was going. I told her they weren’t going at all and explained the problem. She then said, “My boyfriend had the same thing you have. He also had poor results from doctors, but then a friend told him to get a traction device from a drug store that pulls apart whatever is putting so much pressure on the nerve. He used it, and eventually the pain went away.”

So when I went home, I looked up “pharmacies” in the Yellow Pages (remember those?) long before you could ask Mr. Google for advice. The ones I called in this area did not have the traction device, but I finally found a pharmacy at 36th and Walnut streets in University City that had it. I quickly drove there and bought it for about $15.

It came with a big plastic bag, which I filled with about 20 pounds of water, according to the directions, placed the traction device around my neck and hung the bag over the door with a rope that came with the whole thing. Then I lay down on a couch (a bed would do, too) on the opposite side of the door for at least 20 minutes. The bag filled with water pulls on the neck and supposedly relieves pressure on the pinched nerve.

At first there was no change, but I did this for four straight days, and on the fourth day there was a dramatic improvement. Suddenly, the pain pretty much went away; I was able to do my exercises again, type articles and carry on as if there had never been a problem. To this day, 50 years later, there was never a recurrence of the problem. It was a non-Christmas miracle.

I sent the secretary flowers and a box of chocolates and a note expressing my thanks.

So my advice to anyone who has a serious medical issue that you cannot resolve is this: Forget people with medical degrees. Call their secretary. It is a lot less expensive. There is no waiting in a waiting room with other patients who may be coughing and spreading their germs on you and others, and there is no worrying about whether your insurance covers the treatment. You may have to spend some money, probably no more than $100, for the traction device, flowers and a box of chocolates. That’s all. It is a bargain at half the price.

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.,com.