CONTROVERSIAL Member of Parliament for South West St Catherine Everald Warmington has been resting and receiving treatment in the United States for a degenerative disc disease for the past two weeks.

Warmington, who had been wearing a neck brace for several weeks, was ordered to rest, and received treatment for the so-called disease.

He travelled to the United States after his most recent conflict with the press at the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) headquarters, Belmont Road, Kingston. He was accused then of cursing a newspaper intern, and a day after he flipped the middle finger to a crowd outside party headquarters after apologising for the earlier event.

However, the South-West St Catherine MP is considered a Gordon House livewire, whose presence has been missed over the past two weeks.

He told the Jamaica Observer via phone from the US yesterday that he has been diagnosed with “a narrowing of the sixth and seventh vertebrae and degeneration in the fifth”, which has been affecting both sides of his neck for several months now.

“It has been extremely painful and had been affecting the nerve to my right hand for some time,” Warmington told the Observer last night.

He said that earlier plans for major surgery have been dashed, due to the tremendous improvement in his condition over the past two weeks, and he is expected to return home by weekend.

A degenerative disc disease is a common cause of lower back and neck pain. It is also misunderstood as, despite the name, it is not considered a progressive, threatening disease and, in fact, is not really a disease nor is it strictly degenerative.

— Balford Henry