Hi bryce86,

Can't believe that second neurosurgeon, what an idiot, heard that type of treatment before from others, not nice, seriously I've had enough of the Dr's who behave that way.

From what I know I would go with what the first neuro told you, I have a herniated disc at C7-T1 with nerve pressure and my awful pain is in neck, left bicep, forearm and 2 fingers, pain/tingling/numbness. Funnily also in my left leg/ankle/foot and 2 toes but am told there is no way that can be coming from the cervical spine, cervical problems only affect shoulders, upper back pain, arms and hands so it has to be lumbar, had an MRI and that's showing a bulging disc.

I'm wondering why your legs have pin and needles, have you had a lumbar MRI?

When you are standing up straight there's more pressure, you might find it also happens when you sit down too.

I think it does come down to what you can live with (or so I was told) or next step is surgery, more PT flared everything up and I am now in acupuncture to try and help with pain.

One well known Dr told me a few months ago, basically PT etc is just masking what's going on, if you can't live with it, surgery is next.

I did have a cervical steroid injection, it has helped maybe 60-75% depending on the day, sometimes it's very painful still.

A Chiropractor told me just yesterday just because we can't see the pain or an MRI doesn't look that bad it doesn't mean you are not in horrendous pain.
You mention narrowing, he also said the narrowing that I have could be a problem too.

Not sure if you've tried the injections? you can always try them, they work wonders for some people but not others, you just never know.

Thing is we can try PT, acupuncture to try to relief the pain, traction and other things but after injections don't work my Dr said surgery.

Look in to those injections to see if they are something you'd be interested in trying, be careful though, if you do try one, make absolutely sure the Dr uses an X-ray to guide the needle, run if he doesn't. They can have side effects so it's kind of like a gamble really.

You are suffering so something has to be done for you.

Take care of yourself....