Bonnie,

Yes, I was on, over the course of those years, Neurontin, Depakote, Lyrica and the list goes on and one. None of those touched the pain. Actually, nothing did. That's my whole point about crushed nerve roots! Now, meds like that are supposed to block the pain signals and they usually can or do. But for me...no way! Actually, I think they made things worse as far as SE's go. What helped to relieve it the most was Selective Nerve Root injections and/or facet injections...but those were short lived. That C3/C4 level was bad and so was the C5/C6 which was fused eventually. I do NOT regret any of it. What I regret is not having something done much, much sooner. The thing is...once those neurological deficits start...in the arms for instance...TIME to do something. And you better believe I listened to my NS...he did say it would get worse..and it did! On the other side of the coin and after these surgeries, I swill have weakness in my arms from time to time...not always. But as my NS says...it is due to the restrictions I had. But it is slowly getting better with time.

Anyway, the thing with the osteo and bone spurs...nothing short of surgery will take care of it; not meds, not supplements...nothing. It is as RedHotBeads said...it has to be roto-rootered out. Otherwise, anything else is just a bandaid on the real problem. The thing with fusions too is that pain relief is NOT a guarantee. That is NOT why they do them unless of course the pain is intractable and mine was. They do them to stabilize the spine.

And I know people choose to wait it out...I am doing that right now with my lumbar. But the cervical spine is whole other ballgame altogether. This is all just my own opinion of course. But if my NS said tomorrow I would need another fusion at another level; I would go for it. I would hate it meaning another surgery...but I know what can happen if too much time passes.

RedHotBeads,

I haven't been on here for awhile. But I am glad to hear that you are doing pretty good. I just have to say it...isn't Valium the best thing ever?? LOL I just mean when a spasm hits, that stuff kicks it out in a hurry!