I want to welcome you to Neuro talk. There sure will be others that will respond to you also. Feel at home, you have found a site with lots of compassionate people. There are many here who have faced spinal fusion and back problems. Navagation around the site just takes some practice. You can always join in any posts that you want to. There is a forum for spinal problems off to the right of the screen. Just scroll down until you find that particular forum. don't hesitate to ask questions. The fact that you want to educate yourself is the best possible thing you could do. Most of us who have spinal issues will be able to help you interpret your MRI or test results. If you would care to post that, I am sure there will be some knowledgeable people to chime in to help you figure it out. When I had my second spinal fusion I was right here on NT, just the same as you, and pretty scared. I found help and resource right here. It also may help you to "google" all the words in your MRI that you do not know. That was how I started to find out what was wrong with me. What is in the records is often very confusing, and we don't know the language of the medical terms. Keep a record of your pain, or a journal. There may come a time where you will seek more help, and to have those notes and records is really important when going to a new physician, or neruologist. Keep your medical records for all that has occured so far will be to your advantage. Please do come back, post any questions you have. I wish you all the best. ginnie

I'm typing this right now using Dragon as new software for the computer I don't know if you know about it. So far it seems to be working pretty well there is a lot of pain in my arms and I'm just learning to use the program. If some of the words are misspelled or the punctuation is incorrect it is totally my fault. Thank you for all the great suggestions. I have been keeping a journal of all of my medications, pain levels, symptoms, and anything else I can think of. Unfortunately my specialist doesn't seem to care to spend much time with me. I'm hoping that some of the symptoms I'm having are from the high doses of pain medication they are giving me. Other than the pain, I'm experiencing difficulty walking hot and cold flashes dizziness, freezing hands and feet, what an ER doctor told me our pain chills and a few other things. I can't imagine these are all coming from my neck. I'm even having problems with urinating at this time. If these don't seem to get better by Monday I plan on asking my doctor to admit me to the hospital for testing. Thanks again and I hope to speak with you sometime later if you don't see me you know where I went. If you have trouble typing as well I definitely recommend you try Dragon, it's been a lifesaver.