--a new round of images should be taken, including the cervical spine, if there have been indications of compression near the cord in the past. Certainly in five years things could have changed.

Given the spread of the symptoms mentioned, it wouldn't be a bad idea for a full series to be done, with MRI of brain and entire spinal cord. Compression on the cord itself can result in symptoms at any level below the compression (e.g., compression in the cervical cord can results in neck, arm, shoulder, trunk, leg symptoms depending on where the compression is), whereas compression on the nerve ROOTS adjacent to the spinal cord tends to produce symptoms in specific nerve distributions called dermatomes.

Here's a map for that:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/image...mb=/1NGTKdZg7n