G’morning y’all. I joined this wonderful forum because I have cervical stenosis and pinched nerves, DDD which given my age is to be expected but it has caused several discs to slip over each other. My C7/T1 is the area most affected and the Orthopedic Surgeon has suggested surgery since we have ran out of non-surgical treatments. I am very nervous about surgery.

I have constant pain in my neck that radiates down both my shoulders and into my right arm/hand with pins and needles with electrical zings as well. I have spasms all over the place. My upper back and neck are in constant spasm. Right between my scapula and my spine up high on my back is a real bugger. I have muscle wastage and clumsy fingers in my right hand. I stumble a lot and do spontaneous gravity checks (While walking I just find myself on my butt without apparent reason] several times a month.

My doctor would like to do an ACDF [if I am remembering correctly] but since I have a lot of stenosis going on he may need to go in through the back of neck as well. To add to this I also have an aberrant R subclavian artery so we need to find the exact location of that prior to surgery.

I’m diabetic and a smoker who is over weight. Doctor wants my sugars under control, stop smoking and lose weight prior to surgery as well.

My sugars are up due to stress so I am walking to bring them under control. & hopefully drop a little weight as well. I got a script for Chantix for the smoking.

I'm married and just celebrated 25 years earlier this year. He's still my best friend and I cannot imagine life without him.

How are y'all this morning? I hope life is treating you well and you're getting the help you need to feel your best. Nice to meet y'all.

Katie

Welcome fourxlucky.

Someone will be along to help.

Hello fourxlucky,

Welcome to the NeuroTalk Support Groups.

I see you've found the Spinal forum.
Lots of great people here and also great support and info.

It's good the have you here.

Katie,

It is great to have you come and be with us. There are a great number of dear friends to listen when you are in need of ears. Please let us know how we can help you out. You will find out we are supportive and relaxing place.

Please keep us up to date on your condition. Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene

Have you been checked for chiari malformation.. symptoms sounds so familar

Hey you, Fourxlucky! Nice to "meet" you, though I'm sorry to hear of the symptoms (sx) that brought you here…

If I were you, I would get a second opinion from a vascular surgeon before considering any spinal surgery. A couple of the sx you mentioned could be caused by Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS), which is not an orthopedic problem. It is a complex neuromuscular entrapment syndrome. (Sorry, I don't know how to put up the link to our TOS forum here, but it's pretty easy to find if you scroll down.)

Specifically, the muscle wasting and clumsiness in your hand could very well be caused by a lower trunk (C-8/T-1) brachial plexus injury leading to TOS. Also, the parasthesia you mention could be telling. Which fingers are involved? If the pinky and ring finger are symptomatic, that is a classic sign of TOS. And finally, an anatomic anomaly affecting your subclavian vein could very well play into a case of TOS. The genesis and presentation of this illness can be primarily neurogenic, vascular, or both.

There are "sticky threads" at the top of the TOS forum which contain a lot of valuable information, including one listing Doctors and PTs by state with experience in diagnosing and treating TOS. You can also pick up a lot just by reading other TOSers' posts on the forum.

That's it. I think your reluctance to have surgery is healthy and hope you are able to find some noninvasive procedures to help you to feel better and learn how to manage this thing. TOS is very tough to diagnose, and notoriously difficult to treat, so you really do need someone who specializes in this area of medicine to consult on your case. If you continue with PT, make sure the therapist is knowledgable about TOS, as the usual forms of physical therapy are contraindicated here. In the meantime, there are lots of articles, websites and other sources of good information for you to explore about TOS, to see if any of it "fits."

I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to seeing you post more about your condition and how things are going for you.

Alison