Cervical Stenosis
 

I have cervical stenosis causing bulging discs/pinched nerves, and DDD which, given my age (55) 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.

Anyone else dealing with cervical stenosis? Anyone had surgery for it? Any information or just general support to offer would be wonderful. Been feeling a bit a lone in all of this since no one I know can relate to what I am dealing with. Don't get me wrong, my husband has been and is wonderful still I am scared and feeling lost.

Katie

Is the DDD and such moderate/severe & is something is actually impinging on the nerves?

If not, and you do desk work, sports/weightlifting or other repetitive activities - Some of your pain & symptoms might be due to TOS or some other chronic RSI.
Have you had any expert PT for the pain at all.
TOS/RSI info -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

If you have the written MRI report you can post the findings for comments..

Katie,

I had cervical stenosis last year in Sept. I needed surgery due to the severity of the spinal cord compression and I was having trouble walking (I am a 50 yr old athlete) and I had constant muscle contractions in both my forearms causing my hands to want to be in a fist all the time...at one point my bowels stopped working for 8 months...yeah it has been a journey.

I am one year out of my surgery C2-T1 with fusion and lamni posteriorly - the doctor did it all from the back, not the ACDF thing (I had one of those in 1993). It is the best choice I made even though I was very frightened about surgery and about what was happening to my body.

I have to be honest and say that much of what has transpired since surgery last Sept 2013 is a miracle. My legs are back and I can't really describe it to anyone but the relief I got from the surgery was miraculous. I had surgery in Sept and did not get total relief of the leg and hip issues until March 15, but I knew from the way I walked right after surgery things had really changed.

I am currently having problems with my neck which ironically I did not have prior to surgery. Prior to surgery I had pain in my shoulder, arms and problems with my hands and legs but no neck pain. I am going through some tests to see if I have stability in the neck area and what is causing these new symptoms.

Regardless of what is happening right now, I wish I would have done the cervical surgery much earlier and not waited and waited hoping things would get better.

I will pray for you and you will be much better after surgery. Kelli