hI, just wondering if anyone has the above or I also have severe deg. disc disease all in my cspine, straightning of the cspine with some reversal of ot the normal lordosis. disc herniations, at c4-c5 c5-c6 At the c6 c7 level posterior osteophytes and disc extrusion. mild central cana stenosis and moderate to severe bilateral neural foranimal stenois which is worse on the left. I went to see a neurologis 6 months ago who told me to go to a pain clinic to get epidural injections. I am wondering if anyone who has had the above findings had surgery. I never was able to get the injections because I have no insurance. I now am found disabled and should be getting Medicaid soon. I would like to know if anyone has any experience getting treated for this condition Thank you for any replys.

Please do NOT push for surgery unless these findings worsen. You will be worse after surgery then you are now, as far as pain goes. You usually end up with the same pain or worse after surgery. Also, pain isn't a good reason for surgery. Surgery only corrects mechanical problems which I see that you DO have, but unless your foramen closes and your spinal cord becomes impinged, I would NOT have surgery. Surgery begets more surgery. Usually after your have surgery, the levels below the surgery site will FAIL, and you'll end up needing more surgery. It's called the "domino" effect.

If you cannot go to physical therapy, ask your doctor to perhaps give you some exercises that you can do at home - or have him tell the Physical therapist to give you a list of exercises to do. Strengthening the neck muscles is very important in helping to keep from herniating more discs & causing more trouble.

Best of luck and God bless. Please keep us posted on your progress. Hugs, Lee

Smlvr the advice Leesa gave is what I was told by surgeon too.
Perhaps wearing a cervical collar might ease the pain by immobilizing the area?
It worked for me and I really didn't think anything could take the pain away. Cortisone injections did nothing to alleviate my pain (although that was just my experience.)
Hang in there!

Hi! I have severe bilateral stenosis at C5/6 and moderate at C3/4. I haven't had surgery yet as the doctors don't think it's severe enough to warrant surgery. Since you don't have insurance, I'd suggest trying acupuncture. I've done the epidural injections, too. Both acupuncture and the shots helped me when it was really bad. The epidural broke the severe pain/spasms (anti-inflammatory) and then I followed with acupuncture. This was 3 years ago. Now, I just go to the acupuncturists periodically for a "tune-up". I will eventually need surgery because of the stenosis but I will put it off as long as possible.