Hi all! I am new to the group and just recently had an mri done on my neck. About 5 months ago I started experiencing pain under my left shoulder blade. The pain worsened progressively, so I broke down and went to my PC in mid June. An x-ray was done, which didn't show a whole lot and my doc sent me to PT. After about 4 weeks of PT, my problem became much worse. The pain spread down my arm and my hand has partial numbness along with lots of tingling and strong electrical shocks down my arm. I had an mri done late July and here are the results:

C4-C5 - central disc herniation and posterior osteophyte. Herniation measures 1.6 cm transverse x 0.7 cm anterior to posterior. Moderate canal stenosis effacing the ventral aspect of the spinal cord. Mild right sided and mild to moderate left sided neural forminal stenosis.

C5-C6 - posterior disc osteophyte complex and mild canal stenosis. There is moderate bilateral neural foraminal stenosis secondary to posterior osteophyte.

C6-C7 - broad posterior disc herniation measuring 2.2 CM transverse X 0.6 cm anterior to posterior; this is more prominent on left than right. This causes moderate canal stenosis effacing the ventral aspect of the spinal cord. This causes moderate to severe left-sided neural foraminal stenosis. There is minimal right sided neural forminal stenosis.

There is very slight increased T2 signal in the spinal cord at the C4-C5 level, likely secondary to chronic impression of the spinal cord from the above mentioned disc herniation.

I saw a neurosurgeon last week. As I suspected, there are no conservative treatments that could help me. The herniated discs are quite large. He wants to do a multi-level ACDF, removing the herniated discs from C 4-5, leaving C 5-6 alone and removing C 6-7. I asked why would you leave the disc in between, wouldn't that be asking for trouble later and he basically said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Because it is not ruptured, he said that fusing of the vertebra above and below would protect it. I can see his point and I am wondering if any one on here has had a similar situation. A lot of people have said I should get a second opinion. But the fact of the matter is, I really like this doctor. He is affiliated with our local med school and he teaches there. He was kind, thorough and spent almost two hours with me. I felt very comfortable with him. Before I can even have the surgery, I have to attend a two hour class on spinal cord surgery. There is only one other group of neurosurgeons in our town and I have had lumbar surgery done by one of them. I intended to go back to him, but was unable to get in to see him until October. And I can't wait that long. Frankly, I don't know how much longer I can live with this horrid pain in my shoulder area and arm. It is relentless. I am taking the maximum amount of pain medication allowed and it has almost zero impact on the pain. The electric shocks down my arm, the tingling and numbness in my fingers, I could live with. But not the pain. I really look forward to hearing from others who are, or have been in my situation. Any insight would be appreciated.

Beckel