Originally Posted by Leesa

Let me see if I can help in layman's language:

At C3-4 & C4-5 you have "drying out" of the discs (dessication) which means that the discs tend to flatten out and that makes them bulge and sometimes herniate. That also makes them push on nerves and that HURTS. Everyone has this, it's just some of us get it earlier than others.

At C3-4 you also have bone spurs which causes moderate narrowing of the neural foramen. The foramen is the hole which the nerves go thru to the spinal cord.

At C4-5 you have bone spurs which causes minimal neural narrowing of the neural foramen.

At C5-6 you have a herniation of the disc with compression of the thecal sac. The thecal sac is the membrane of dura matter that surrounds the spinal cord & the cauda equina. The thecal sac is filled with cerebral spiinal fluid. The disc also compresses the spinal cord resulting in spinal stenosis with the saggital diameter of the spinal canal being narrowed to approximately 5mm. The disc protrusion results in moderate to severe lateral recess and and foraminal stenosis (narrowing) which might result in right C6 radiculopathy (radiating pain).

What kind of symptoms are you having, i.e numbness, tingling, etc? From what I can tell (and I'M NO DOCTOR) I don't think you'd need surgery, but I would certainly get more than one opinion.

I think it's AWFUL that you have to wait that long just for an appointment! Our health system is screwed up for sure, but it's nothing like that! We can go to whomever we want, and all we have to do is call someone and get in within a matter of perhaps a 3-4 week period. But PLEASE if it's at ALL possible, make sure you get more than one opinion. And try ALL conservative methods before opting for surgery because surgery will NOT relieve all your pain. Surgery is ONLY for mechanical problems. The vast majority of times you will end up with the same pain or worse after surgery! I've had 3 spinal surgeries (one was a spinal cord stimulator implant) the other 2 were open spinal surgeries and I'm in worse shape now than before. In fact, I'm disabled now. So try every thing you can before undergoing surgery.

Best of luck and God bless. Please let us know what happens, ok? We really care here! Hugs, Lee