[SjoDry]

Hi Folks,

I have pretty much been a chronically ill person my whole life. Once again I am trying to sort out symptomology. For several months I have been having various symptoms(nausea; constipation; bladder frequency; resting head tremor; internal tremors; weird, stiff gait upon getting out of a chair;hyper-reflexes, severe pain in my back, bottom & left rib area, etc. I had pretty much decided I must have Parkinson's, but cannot see a Movement Disorder Specialist until May.

I decided that maybe I should have an MRI to rule out a herniated disc. I had both a thoracic/lumbar MRI. As it turns out, my entire thoracic & lumbar spine discs are all involved. I have a herniation at T3-T4, kyphosis, mild & moderate bulging discs, some narrowing, with disc material hitting L4 nerve roots, etc.

This made me wonder..do I have a movement d/o or is all of this related to my back. The PCP wants me to see a surgeon (who I am guessing will say I need surgery). Does anyone know whether my neurological symptoms are consistent with movement disorder type symptoms? Can these types of spine issues induce a movement disorder? Is conservative treatment only going to delay the inevitable. I am assuming that multi-level disc degeneration just continues to degenerate. I don't want to waste time doing a conservative treatment if I am going to end up needing surgery (I am caring for my mom with Alzheimer's). I also don't want to do some type of surgery & then need more surgeries down the road.

Frustrated is an understatement. I might add that 2 of my 18-20 surgeries were spine surgeries in the cervical area.

Thanks.
SjoDry