Given your history, you could go to three or four different specialists and come away with a long list of problems which may or may not be accurate. Simply put, it sounds like your cervical area continues to deteriorate.

After three surgeries and a boatload of non-invassive therapies, your best bet is probably to stick with the pain mgt. doc and try to stay on top of your symptoms. From time to time, your P. doc may want a surgical evaluation as a second opinion and to justify pain mgt. Personally, I wouldn't agree to anymore surgery unless I was experiencing four alarm symptoms and the pain doc insisted that it was in your best interest.

I hope this problem remains confined to the cervical area. If one is predisposed to degenerative problems, those darn car wrecks can set off problems there never seem to end. Best wishes.

Jane, thanks for the reply. The surgeries I've had haven't been to the cervical area, two to the hand and one to the shoulder. The paraspinal muscles and the levator scapula stay in a state of spasm, and can be a complicating factor for the ON as the nerve passes through the muscles that stay tight, and this shoulder thing has them all confused as this appears to be a result of the injury/surgery to the shoulder which presurgery, was unstable. I had pain to the shoulder post surgery, and with the disc, the pain escalated. It took me four months to get to pain management after being referred to the NS, physiatrist, myelogram, EMG, and then back to the ortho. The NS tried to send me to two different physiatrists who refused to treat me, stating that they didn't believe they could do anything for me. So, the ortho sent me to the PM doctor I'm with, which I'm really happy with him and he is a jem. The delay for treatment stems from the insurance company, which needs no further explanation I'm sure. Anyway, I appreciate your input, but all the research I find doesn't indicate that everyone is bound to get this. Prior injuries do predispose people to these problems. The initial ortho who did the first two surgeries advised me to keep the medical open on this as he foresaw future problems. I'm grateful that he was honest with me.

Take care