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C6 nerve compression and double vision
Spine Health | Last Active: Feb 11 7:27pm | Replies (17)Comment receiving replies
Sorry to hear about the tough time you’re having, Tracey. A few months back I was diagnosed with stenosis, including a bulging disk and osteocytes that are touching (but not compressing) my cord at C5-6. I have other lesser problems at C6-7. My primary symptoms are feelings of numbness and weakness in my lower arms and legs, although physical tests show no definable strength loss. Both my spine doc and PT say my MRI doesn’t explain the lower leg problems. I went to a neurologist who said the same. I also get periodic bouts of nausea and light-headedness when I look down too much, especially in physical activity when, say, cleaning or cooking. Likewise, I feel that I have slight gait disturbances after the same activities. None of the docs (my PT is also a doc) can explain these ancillary and only periodic symptoms, but I’m convinced they’re all related. No vision or hearing problems related to the stenosis, although I have a prior ear injury that causes me separate issues with hyperacusis and minor hearing loss.
I’ve been lucky that PT has definitely helped lessen my symptoms. In fact, some days I’m in no discomfort at all. But I have to avoid many things I like to do and have made adjustments on other activities, like getting book and laptop stands that bring everything to eye level so that I don’t have to drop or tilt my head to read or type. I’ve also been sitting in a straight-back chair to watch TV and generally keeping good posture which requires constant attention. Life-changing to say the least, but I’m doing ok, again thanks to PT
I hope you get to the bottom of your complications and find relief with appropriate intervention.
Replies to "Sorry to hear about the tough time you’re having, Tracey. A few months back I was..."
@cudabinacontenda Your imaging does explain your lower body symptoms and gait disturbances. I ran into this problem myself and saw 5 spine surgeons who were confused by this. It is called "funicular pain" where contact with the cervical spinal cord causes pain to be referred to the lower body and limbs.
My very first symptom was a pain in my ankle, and it's common for surgeons to think this should be caused by lumbar spine pathology. This was my big discovery when I found this which was my accurate diagnosis in medical literature. I only had a ruptured cervical disc and none in lumbar that were causing issues.
I found the study by searching for the term "funicular pain" because I found that in a paper co-authored by a Mayo surgeon. I hired him because I knew I had found someone who wouldn't question the validity of my symptoms. I wish I could enlighten spine surgeons everywhere to this condition because it is real and exists.
Here is the medical literature that changed my course of treatment. The problem is there is no diagnostic test for this, and the only confirmation is that decompression surgery fixes this pain. A clue that you may have it, is that an epidural spine injection takes away your pain temporarily. I had that experience too and the injection took away all my pain everywhere, but the surgeon didn't understand the results and ignored it. I found myself in the position of being dismissed by a high level surgeon, then finding his mistake, and no one would help me address it with him, so I needed to look elsewhere.
When I came to Mayo, I sent this literature with my imaging and asked the question, is my case like this? and I asked a guy who knew about funicular pain. That way, you put the ball in their court before any conclusions are made, and you are asking for their advice instead of telling them how to do their job.
Cervical cord compression presenting with sciatica-like leg pain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/
Do you think your doctors will be receptive to reading this literature?
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Oh thank you for your kind words. I’m sure all of my issues are connected too. I’m fed up of going to my gp in tears all of the time because I feel so unwell. Not having a clear diagnosis is causing me huge anxiety, my gp just tries to give me anti depressants despite the fact I’m not depressed, I’m anxious which is completely different.
The worst thing is the really weird things like I’ve been getting what feels like a star shooting through my head and for years I had one eyebrow droop that cleared up one day on its own . It’s so bizarre but my anxiety comes from having so many symptoms and never knowing what’s next.
You seem to be managing your symptoms quite well, given the circumstances. Wish you all the best
Tracey