Cervical Stenosis

Thank you for the info. That could be why the EMG tests came back normal.

@hopeann I wanted to welcome you to Connect. I am a cervical spine surgery patient. I had pain all over my body just from cervical spinal cord compression including leg pain and an uneven gait. I had a C5/C6 fusion that resolved all the pain. I hope that can ease your mind. I hope you will share after you learn more.

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer, thank you so much for the welcome and for your experience with this cervical spine pain and surgery. That is really encouraging to hear how you were helped with the fusion. I have an appointment with my orthopedic doctor April 25th but hope to get in on a cancellation sooner. I will keep you up to date as to what he says. How long were you in the hospital with the fusion surgery? Thank you again

@hopeann I wasn't required to stay in the hospital. My surgery was at Mayo and because of insurance requirements, they had to schedule 1 night of a hospital stay, so I had the choice to stay or not. I was nauseated by the anesthesia and the pain medicine they gave me which made me worry about falling so it was easier to stay. They were also giving me something for nausea too. On later surgeries, I discussed the nausea reaction to anesthesia, so they put an anti-nausea patch behind my ear and that worked like a charm and I didn't get nauseous. I was really tired after spine surgery, so I stayed the night and left mid day the next day.

I chose not to use the pain medicine after I left the hospital and I was able to manage. Most ACDF procedures are day surgeries unless it involves multiple levels. I was OK walking around the next day although still very tired and in a bit of pain. We were advised to stay an extra day at the hotel in case of complications before the drive home. This wasn't a bad surgery and it wasn't as painful as I had expected. My broken ankle surgery (a few years ago) was much more painful and for a much longer time period.

Jennifer

Jennifer, thank you so much for telling me of your experience with your spine surgery. I am glad to hear that all went well and you were given something that was very helpful for your nausea. I will keep in touch and let you know of any dates with me

Jennifer, thank you for your insight into the neck surgery. My surgeon has recommended that I consider a fusion C3 to T1. This has to do with the spinal stenosis that I have. He has highlighted a significant amount of downside issues for the surgery including the loss neck movement, considerable recoverability. and I am a senior aged 76. Quite concerned of my wife's interaction pre & post surgery. She is the family chauffeur and has her own issues. I would appreciate you comments.

@donellison Thanks for joining the conversation. As spine surgery goes, I had it pretty easy with just one level fused at C5/C6. My ability to turn my head and bend my neck is almost the same as it was before surgery. What I can't do now is touch my chin to my chest, but it is very close about one finger of space away. Like your surgeon says, fusing C3 to T1 will decrease neck movement significantly. For head turning, C1 & C2 do most of the work, and you will still have that. C3 & C4 add more range to head turning which you will lose. You might ask your surgeon to tell you how much you will loose so you understand what your expected range will be post surgery.

When you think about tying your shoes, that would normally be bending your neck down to look at your feet, so that will change. You probably won't want to go places in the car for awhile, and recovery is long. That is different for everyone. My husband did all the grocery shopping and I didn't drive for 7 months after my surgery. I had restrictions and could not lift the groceries anyway. I could have driven sooner, but I just didn't want to risk it. It takes 6 weeks for the incision to heal, and then it tends to tighten up a bit and can be more painful. I was in a neck brace for 3 months, and then had to do some physical therapy to regain neck strength and loosen the scar tissue.

When the issues caused by stenosis are serious enough, it makes sense to consider surgery. It is a compromise because your mobility changes. I understand your concerns about the extra effort for your spouse, and I bet she will want to do all of it to take care of you. I think my husband loved being needed to take care of me. I stayed in bed a lot and just slept, and he set up a DVD player and TV for me. I was tired a lot because after surgery, your body has to use all it's energy to heal.

Has your surgeon explained what would happen to your condition without surgery? That really helps to ground your decision. Personally, my decision to have spine surgery was the best decision I could have made. I was already having difficulty walking with an uneven gait and was loosing coordination of my arms, and I had pain all over my body. I had been taking care of my disabled parents and I didn't want to be disabled if I had a different choice that I could make.

Have you discussed with your surgeon how diffrent it will be to drive after this surgery? It will be different for sure. I think you may get a good perspective on that from @upstatephil. He has had recent surgery with multiple cervical levels fused and he can probably tell you his experience of what is different now after spine surgery.

Jennifer

To @donelison. Jennifer is correct in everything she posted. She mentioned my recent surgeries and I thought I'd just jump in.

Just over 12 months ago I had a four-level ACDF from C4-7. The first few weeks post were pretty rough and I leaned heavily (no choice, really) on my ever-patient spouse for everything step-and-fetch-it. I did resume driving once my neck brace was removed (there are many factors influencing your use of a neck brace so my experience may be different than Jennifer's than yours might be).

Very quickly all upper body and cervical-related pains were gone. Totally. There was some residual nerve pain simply because long-stressed nerves are slow to heal themselves. But at this writing - I'm thrilled I had that surgery and for me, it was the right decision.

My four-level is the reason for some loss of rotational motion. But I had already lost about that same amount of flexibility even before surgery ... as impacted by the stenosis. I cannot touch my chest with my chin. For me that's a small price to pay. Shoe tying is a pain (pun intended) but I'm learning new ways to get that done plus I have more slip-on type shoes now.

Deciding on surgery is a risk/return analysis. What's worse? Current pains and restrictions that could become worse and might also become uncorrectable if left to degrade over long enough periods? Or the unknowns of surgical outcome that include a potentially long up-hill recovery? Only you can evaluate that trade-off.

My thoughts: (1) Go to the best medical facility with the best equipment for your diagnosis.
(2) Consult with the best docs you can find. (3) Get at least two opinions and seek a third if #1 and #2 differ greatly. With #1-#3 you can reduce the "risk" side of the equation with your increased knowledge.

Wishing you the best!

Thank you all for your priceless valuable information.
Scheduled and obtained a second opinion from well known head and neck surgeon yesterday.
Let be back up a bit. My first opinion from my primary Doctor was, when asked to be seen by a specialist.
" The MRI results conclusive, you have moderate/severe stenosis C1-C7". But after insisting to be seen by Orthopedic Doctor, (I was) recommendation no need for surgery, physical therapy instead. Was seen by PT, given exercises to be done. Most notable is the use of a peanut (two tennis balls stuffed in sock) and using to stretch cervical area. Other exercises recommended as well.
Second opinion yesterday from Neuro: Spinal canal looks good, issue is were the nerves come through the bone are being pinched, reason for mild symptoms.
Surgery not recommend.
When asked about pressure in head creating headaches, dizziness, confusion at times.
His advise seek Neurologist.
I will seek Neurologist opinion, but find it to be ironic
that symptoms described arrived with onset of neck issues.
My question to all: 1) Did you have the dizziness, cloudiness associated with cervical issues. And was your Spinal Canal damaged by the Stenosis.
2) Did you seek medical advise at the Mayo Clinic and/or surgery performed at Mayo Clinic.
My third opinion was from the office of The Cantor Spine Institute in Florida.
Emailed them my MRI, advise was a candidate for surgery, but my health insurance was not acceptable to them. Inquired about out of pocket payment, was told surgery would be in the $100's of thousands.
As you can probably tell, I am loosing faith with our medical insurance providers.
I tell myself be patient with the process. But do feel there are medical solutions, and I'm not getting proactive advise required ?
As always appreciate your input.
Oly T

@otavares Hi Oly,
In answer to your questions, I had cervical stenosis in the central canal and spinal cord compression at C5/C6 because of a collapsed disc with bone spurs.

I did have dizziness and vertigo that was being caused when muscle spasms related to the spine condition were independently rotating my C1 & C2 vertebrae. The vertebral arteries run inside the cervical vertebrae, so twisting the vertebrae stretches them and I looked upward which then kinked it and that started vertigo immediately and I even fell backward because of it. Working with my physical therapist to address the muscular issues and get the spine realigned resolved the problem. It would happen intermittently, but having spine surgery calmed it all down, and I don't get vertigo or dizziness now.

Yes, I did seek care and have spine surgery at Mayo Clinic after 5 local spine surgeons missed the correct diagnosis. They all could read the imaging, but they didn't know how to relate my symptoms to it.

You do have to have insurance that is accepted no matter where you go because it is really expensive. To get an appointment at Mayo, you need to have insurance they accept which you can look up at this web page, and call them to confirm if you have questions.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/billing-insurance
My spine surgery was at Mayo in Rochester, MN. There is also a Mayo Clinic location in Jacksonville, FL. You may also want to call your health insurance and inquire which major medical centers would be covered in network for spine surgery. If Mayo is in your network, you may use this link to seek an appointment. http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63

I hope that helps.

Jennifer