@timothytulloch Timothy, you kind of have to go with your gut feeling on when you feel surgery is the right step to take. Even surgeons cannot tell you exactly when nerve damage will begin. I hope your surgeon explained your imaging to you and showed you the problem area.

I had spinal cord compression in my neck. I had symptoms going on for about 3 years prior to surgery. My case was confusing to surgeons, so 5 of them passed on helping me. I had been keeping records and drawing body diagrams describing my pain and dating them, so I knew how fast it was progressing. I also saw the area of bone spurs double in 9 months time on separate MRIs.

I was working with a physical therapist at the time, and she would work on the muscle spasms in my neck to get it realigned, and use a device for neuro-stimulation to block pain signals. That helped for about a week. I had good feedback because she was seeing me twice a week for a long time.

I experienced intermittent symptoms for awhile in that I walked normally and my bladder functioned correctly when my neck vertebrae were properly aligned (except for the collapsed level), and when muscle spasms shifted my neck, essentially it made the spinal canal smaller and brought on symptoms related to spinal cord compression, the inability to walk without a limp, and my bladder emptying only halfway, and I had to work to get the rest to empty. I knew this was related to contact with the spinal cord because it improved temporarily every time my therapist worked on me. It did progress to where I had pain all the time and I could alter it a bit by changing body or neck position, but couldn't eliminate it. If I bent my neck forward, I sent a big electric shock down my body because the bone spurs where compressing the spinal cord when I did that. I was also loosing muscle in my arms and the back of my shoulders. I got a lot back after surgery, but not all of it that I had before the spine problems. I consider that to be a bit of nerve damage. Surgeons don't usually pay attention to that level of detail, and the nerves work, it's just that the capacity is a bit lower.

I would have done this surgery sooner if I had the chance. I spent 2 years chasing surgeons who were confused about my symptoms because they didn't understand the pattern of pain that was literally all over my body and how to relate it to the imaging. They have to be so careful to check all the other possible diagnoses that could cause this and they imagined an inflammatory problem instead of a structural one. After the 5th refusal, I found medical case literature like my symptoms because of something I looked up when reading a paper of a Mayo spine surgeon. I contacted him with the literature, and he took my case and operated which gave me back the coordination in my arms. I could have done this surgery a year or 2 earlier and any of the others could have done the same surgery. I am grateful however, that I had the very best of the best in surgeons at Mayo. I also did have a choice that I probably would have not had elsewhere. I asked for no hardware and I agreed to stay in a neck brace for 3 months until it fused. My surgeon did that for me and it was worth it because I don't have to worry about any hardware related complications.

I was also working through a lot of fear, and in facing every surgeon who refused to help, I was also learning to face my fear of them and the surgery itself.

You may want to look at this discussion that is about facing fear of medical procedures.

Just Want to Talk - "How can I defeat my anxiety about medical tests and surgery?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-can-i-defeat-my-anxiety-about-medical-tests-and-surgery/
Jennifer