@pinktummy
I am a 55 year old female who has congenital cervical/neck and lumbar/low back spinal stenosis. I also have degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis in my spine.

Like you, I had spinal cord flattening but at C5-C6. My symptoms were constant neck/shoulder pain, daily headaches, weak arms/hands that caused me to drop things and made my handwriting terrible. My bladder control was significantly affected where I of a sudden had daily wet underwear where this never happened before (as a female, they will first blame age, having a baby or peri/menopause and prescribe oxybutinin as a bandaid), and difficulty walking (felt like I had cement boots on).

What I didn’t know then but I know now is flattening means spinal cord compression injury. This can permanently damage your spinal cord but also affect blood supply up and down. This is an urgent need to consider surgery depending on how bad your symptoms are.

I had ACDF surgery on my C5-C6 in January 2022 and all of my symptoms improved except for some residual arm/hand weakness due to permanent damage to my spinal cord. If you haven’t already seen a good orthopedic spine specialist to review the MRI and all of your symptoms during an office exam, I recommend you do so ASAP. I found my surgeon by researching online for patient reviews. My surgeon was highly rated plus the hospital he does surgery at. He has anazing bedside manner for a surgeon where he is respectful, makes eye contact, is a good communicator, and takes the time to answer your questions. He just did my lumbar spine decompression and fusion (L3-L5) on 8/2/2024 because I trusted him with my ACDF surgery. FYI…the lumbar surgery was more painful than the cervical spine surgery.

Good luck getting answers and treatment much sooner than I did. It shouldn’t have taken my doctors to properly diagnose me 5 years. I am so glad I had some divine intervention nudging me not to give up and go to a new orthopedic doctor about my symptoms. I was getting the runaround and I was so tired of wasting time and money getting nowhere. My 3rd doctor/surgeon finally listened to my symptoms and looked at my images and put the puzzle pieces together when no one else did. Don’t give up!