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@dstone501957 Has your spine surgeon given an opinion? Personally, I think I would trust a spine surgeon more than a pain management doctor, but I have no experience with burning nerves. There have been members here on Connect that regretted doing that and were in more pain and dysfunction as a result of some laser surgery to burn nerves. It may confuse the diagnosis with a spine surgeon if you are having symptoms caused by an ablation procedure.
I understand that you are worried and want resolution, but please don't rush into a procedure if you don't fully understand the possible benefit vs the risks. Take your time to get enough medical opinions to make an informed decision. Did that doctor justify the reason they think ablation will help, and what are the statistics of the patients it helps vs the patients that don't improve? If you have already worked through those decisions and want to go forward, that is your choice.
You have a significant report on your MRI with a lot of structural issues and you were right to advocate to get that done. If your spine surgeon is not on board with helping you, it would benefit you to get more spine surgical opinions. The short explanation is you have a ruptured disc that has grown bone spurs like a shelf and is flattening your spinal cord at C5-C6 along with arthritis causing compression of the nerve roots where spinal nerves exit the spinal cord. You should get offers for surgery on that because it is advanced. That being said, if you have surgery for C5-C6, there may be lingering pain due to current existing nerve damage. Sometimes surgeons can't tell you exactly what the outcome will be, and won't promise pain reduction, but they focus on correcting a structural problem so it doesn't get worse. You also need to know how the issue at C5-C6 will progress over time if you have no surgery, so please ask that question. The spine can start to fuse itself when a disc collapses and the vertebrae get closer together and that isn't a good thing. C5-C6 may need priority, and it would be worth getting a review from the spine surgeon on the MRI. I think the difficulty sitting and standing and laying down may be because of significant spinal cord compression, but you need a specialist to make that connection. Those are symptoms that happen with cord compression, and I had a limp when walking because of cord compression. It can also cause bladder or bowel issues like incontinence or severe constipation, and difficulty walking. It would be to your benefit to join conversations where these issues have already been discussed among active members as opposed to starting a new discussion and hoping members will find you. Here are some discussions in the Spine Health Group you may want to check out.
Cervical Stenosis
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cervical-stenosis/
Cervical Stenosis & Leg Weakness
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cervical-stenosis-and-leg-weaknesd/
Mayo Podcast
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/podcasts/newsfeed-post/spinal-stenosis-1/
Replies to "@dstone501957 Has your spine surgeon given an opinion? Personally, I think I would trust a spine..."
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Jennifer,
You raise a good point on bladder issues, I could consume quite a bit of water or liquids while up on my feet being active and never have to urinate. However, if I lay down for an hour during the afternoon, I will have to get up 3 to 4 times to go even though I did not even consume any water or liquids. I have never brought this symptom up yet, is this the expected bladder impact? One other unusual symptom is periodic sharp pain in my left eye, the eye Dr I see for annual exams could not find anything wrong, just prescribed some anti-inflammation drops. I had been wondering if it was nerve related too.
Unrelated I see an oncologist for MGUS, during my recent follow-up with him on October 4th, I asked his opinion about Cervical radio frequency ablation (RFA), although not his area of expertise he said from what he has heard and seen expect to see 60% to 65% success. I was even more concerned about RFA after I contacted the Orthopedic nurse for a follow up from my August 2023 visit. At that time, the orthopedic surgeon felt that I would benefit from pain injections at C5-6. When I mentioned the RFA procedure to the Orthopedic nurse last week, she highly recommended that I do not proceed with it. The nurse said they would review an MRI prior to scheduling my follow-up, but since it had been over a year since my last visit, I would need my PCP to order the MRIs. Can you even believe my PCP said no twice? I got the Pain management Dr doing the scheduled RFA to order them. I am heavily leaning towards postponing the RFA pending the Orthopedic Surgeon recommendation for the C5-6. I had been expecting to see the more severe impact at the C1-4. This is all beginning to make more sense now too, what has been dismissed in the past as peripheral neuropathy in hands and fingers is more likely from the C5-6 issues. One of the neurologists I had seen was leaning towards early stage Parkinsons due to what she felt was a noted weakness in my arms and a mild tremor in my hands and Small Fiber Neuropathy causing the dull burning ear pain. She was totally wrong. I am glad that I insisted on an updated MRI. Thank you for your input.