@kensie123

I have cervical spondylotic myelopathy/degenerative cervical myelopathy, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, radiculopathy at the c5-c6 level and now have a new herniated disc at c6-c7. I had ACDF surgery in 2022 to decompress my flattened spinal cord because it was causing daily headaches, neck/shoulder pain, numbness and weakness in arms/hands/fingers, bladder incontinence and difficulty walking (felt like I had heavy boots on). I am a 55 year old female and was 52 at the time of that surgery. I found a good rated orthopedic spine specialist/surgeon who immediately diagnosed my myelopathy (spinal cord injury) and recommended urgent surgery to stop the progression of my spinal cord injury. I was not diagnosed properly by 2 other surgeons or my neurologist even though my MRI showed spinal cord flattening and reported symptoms.

My experience with neurologists is they like to test, test and test but not really good at proper diagnosis/treatment. They will do EMG nerve conduction studies but they can miss issues with spinal column/refer you properly. Some diagnosed me with small fiber neuropathy but forgot they diagnosed me with it years later. Some will show radiculopathy on EMGs and others will show “normal” results. Some will show carpal tunnel but not make the connection of issues with your cervical spine.

You may want a 2nd opinion to make sure you feel comfortable with the credentials and ratings of your surgeon. They may suggest foraminotomy to make room for your spinal nerve root that is compressed. They may or may not need to use hardware. Both my cervical and lumbar spine decompression surgeries required fusion so I have hardware in both neck and lower back. I was born with a narrow spinal canal (congenital spinal stenosis) and my degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis made my symptoms come on sooner than others without congenital spinal stenosis. I had my only child at the age of 40 and he was almost 11 pounds and 21 inches long so that may have started my issues in my lumbar spine and working at a desk job for 30+ years did not help my neck/back at all.

The cervical spine surgery wasn’t as bad as my lumbar spine surgery in terms of pain levels. I understand your concern about the risk of surgery but also the difficulty of living with both hands numb. My surgery has helped improved some symptoms but I still have residual symptoms from my injured spinal cord. The longer you have compression, the more risk for permanent injury to nerves/spinal cord (depending on what your MRI shows and what levels). My stenosis showed moderate to severe at c5-c6 and l4-l5 levels (my lumbar surgery was done at 2 levels l3-l5 but cervical was only one level c5-c6). Whenever you have decompression and fusion surgery, there is risk for compression above and below the levels fused.

Make sure to do your homework on your mri results and research doctors/surgeons/hospitals before committing and make sure you prepare in advance for surgery (self/home/pets, etc.) for the duration of recovery post surgery.