@njbay
Where are you located? Do you have any health insurance? Do you qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or disability to help you pay for care?

I have spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, cervical myelopathy and neurogenic claudication in cervical and lumbar spine. I was born with a narrow spinal canal which made it start to cause me problems in my 40s. I am now in my mid 50s.

I did spinal injections in lumbar spine but not cervical spine. They helped initially but the last 3 did not so I moved to surgery. I have had decompression/fusion surgery on c5-c6 and l3-l5. Many symptoms improved. I had bone spurs and is bulge in my neck that was pressing on my spinal cord/nerve roots and caused daily headaches, neck/shoulder pain and tightness, arm/hand weakness/numbness, bladder control issues and difficulty walking (felt like walking with cement boots on). Lower back issues caused back/hip/buttock/leg and foot pain/weakness and numbness.

I now need surgery due to a new herniated disc at c6-c7 that is causing radiculopathy to arms/hands and bladder issues again (pressing on spinal cord in central canal). Your disc may or may not have broken off into your spinal canal and causing you symptoms. It is really important to get an updated MRI of your cervical spine to see the status of your vertebrae alignment/joints/stability. Any compression or flattening of your spinal cord is injuring nerve cells and blood vessels. The longer the compression, the more permanent the damage so surgery is usually recommend asap. My surgeon recommended I do my surgery within 6 months to stop the progression of injury. I’m hoping to have my surgery before end of June 2025.

You may want to also see a neurologist for EMG/nerve conduction studies of your upper and lower limbs. This would help make the best decisions for treatment options. Surgery is usually the only option if there is spinal cord compression.