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@hmcski Thank you. Have you had a full work up for your symptoms? Thoracic outlet syndrome is often missed and may be more common in spine injury patients because it may be caused by a whiplash.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/thoracic-outlet-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20353988
It can cause arm pain symptoms, and so can radiculopathy and that should be evident on MR imaging. That of course may confuse a diagnosis. When I went to Mayo, they did confirm that I had TOS in a vascular lab with blood pressure cuffs on my fingers and moving my arm into different positions measuring when it was cutting off blood flow due to the compression from TOS. I clearly did have a collapsed disc with spinal cord compression, and they determined that the spine was the bigger problem. I have continued working with physical therapy for TOS and it has been 8 years since my spine surgery.
Wishing you the best.
Jennifer
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My spine is a problem but inflammation is a bigger problem. Two years ago a synovial cyst formed and urgent surgery was being planned. With prednisone and after restarting my biologic the synovial cyst was reabsorbed. I was opposed to a fusion so the surgeon told me to call when I was ready. The pain isn’t very bad so I haven’t called. Should I be rechecked at intervals or should I wait until I’m ready for surgery?
Pain was going to be the deciding factor. However the surgeon that wanted me to do the surgery said it wasn’t about the pain anymore.