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Cervical disks and heaviness and numbness in legs
Spine Health | Last Active: Oct 18 4:08pm | Replies (22)Comment receiving replies
Jennifer, your comments and the fact that your MRI was similar to mine are very encouraging to me. I didn't want to go into all my details before, but I did actually go back to one of the surgeons I saw before and I took the letter from Dr. Fogelson to show him. Based on that, he said he's willing to do the surgery. It turns out that my doctor knows Dr. Fogelson, as they did residency together at the Mayo, so I think that influenced his decision. I do have the surgery scheduled now but I was feeling very nervous about it. This eases my mind, as it seems further proof that myelopathy is difficult to diagnose and affects everyone differently. Thank you so much.
Replies to "Jennifer, your comments and the fact that your MRI was similar to mine are very encouraging..."
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@nancydancer I bet you feel validated now. I felt like that after Dr. Fogelson said he would help me after 5 local surgeons turned me down. I'm glad your surgeon trained at Mayo. That seems to be a good choice if you didn't want to travel for surgery. I'm surprised your surgeon didn't offer surgery without that letter. I was told my MRI wasn't that bad by local surgeons. Your imaging was more involved than mine. My disc had collapsed about 50% and I had a disk osteophyte complex that pressed 5mm into the spinal canal at one level.
Myelopathy can be different for everyone. Since the spinal cord is a big bundle of all the nerve pathways into the body and it floats and moves within the spinal canal, you don't really know which nerve pathways are going to get touched. It is best to get it decompressed before permanent damage occurs. That shows up in the spinal cord as a whitish marbled area, and that can look different for different people. When that shows up, it is because those nerves have died and dissolved and are missing.
I'm glad you have a plan. The recovery will be long and you'll need patience. You may want to get things organized at home and have all your clothes clean so you don't need to do laundry for a long time. I put elastic laces in my shoes so I didn't need to bend down to tie them. After surgery and healing, you life will be different. You won't likely have the same range of motion. That would be a question to ask. Typically C1 & C2 do most of the head turning ability. C3 and C4 do help a little. With my fused C5/C6 level, my range of motion is the same as before my spine surgery. My husband set up a TV that I could see from the bed. I mostly just rested and slept in-between watching TV. When you body is healing from major surgery, all your energy goes to that, so you'll be very tired.
How soon is your surgery?