@melissa711 I know how I felt when I wondered, but when I saw the images of bone spurs pressing on my spinal cord, I knew there was only one way to fix that and it would be spine surgery. I still held out hope until a spine surgeon told me I had significant spinal cord compression and it hit me like a ton of bricks. He was very pushy and it scared me into having panic attacks. He also missed the proper diagnosis because he told me to fix the problem causing pain in my legs first, then come back for his surgery, and directed me to a rehab center. His mistake was not knowing that the spinal cord compression in my neck was causing my leg pain. I went to the rehab center for the appointment they scheduled, but they hadn’t heard of me. I never went back and found other surgeons. All of them made the same mistake until I found medical cases like mine online and found a surgeon at Mayo who understood this.

I found myself caught between my fear and having to advocate for myself in front of surgeons who missed the correct answer time and time again. My 6th consultation and the only correct answer was at Mayo. I had a fusion of C5/C6 done without hardware there and it was not as bad as I had imagined it to be. The surgeons who wouldn’t help me actually in a way did help because I feared them and was facing that with every appointment as I learned to overcome it. This surgery and overcoming the fear changed my life for the better in so many ways.

I know I’m not directly answering your question, but remember it is your choice to go forward with spine surgery. It isn’t the same for everyone and you have to balance the compromises of surgery against what function would be lost without it. There are significant findings on your report that would likely get an offer of surgical intervention from a specialist. You know what you are living with now. Nerves have limits on how much compression can be tolerated before they die and dissolve. The spinal cord can be permanently damaged and the function lost for wherever those nerves were headed. Pain isn’t always an indicator of a problem. Some patients are surprised to learn of spine problems because they didn’t have pain.

For whatever you feel as you go through all of this, we’ll be here to share your journey.