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Am I destined for surgery? Anyone manage this without?

Spine Health | Last Active: 19 hours ago | Replies (13)

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Profile picture for Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor @jenniferhunter

@annie1 I had pain from spinal cord compression that came up all over my body and the location changed when I changed my body or neck position because my spinal cord was shifting within the spinal canal. I had muscles jumping in my thigh or calves, some tingling or sharp stabbing type pains, and some numbness that came up in my legs and feet. There is a condition called "funicular pain" or tract pain that happens when a tract in the spinal cord is irritated. This causes pain that comes up that seems random. In contrast, radicular pain is caused by compression of spinal nerves at the nerve roots between the vertebrae. That is very predictable because it affects a specific nerve. With the spinal cord being a big bundle of everything, it's kind of pot luck what part gets irritated. Here is medical literature that explains it, and this is what I found that explained my diagnosis that several surgeons missed.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3111492/
My surgeon at Mayo is Jeremy Fogelson, and he is familiar with funicular pain.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/fogelson-jeremy-l-m-d/bio-20055624

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Replies to "@annie1 I had pain from spinal cord compression that came up all over my body and..."

@jenniferhunter
Thank you jennifer. My pain is very consistent though in that it's always in my calf muscles and sometimes upper hamstrings. And I don't know if fusion will help that. I'm going to look up your surgeon at Mayo. Did you have fusion though for that compression? Is that the standard way they deal with spinal cord compression?