Connect
← Return to Concerned about Cervical Myelopathy
Discussion
Concerned about Cervical Myelopathy
Spine Health | Last Active: May 19 6:56am | Replies (16)Comment receiving replies
You remind me of my situation.
I fell hard last year. Went to a neurosurgeon and neurologist who took several X-rays and a total spine MRI. 8 hours in an MRI.
After everything was done I went to my follow up and my compression fractured L1 was confirmed with several damaged vertebrae in the lumbar spine area. Also some damaged T vertebrae and c 4 c 5 c 6 damage.
Some spondylosis and much nerve damage. The symptoms were mild then but a year later I am a wreck. Pins and needles under my feet, weak legs arm and shoulder pain and spasms of my right upper arm muscles.
Most of my muscles are in pain and difficult to move. Neurogenic bowel and constipation for months having to take senna at bedtime and MiraLAX in the morning to get my bowels to move. And even then a movement is not guaranteed.
I can’t turn my head to the right without intense pain. I can’t reach out to grab something with my right arm. The upper arm muscles won’t let me unless I put up with the pain.
My spine institute I went to was dismissive and offered that I take Tylenol. That was it.
Replies to "You remind me of my situation. I fell hard last year. Went to a neurosurgeon and..."
Connect
@andytheman
I’m sorry to hear all of that. I just don’t understand because I flip through my own MRI axial scans in my cervical, and I have 50% of my CSF at the anterior effaced, and my cord is quite literally bean shaped with a .4 compression ratio.
Every single surgeon I’ve seen tells me I don’t have myelopathy, because there’s no lesion or signal- which is not relevant to early cord compression, despite all evidence leading to the contrary.
Just like you, I take softeners and Flomax because if not, I’ll be backed up for a week- despite having no issues going every single day before my injury.
The last part is, being told “there’s no surgical target, but if a neurologist signs off that you may have cord compression, I’d consider surgery then” is incredibly frustrating considering my quality of life has deteriorated to the point where I’m getting desperate for an answer. I don’t believe I have done rare genetic mutation, as this was all onset by a single injury.