sdemaria, sinjin, arcticmark, mary505, and others who are at the point of considering neck surgery to relieve pain in arms and hands. My advice is to not wait if the MRI and other tests indicate severe pressure on the nerves. The pain in my arms had increased so that I could not sleep and often just sat on the edge of the bed and sobbed. I believed at the time that surgery wasn't a magic fix and had made a vow to not go that route ever again. However, I did go visit my orthopedic surgeon who had done the delta reverse on my shoulder, because I trust him. He took me to his cervical surgeon and the two of them consulted. They felt that my situation was at the crisis stage. To wait would mean that the nerves would be damaged to the extent that they would probably never recover. They were absolutely right and I am glad I consented to immediate surgery. Some of the damaged nerves have slowly recovered and stopped creating so much pain. Others, however, were already so damaged that they would not be able to heal within my lifetime but could get a little bit better. Nerves are not like bones....they take a long time to recover. The bottom line is that after the 3 months of recuperation in one of those neck braces, my pain relief was about 75% and I no longer sat on the edge of the bed at night planning my demise. I struggle with the neuropathy but if I had waited any longer it would have been so much worse. (And I only threw that darn neck brace across the room once.)