Cervical stenosis: Leg weakness

Hi. Called Mayo in Florida (where I live) and unfortunately they don't take my medical insurance. Had 3 injections on my neck, feeling a little better (about 10%). Hope to improve a little more with each passing day.

@candrgonzalez Glad your feeling better I'm going in for back injections on the 9th and talk with the Dr. see if there is anything he can do for my fracture. I'm sure each day will be better

I had decompression and fusion surgery. five years ago at age 75. The unexpected result was that it relieved my leg tingling, problems walking, and balance issues. Unfortunately the surgery caused injury to a nerve, and now I have pain and tingling in my left hand and arm.

Hi Jen. As of today my balance problem and pain is better. Maybe the neck injections helped? But now I have an issue with loosing muscle. I started to lose weight and went to see my PCP and Pain Management (lost 7 pounds- I'm very slim so 7 pounds is very noticeable for me) and the Doctors tell me is from loosing muscle because of my back issues (pinched nerve on neck and low back). Have you had muscle problems? I am very concerned about this.

@candrgonzalez I did loose at least half of my muscle mass in my shoulders and upper arms, mostly on the back where I didn't notice it happening because of atrophy from spinal cord compression at C5C6. Along with that there was weakness, exhaustion and pain when I had to raise my arms. Pushing a shopping cart or driving a car were very difficult. Now, as I approach the 3 year anniversary of my decompression surgery, a lot of muscle has come back from physical therapy, but not all of it. There is still a deficit of about 25 % missing. Perhaps that will continue to improve. Time will tell. If I had had surgery sooner, I probably would have more muscle now, and I would have done it sooner, but I could not find a surgeon willing to help me for 2 years. My case had an unusual presentation of symptoms that was misunderstood by 5 surgeons. That's why I came to Mayo. Epidural injections help by reducing inflammation which relieves some pressure and they may help for awhile, but the effects are temporary and it won't fix the problem. If the spine issues progress further, at some point, injections may not help any more. The injected steroid also interferes with getting a good MRI image. I had to wait 6 weeks after an injection to get a new MRI and it showed progression of bone spurs.

Thank you for the information. I have an appointment Monday with Pain Management and I'm going to ask for Surgery Consultation Referral (Mayo does not accept my Insurance).

@candrgonzalez You're welcome. It may be worth checking at all 3 Mayo campuses because the insurance that is accepted might be different between them. If not, you can try looking for a surgeon at a university with a medical school. I'm glad you are feeling better.

I am 7 months since cervical surgery & doing great until an incident of severe leg weakness occurs for a few days. May recur over a time period. Occasions are debilitating. Any idea what is going on here?

@lynnhick Hello, Lynn, I would like to welcome you to Connect. I am also a cervical spine surgery patient. I had spinal cord compression because of a collapsed disc and bone spurs at C5/C6. I was working with a physical therapist prior to spine surgery, and I had muscle spasms that were pulling my neck out of alignment and straightening the normal curve. Sometimes the spasms were twisting my vertebrae. Spinal cord compression can cause leg weakness and an uneven gait, and I had that intermittently. When my PT worked on my neck and realigned it, I could walk normally again, but when it had spasms, there was nothing I could do to stop the limp. I didn't have visible damage to the cord on MRI. I also had a slight bit of retrolisthesis which is a backward slipping of one vertebrae over another. Effectively, the spasms made the spinal canal smaller causing more compression and the uneven gait.

Have you contacted your surgeon with your question? It is possible that something from your surgery has become displaced or can move around and put pressure on something else such as the spinal cord. Hardware, implants or screws can migrate or be displaced. If that has happened, it is something you need to know about.

Leg weakness can also be something unrelated to your neck. There are conditions like lumbar plexus compression syndrome that are a problem with pelvic alignment that mimic a lumbar spine problem and can cause sciatic pain and weakness. Here is a very detailed article written for physical therapists that explains the issues. https://mskneurology.com/identify-treat-lumbar-plexus-compression-syndrome-lpcs/

If everything is OK on your imaging, your surgeon may clear you for physical therapy. I did a lot of physical therapy after my spine procedure and my therapist also did myofascial release which helps to break up some of the painful scar tissue. You can't do that too soon after surgery because if has to heal first, but later, MFR can help relieve the tightness and help get things moving again. There is a lot of information in this discussion on MFR:

Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Have you had any imaging of your lumbar spine? At the time I was going through this before surgery and visiting different spine surgeons (not at Mayo), and some thought that the leg weakness was not related to the neck and suggested it was a different problem in the lumbar spine. I actually had more issues that that because I was getting pain all over my body from cervical spinal cord compression. All of that was resolved by my cervical surgery. I didn't have lumbar spine issues causing pain or weakness; it was all related to my neck.

Will you contact your surgeon with your concerns? If you are able to share what you learn, I would be interested in hearing an update.

Jennifer

Hello @lynnhick. I'd like to add my welcome along with @jenniferhunter to Connect! I am sure this new leg weakness has you concerned for a myriad of reasons. I am glad you joined to chat with others.

There was actually already another discussion on this same topic in the community so you will notice that I have moved your post. You can find it here now: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cervical-stenosis-and-leg-weaknesd/

That said, in addition to Jennifer joining you already, I'd like to also bring in members @candrgonzalez and @bernese53 who may be able to share more with you from their experience.

I think Jennifer brings up a good question with regard to if you've reached out to your surgeon to let him/her know what has been going on with your leg? I will let you respond to her thoughtful post.