@dablues I also had the symptoms of problems walking and an uneven gait and dizziness. For me, that was caused by the compression of my spinal cord in my neck because of a ruptured disc and bone spurs that were pressing into the spinal cord. That got progressively worse as time went on. I could bend my neck and cause pain somewhere in my body, and later when I bent my neck, it caused an electric shock to go from my head and down my entire body. Those are symptoms of spinal cord compression.

My recommendation is to get your test results and get an explanation of what they say about your case so you understand. When you understand the real problem, it helps you to find an answer and make decisions. Not knowing what is wrong when you are getting worse is probably increasing anxiety. I had a lot of anxiety to deal with myself because of fears from the past that triggered a fear of having surgery. I did work through all that emotional stuff and getting through surgery was not as bad as I had imagined. I am an artist and I had to decide if I wanted to save my talent and ability, and doing that required me to face my biggest fears. That changed my life profoundly, and I had a great recovery and result from my surgery. I had to advocate for myself even though I was afraid and 5 surgeons misunderstood my symptoms and would not help, but the 6th (at Mayo) was the best of all of them, and he gave me my life back.

It might help to write down your symptoms and when they happen and date them so you can document a progression of changes. I drew diagrams of mine. Have you considered going to a different hospital or emergency room? Every opinion I sought was in a different facility because once you are assigned to a doctor, it would be hard to get a second opinion in the same facility because the doctors respect each other's opinions there. If you have copies of your records and reports of tests and imaging collected together, it is easy to take that with you when you seek another opinion.

I know it is easy to get overwhelmed with all of this, and counseling sure does help and will help you see it objectively. I don't know if your insurance requires you to see only doctors on their lists, but for me it was important that I selected my doctors myself. Find a surgeon who's areas of interests matches what you need. I studied their published literature and I understood a lot about specific procedures for spine surgery because I researched it myself, and that was how I found the surgeon at Mayo who helped me. It was because I looked up a term in a paper he co-authored, that I found links to other studies that described cases similar to mine. I found what all 5 other surgeons missed right after the 5th one decided not to offer surgery. I tried to get help addressing this with him from other doctors there and none would help me even though I had been a patient of one of them for 10 years. I needed an opinion somewhere else, and I came to Mayo, and I knew the surgeon there would understand my case because of his literature. I sent a copy of the literature with a case like mine with my request to be seen at Mayo. It took 2 years to get through all the visits and 5 surgeons who didn't want me as a patient, and I wish I had come to Mayo sooner. I was trusting that everything would work out, but it didn't.

Here's my story. https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2019/01/09/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/

I'd be happy to help in your journey any way that I can and answer questions. I was fortunate that my biology background helps me understand medical literature. I can't diagnose, but I may be able to help you understand what your reports are saying. You can take control of your health decisions and your doctors are working for you. You can fire them and move on if they are not meeting your needs.