@ergodesign No apology needed. Yes, I saw your post with the other symptoms. You might want to get a COVID test to clear you to travel and I'm sure you are doing your best to stay safe. Mayo would assess all of your symptoms and involve any department they need and do that as a multidisciplinary team, so don't feel like you have to figure this out before you can fly to the US. You might need a travel companion as it sounds like you don't feel well and are not moving well due to your injury. When you get to Mayo, you can use a wheelchair there which makes it a lot easier and it's good to have someone to push. They also can find escorts for you if you are on your own. Mayo is cleaning wheelchairs between patient use. As a prerequisite to any surgery at Mayo, you will be tested for COVID. They can't do surgery if you have an active COVID infection. They will also test for general health or any condition they suspect. I just went through this myself after breaking my ankle. I have had 2 procedures with the 2nd one at Mayo a couple weeks ago and I just got a new cast this week and having to keep my foot above my head to keep it from swelling.

My first surgery at Mayo resolved all of my pain and symptoms of spinal cord compression. I returned to a normal life and pain free. It is a long recovery, about 3 months, and then doing physical therapy. The surgeons are true experts and my surgery was done before much damage happened. I did loose muscle in my arms and shoulders because of the cord compression, about half of the muscle mass. As I got worse, it took 2 years for me to find a surgeon who would help me which is why I came to Mayo after being turned down 5 times by surgeons who didn't connect my symptoms to the problem. It has been 3 and a half years since my spine surgery and I got strength and muscle back, but not all of it. There is probably a deficit of 25% less than I had before I lost it. No surgeon will promise you that surgery will fix pain. I was not promised that, but I knew that my pains were caused by my spine problem because I could change where the pains were if I turned my head, and I had charted the progression of symptoms over several months and how it changed. I had bone spurs and a ruptured disc pressing into the front of my spinal cord in my neck, and that moved across the cord with my head position. The goal of surgery is to decompress what is getting squeezed and to try to regain normal function, and to prevent further damage that would progress if no surgery is done. Prior to spine surgery, I did have numbness and tingling in my legs and an uneven gait that happened when muscle spasms moved the alignment of my cervical spine. My physical therapist was realigning everything and I would walk normally again until the next spasms happened. Since surgery, the spasms calmed down. I can still get one if I do something that provokes it, but it is easily resolved by massaging the muscles with my hands. Your case will be different than mine, and you go into surgery with hope that after you've healed, it will improve your life. Even if it only stops the progression toward disability, that is still a good thing because your life would be harder with a permanent disability. With modern medicine, having the choice to prevent disability is a good thing. Many people don't get that choice. Let me know if you have further questions. I am happy to help.