@mincer The nerve impulses for every body function that is controlled by the brain travels through the spinal cord in the neck and the cord is a bundle of nerve cells that have long axons like "wires" that float as a big bundle freely in spinal fluid. It just depends on what part gets compressed as to what symptoms you will have. Uncompressing the spinal cord would improve both arm and leg symptoms if the nerves and spinal cord are still functioning and presuming that the symptoms are caused by spinal cord compression. I know that I got used to the weakness and compensated with my efforts. It felt very freeing to have things work better again. It does take a bit to rebuild muscles that were lost because they didn't receive proper nerve signals. The muscle fatigue I was always feeling was gone when I woke up from surgery and my pain then was from the surgery itself. It is possible to have other sites of nerve compression that are not related to the spine in other body parts which spine surgery won't fix. It is the surgeon's job to accurately determine the source of the symptoms before they do surgery.

I knew that my spinal cord compression was getting worse because I saw the amount of bone spurs pressing into my spinal cord double in 9 months time between 2 different MRIs. I was at risk of paralysis if there would be another injury because the bone spurs were like a hard knife in front against my spine and a whiplash would push it farther into the cord. I knew if I did nothing, my future would be in a wheelchair. That also puts a burden on family members and caregivers and I didn't want to give up an active life. Even if you can walk, having a weak uneven gait creates a bigger risk for falling and further injuries which would lead to a wheelchair for safety. Having surgery is scary, and I had to overcome that, and I am so glad I did. It empowered me to choose my future, and I defeated my biggest fears and all of this experience along with a great surgical outcome completely changed my life for the better. A year ago, I broke my ankle badly and had emergency surgery, and I wasn't scared and was completely calm. That is proof of how much I changed and became stronger as a person because I faced my fears and defeated them going through spine surgery.