@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

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.