Connect
← Return to Toe twitching/fasciculations?!
Discussion
Toe twitching/fasciculations?!
Brain & Nervous System | Last Active: Jan 30 8:08pm | Replies (44)Comment receiving replies
I have a herniated disc that is all I know. I have been having pain for years but recently as March started having more neurological problems. Last night the pain in my arms was so bad I woke up and started crying. I saw the images and where the spinal canal looks different from the main nerve being compressed. I’m still in the finding out process and I typically am an advocate and do a lot of research anyways.
I have thought about the possibility of further problems down the road if I only did laser and no actual correction so I still have questions I will be finding out. Although, in Florida there is a place called Duke Spine and supposedly there is more involved in a corrective nature and this has all been a little overwhelming because I have several things on the burner and trying to get everything done so I can get help has proved hard.
Found there is a bulging disc at T6&7 as well but that one is not herniated. This pain radiates in some many ways that I don’t know what’s what anymore.
The neurosurgeon seems to think some of my symptoms are not related to the herniated disc, despite the fact that I am finding evidence that all my symptoms can and are in fact possibilities if not surety with certain herniated discs.
I’m new to finding all I can out so I’m still in the early process but now that I know what is wrong I want to correct before there is anymore possible irreversible damage.
I’m sure you can understand that with what you have been through. (:
Replies to "I have a herniated disc that is all I know. I have been having pain for..."
Connect
@victoriah Since you are in Florida, have you considered the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville? I did not find expertise that compared to what I got from Mayo (Rochester) anywhere else, and I saw 5 spine surgeons before I came to Mayo and they all got it wrong.
Just having a bulging disc does not mean it needs surgery. A disk can bulge for years and be asymptomatic. Operating on anything in the T level is tricky because the lungs are in the way, and many surgeons won't touch that. Sometimes a bulging disc can improve on it's own and I had a T level disc that improved. I had a lot of physical therapy and a PT who does myofascial release and gets everything aligned properly and moving better.
When you described the "main nerve" being compressed on your MRI, are you talking about the spinal cord? I looked up Deuk Spine in Florida and it is a laser surgery place. I try to be polite, but I can tell you that I have watched many videos of surgeons presenting cases at conferences and they were making jokes about a new guy starting a career at one of those places. These are top level ortho and neuro surgeons for spine care. If you are describing a compressed spinal cord, you will need a surgeon who can access that, and you have to either go through a bad disc by removing it or go through bone to get into the spinal canal. Sometimes they can access a very tiny space through the foramen and around a spinal nerve depending on the surgeon, but that approach is very limited. Surgeons have to be very careful to figure out where pain is coming from because it can be caused elsewhere in the body, and then doing spine surgery is an expensive lesson if it didn't fix the problem. There are issues of nerve compression in the body like thoracic outlet syndrome (which I have), and this can confuse a diagnosis by causing overlapping symptoms. There is always a bit of a compromise in doing spine surgery. When levels are fused, spinal motion is lost, and sometimes that doesn't matter much. I am fused at C5/C6 and my head turning is the same as before surgery because C5/C6 doesn't do much of it. That is mostly the job of C1 & C2, with some help from C3 & C4. Artificial discs allow some movement, but it may not be natural. All surgery carries risks, and there is a benefit to risk ratio to be considered.
If you have bony growth in the foramen or a disc herniation there it causes very specific nerves to be painful, and that can be your arm pain if this is the right level. That pain can also be generated from spinal cord compression which is not very specific; it all depends on just what is getting squished in that big bundle.
If you do decide to seek an opinion at any Mayo campus, you may contact them with this link. http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63
Do you have a list of questions that you would ask a spine surgeon at an appointment?