@dgcosentino831
Doug,
I had another thought of what may help you right now while you are waiting for an exam. I was working with a physical therapist when my spine problem started becoming evident, and I continued this therapy and also did myofascial release. She was trained in the John Barnes methods, and did a lot of this on my neck because of thoracic outlet syndrome. She was also using a Dolphin Neurostim unit on the cervical nerve roots. There is a setting that interrupts the neuro transmitter pain signals, and I found that it reduced my pain for about a week at a time. That was during the time when I was having trouble finding a surgeon to help me, and my symptoms were getting worse.

Myofascial release helped a lot to loosen my neck, so it was easier for the surgeon to retract during surgery. During my consult, his comment about my neck skin was "loosey goosey" when I asked what I could do to make his job easier. This set me up for a successful surgical procedure, and after surgery and healing, MFR helped loosen the scar tissue which reduces pain. If you need to find a PT trained in these methods, there is a search at http://mfrtherapists.com/

Here is our MFR discussion: (the first pages have lots of links to information)

Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

Dolphin Neuro Stim https://www.dolphinmps.com/

This helped me buy some time before I could have decompression surgery. It doesn't fix anything, but may help you feel better at least temporarily.

Jennifer