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@justclintdavis Hello and welcome to Connect. You are correct that sciatica can be caused by spinal cord compression in the neck. I am a cervical fusion patient and prior to surgery, I had pain all over my body that was being caused by spinal cord compression. Part of that was sciatica, and my pain would change locations when I changed neck positions. Having surgery that decompressed my spinal cord fixed all of that. I found literature that sometimes sciatica is the symptom that leads to the discovery of spinal cord compression. I will share some literature here and you may want to discuss this with your surgeon in case you want to change course and address the issues in the cervical spine. Many surgeons miss this and all the surgeons I saw before coming to Mayo also missed it. All of these articles describe phenomenon called "funicular pain" and there is no diagnostic test for it except that decompression surgery fixes it which proves the diagnosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/
https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-020-03299-x
https://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/1999/06150/Sciatica_Caused_by_Cervical_and_Thoracic_Spinal.17.aspx
I have not had a spinal cord simulator and don't need one because my c5/c6 fusion took care of all the symptoms. If your surgeon does not want to consider this as a possible diagnosis, you will need to get another opinion and put this literature on the table at the start. I found myself in that position of having been dismissed by a surgeon, and then finding this, and no doctors who knew me would help me address it with the surgeon who missed it. I suggest asking it as a question by asking if your case is like these cases in literature that you found. Let the doctor take the information and get back to you after having time to look at it and think about it. You don't want to put him on the spot and embarrass him if he has not heard of this. They must find a relationship between the imaging and your symptoms to justify surgery and the spinal simulator is because you have pain with an unknown source. I had my surgery at Mayo and the surgeon was familiar with this type of symptom.
Good luck in your quest!
Jennifer
Replies to "@justclintdavis Hello and welcome to Connect. You are correct that sciatica can be caused by spinal..."
THANK YOU very much, Jennifer. I have read the EXACT article from the Medical Journal link you have sent me. I have almost the Identical image in my cervical spine. The doctors will not do anything though, because I do NOT have the typical symptoms that come with the neck issue (loss of strength or mobility) It hurts in my shoulder and down my neck as well as my buttocks, Leg and foot. I do NOT understand why they can not just correct this!! It does show compression, but not severe enough in their opinion for surgery.
I want to come to the MAYO, but my insurance will not cover the cost. I wish I had a way to cover it, and i would take the time off to come. It is a sad circumstance, when I know this is what is causing the issue, but no one will take the "risk " to help me.
I appreciate your support and kind heart in sending me your links.
Clint
@jenniferhunter or anyone else that has a comment. I just discovered I have this pain. I do have a magnesium deficiency but have been on it for sometime now twice. Last time I went to the doctor, they always ask if there is any pain. Normally I say no and most of the aches and pains are age related. This time I said that I have a pain in my ass and it’s not you. Nothing more was said about it probably because of how I said it. At that point it was just a pain in the ass and it was manageable. Lately the pain goes down the leg and the foot is numb. It comes on so fast and I can not walk. I actually started crying today due to the pain. I have been exercising to no avail. I see a Doc tomorrow. Any suggestions on what to do? Does a cane help? I cannot get on my knees anymore. Is this the golden years? Hurt the person who came up with that saying
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Thanks for the info. Could you please describe what decompression surgery entails?