@jkgraham393
Welcome Julie ,
Although we are not doctors who can tell you what to do, we are patients who can share our experiences.

I certainly understand your fear of such a surgery. I am 64 and had a cervical spine surgery at the end of February 2018, folloed be a lumbar spine surgery 7 months later.

Although they say you'll be better in x amount of time, it takes 1 year - 18 months for it to be REALLY HEALED. However, if you don't take care as you do right after surgery, the pain returns.

I personally don't regret having it done! I am painfree for the first time in over a decade.

I suggest you do research to find a neurosurgeon you feel comfortable. You can do this by Googling doctor reviews. Search neurosurgeons. Look through several sites.

Good luck!
Ronnie (GRANDMAr)

@jkgraham393 Hi Julie. I am a spine surgery patient and had my surgery at Mayo in Rochester. I had 6 surgical opinions before my surgery, and the 5 local surgeons didn't understand my symptoms, and all refused to help. There was a real difference in coming to Mayo in the level of expertise and the team approach to care. I had one level done C5/C6 and I was able to do that without hardware and I stayed in a neck brace until it fused. That may not be an option with multiple levels surgery, and my surgeon only used donor bone as an implant and I healed beautifully. I never experienced compassionate care until I came to Mayo, and it really helped because I was a fearful patient. You have to be able to trust your life and future to the surgeon who operates on you. Get as many opinions as you need to make an informed choice. I found that at Mayo and the surgeon recognized the problem that the other 5 missed. I wish I had come to Mayo first and not wasted 2 years on doctors who would not help.

I need to caution you about chiropractors and bulging discs. The discs are damaged and what happens during an injury is small crack forms in the outer fibrous layer of the disc. Over time this weakens and bulges. The cracks can open and the jelly like substance inside the disc (called the nucleus) can squish out rupturing the disc. As we age, the discs dry out a bit and open the cracks. Once that jelly is out, there is no putting it back, and the uneven pressure on the damaged disc will cause bone spurs to grow as the spine tries to heal itself, and the jelly causes inflammation. That is what happened to me with bone spurs and the disc material compressing my spinal cord in the central canal. At that point, only surgery can decompress the spinal cord and must be done to prevent further damage. The discs are attached to the end plates that are the surfaces of the vertebrae, and they compress and expand with movement. If you allow someone to manipulate your spine with abrupt pressure, you run the risk of disc rupture and the jelly squishing out. If that hits the nerve roots inbetween the vertebrae, it causes constant pain, inflammation, and bone spurs can grow there too. It might be better to work with a physical therapist who rehabs spine patients and preferably one who does myofascial release. This may buy time before surgery is needed. I did that for 2 years, not by choice, but because the 5 other surgeons I saw during that time would not help me, and I wrote to a surgeon at Mayo and asked for an appointment. The spine can also fuse itself if the discs have collapsed which is what the bone spurs are trying to do. It can fuse in an out of alignment position and that isn't a good thing. Compression on nerves and the spinal cord will cause problems that can become permanent.

The itching in your ankles might be caused by your cervical spine. Itching is a low grade pain. My first symptom of spinal cord compression in my neck was ankle pain when I turned my head. Later, I had pain all over from cord compression as the bone spurs grew. I have had a thoracic bulging disc get better as seen on MRI from physical therapy with MFR. You can also have pelvis alignment issues that cause sciatic pain (see last link), or that can be what is called funicular pain that comes in an unexpected place from a problem in the neck. That is what confused the 5 other surgeons who saw me, and they all thought I should only have arm pain. If you haven't had MRIs of your complete spine, you may want to do that to rule out possible problems in other areas. There can be differences between standing, sitting and laying down where one part of the spine slips over another because the disc can't hold it together. Imaging such as Xrays can detect this in different positions.

The anterior spine surgery was not as bad as I expected, and in confronting my fears before my surgery, I reduced my pain a lot. I did not take any pain medication after I left the hospital. I found I could tolerate the pain and I just rested and slept. After 6 weeks there was a lot of improvement, and after 3 months, I was fused, and doing well and started therapy and rehab. Everyone is different, and you should optimize your health before surgery with vitamins, get Vitamin D levels optimized by your doctor, and eat a healthy diet and walk for exercise if you can. The bone keeps filling in for a year or two after a fusion. I traveled to Mayo for my surgery, and it was worth the effort. I got my life back, and my ability to do my artwork that I had lost to my injury. I am so glad that I chose my surgeon and was impressed with his skills and my recovery, so much that I painted his portrait. Here is our discussion about MFR with lots of information and my Mayo patient story. There is some more about the portrait in the Art for Healing discussion on the first page (scroll down).
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2019/01/09/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/art-for-healing/
https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/identify-treat-lumbar-plexus-compression-syndrome-lpcs/