C6 nerve compression and double vision

Posted by traceycat @traceycat, Jan 28, 2024

Hi everyone
I’ve been really struggling with double vision, waking up every day with a headache on one side of my head, I feel dizzy a lot of the time and had a couple of really bad vertigo episodes. Also feeling nauseous and unwell with pain in my left arm and leg. I literally can’t get comfortable in any position and I sleep really badly. I get really weird facial twitches and have developed tinnitus
Honestly I can’t tell you how much my life has been affected, it’s getting to the point where I can’t do any of the things I love because I feel so unwell.
I’ve been bounced between audiologists, endocrinologists, neurologists, physiotherapists and no on could tell me what’s causing my issues. Brain scan normal, all other tests normal, and I was starting to feel after years and years of going to my gp and specialists that I’m going crazy and imagining my symptoms.
Long story short, most recent brain and neck scan showed normal brain function but ‘narrowing’ at c6. On looking this up myself, I found this can cause double vision and many of the other things I’ve been experiencing.
Can anyone tell me if they have had a similar thing and if it can be fixed? I would be so grateful for any advice.
Sorry if I sound like a misery, just had years of this and I’m so down about it.
I’m in the uk by the way, but thought this forum looked really useful. And if I’m honest, the nhs here is very overstretched so getting any help is difficult
Thanks for reading
Tracey

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njbay | @njbay | 6 days ago

Interesting because I was just looking into this today. I have spinal stenosis and had a large herniation at C5/C6. Symptoms actually got better over time, but then came back. A couple years ago, I think my disc, or a portion of it, broke off and slid down my spine to the C7/C8 area, which affected my right hand/fingers, arm, and shoulder. I think this is what happened because of the symptoms I had.

Anyway, since then I've had weird things go on with my vision, such as not being able to focus anymore, and intermittent blurring of vision in my right eye. Now, I don't know if it's normal as one ages to have vision come and go? Eventually, my vision stayed blurry. I originally chalked it up to aging.

I've also developed tinnitus in my right ear only. I recently took a short course of prednisone for another condition, and noticed that my tinnitus lessened somewhat as did my finger numbness. I'm done taking it now, and the tinnitus is back to being more pronounced. It is possible it could be due to another condition I have, but I now wonder if it's being caused by my cervical issues.

I also recently began having bouts of nausea out of the blue, including while sleeping, and it woke me up. I originally chalked it up to another medication I'm taking, but I would think the nausea would always be a side effect if it was due to the medication and it isn't. It's very random. I don't know the technical name for it, but vertigo or dizziness has been another symptom I've had on occasion over the years, more so while laying down. I feel as if I'm laying on a float on a body of water, bobbing up & down.

So, now I wonder the same - are these things all related to my neck issues? I wish I could afford to find out.