Please help me find out why my left foot feels frozen,, especially the

@vivianne777 Decompression just means taking the pressure off anywhere in the spine. In my case, that was removing the collapsed C5/C6 disc with the bone spurs alongside it that were pressing into my spinal cord. When the spinal cord is compressed, it does cause the electric shocks when the pressure changes with movement.

This fusion (ACDF) surgery was not as bad as I expected it to be. It is still major surgery, but my level of pain after surgery was not bad, and immediately on waking up from surgery, all that pain in the body and legs was gone. The pain I had then was only from the surgical incision and path. It is best to do the surgery before permanent nerve damage happens. It took me 2 years to find a surgeon willing to help me, and everything still turned out OK. With the waiting for consultation appointments, and possible testing, and then if a surgeon agrees, you wait to get on their schedule. That could play out over several months. You may want to find a surgeon for another opinion now to request an appointment. If you work things out with the current surgeon, you can always cancel a second opinion appointment. Generally, it is advised to get several opinions and surgeons understand this, so it is expected. You decide which surgeon is best for your needs. If this doesn't work out with the current surgeon, you'll be ahead of the game. If you can come to Mayo, things there are done very efficiently. I had my appointment with 3 days of testing within the same week, was offered surgery at the first spine consult, and was scheduled 5 weeks later for surgery. I was offered a first appointment 6 weeks after sending my request because of a cancellation. I was told that the wait would normally be around 3 months to be seen the first time. Mayo needs to answer that, as I don't know how long a wait is now if you apply.

This surgery gave me my life back, and my head turning ability is pretty much the same as it was before. C5/C6 doesn't really do much there. Head turning is mostly with C1 & C2, with a bit of help from C3 and C4. I am glad I did this. I would be disabled if I avoided this surgery, and eventually that would mean a wheelchair, severe pain, unable to use my arms and legs and incontinence. Not a good future, and I feel fortunate to be able to choose to avoid being disabled.

If you do want to request an appointment at Mayo, check the billing and insurance page to see if your insurance is accepted there. https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/billing-insurance

If that's good, you may request an appointment with this link and someone from Mayo will contact you. They have very many patients seeking neurologists, so apply to the spine center. The spine surgeons work with a neurologist that they prefer and you'll be sent to them for evaluation as part of the consult. http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63

I have the same symptoms and my doc thinks it's peripheral neuropathy, but it's starting to go up my left leg from the ankle and foot. I had anterior total hip done 4/22 and have had problems ever since. The problem is not the hip but the pins and needles in the left leg. Articles I read say the same symptoms can be from the back but no surgeon will operate on my back. Anyone have other ideas or suggestions?

@daisy22 I saw this comment you posted in another discussion,
"I had an MRI that shows levels of herniation and bulging at all levels of the spine plus spondylolisthesis at L5-S1 but since the cortisone shot relieved my back pain for 2 days that means my spine is fine."

Spondylolistesis means that one vertebrae is slipping past another, in this case L5 is not staying where it should be over the sacrum. The question is how far is that slipping and what is getting pressure when that happens? Yes, there can be other problems that can cause the same pain symptoms and that makes it easy to miss something unless you look at everything. Pain could be coming from more than one place at the same time. If you had surgery for one problem and it didn't fix everything, it would look like a failure on the part of the surgeon, and they want to avoid a poor result. I had that happen to me when I had carpal tunnel surgery on my wrist and still had arm and hand pain because the surgeon completely missed that I also had thoracic outlet syndrome. He treated me badly after that and wanted nothing to do with me.

I do not think that 2 days of relief from a cortizone shot means your spine is fine. I don't know where the injection was, but I had a spine epidural injection in my neck that relieved my pain for 5 days, and then it started to return. This buys a little bit of space by reducing inflammation temporarily. I had pain all over my body from spinal cord compression in my neck and did not have any other source for this pain. The doctors mistakenly thought it should come from the lumbar spine only because they didn't understand that pain could be generated in the neck that would cause pain in the legs. I found medical literature with a case like this, and my case was the same, and what predicted it was a spinal epidural that resolved pain temporarily. The surgeon who ordered the injection thought it would prove there was a problem somewhere else, and when that didn't happen, he ignored the results of the diagnostic injection.

This story is about a patient with instability at L5 S1 and this is the surgeon who did my spine surgery and who also understood the condition of "Funicular pain" where pain can be generated by the cervical spine and referred elsewhere in the body. All the other surgeons (outside of Mayo) who saw me, missed this. I posted the information about funicular pain earlier in this discussion in the article about "sciatic pain like symptoms."

If you can go to Mayo and see Dr. Fogelson, you could get an honest evaluation and an opinion about the extent of your spine condition.

Do you think Mayo is an option? Check the Billing and Insurance page to see if they accept your insurance if you wish to seek an appointment.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/billing-insurance

Truthfully. Jennifer, I do not know what I will do yet. Some days it is better than others. I'm currently wearing three pair of socks to bed at night. Plus I have at least three of four blankets on top of my feet. In the daytime I wear support hose and compression socks. This seems to help.
There is still some pain in the neck, But it is manageable with a heated neck rap, Tylenol , Bayer and/or Gabapentin.
Sometimes I think I complain too much,. But I also have dry eye problems which sometimes are much worse.
But thank you for your advice. I truly appreciate it. We will see what happens. I have not yet had the vascular studies to done yet.

@vivianne777 I know this information is a lot to unpack. I think from your earlier comment where you talked about your neurologist, that the indication was for cervical spinal fusion after removing the bad discs. This was what you said, "I have seen a neurologist yesterday. He states that the problem with my feet is not neuropathy, But it's connected to the cervical problem in my spine for which I probably need surgery.. However, I know it will be along recovery. And I will have to wear a cervical collar for 6 months. The surgery will be some kind of fusion."

This is the same surgery I had, and for me that was only one level, the disc between C5 and C6 was removed, and the spacer they put back in there was just a shaped donor bone disc. I stayed in a neck brace for 3 months as the bones healed, and did not have any spine hardware added to my spine.

You don't complain too much. This is your experience, and if doctors are not listening and are brushing you off, it is because they don't understand the connection to the cervical spinal stenosis that your neurologist described. If your doctors don't accept this finding, you need another opinion.

My suggestion is get copies on CD of any imaging you had on your spine, X=rays and MRIs and the reports that go with them. If you want to apply to Mayo (or anywhere else) for an appointment, they will request to see this information. There is no charge at Mayo to request an appointment and have them look at your imaging. When you become a patient there and have appointments, then insurance will need to pay. Mayo does take real Medicare, but not necessarily the "advantage plans".

I was very aware of how my spine changes were progressing because I kept a journal and I also diagrammed and dated the changes on drawings of the body. I noted what type of pain, where it was, and the position I was in such as laying down, seated, standing, etc. The spine changes position and that can change where pain is felt. If you have bowel or bladder difficulty, this can be because of cervical stenosis and that issue can become permanent if this is not addressed. Surgery that decompresses the spinal cord may solve a problem like that. These spine problems are tricky and doctors miss things. In my case, 5 surgeons got it wrong and I felt lost, but I am glad I advocated for myself and kept on looking for a good surgeon which I found at Mayo.

Here is my story.

I'm here, so please post any questions you have and I will help. You can also retype information from medical records and I can help you understand it. Please make sure there is no personal information about you shared which is to protect your privacy. If you type the "@" symbol in front of my name on your post, I will automatically be notified of your response. Please stay in touch as you navigate through all of this. I know it can be confusing and distressing, and I'm here to help.

Jennifer