In Reply to: Re: Burning and numbness in upper left leg. posted by Deb on December 07, 2000 at 08:02:03:

: Hi Pat.I have a question for you.Firts of all I would like to say I hope you are feeling better these days.When I went to the chiropractor,he told me I very well could have arthritis in my neck area.I can not remember what kind he said.He said my vertebrae were off on the left side pinching nerves.He showed me in the ex-ray where the left side was closed in a bit.My symptoms have eased up a bit since he has started to adjust me.My symptoms are sharp pain in shoulders,particularly the left one,numbness in hands,fingers,and left arm.Sometimes shooting pain down spine and mid spine left side.My fingers have not gone numb since he started.Are these symptoms of arthritis?My doctor has me on anti-inflammatories.I have not had an MRI yet.Just wondering if I should or should I stick with the chiro and see if he can help.Hope you have a nice day:) and thank you in advance:)

Dear Deb: This is the third time I have tried to write you. I keep losing the message. So, I'm going to keep it short. Please wait and have the MRI done first. The numbness is a red flag for a pinched nerve. When you are dealing with the neck, you are dealing with the main spinal nerve, so you have to be very careful. When the regular bone xray shows vertebre not quite right, that COULD mean you may have some disk bulges. Any adjustments COULD make that worse. My symtoms were similar to yours and I had a large bone spur to the left and a calcified disk bulge on the right. I had it fused in June, 2000. It sounds like you have a good chiro, but I have not experience with them. However, I would wait to see if an MRI shows any soft tissue (disk) problems. I had written you much more, but I'm having problems with this computer. So, I'm going to go for now so you get this one. Take care and thank you for asking how I am doing. Much better for now. Take care, PatG